Sustainability is an increasing focus within the pharmaceutical industry. In the world of inhalation and nasal drug delivery in particular, changing legislation around sustainable practices poses challenges for manufacturers and formulators. There is a requirement to explore alternative propellants and embrace sustainable solutions while continuing to offer patients the medical care they need.

Chris Hirst, CEO of Bespak, talks to us about key developments in the inhalation industry, how the formation of leading global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Bespak can provide support in navigating these changes, and his ambitions for the future of sustainable inhaled and nasal drug delivery.

What developments are you most excited about in the field of nasal and inhaled drug delivery?

Chris Hirst: As an industry and as a planet, 37 years ago we famously signed a treaty designed to protect our ozone layer from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and transition to less harmful hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) propellants. Propellants are a key component of pressurized metered dose inhalers (pMDIs) and pMDIs are the most-used treatments for respiratory illness globally. The global pMDI market was valued at $16.3 billion in 2021, and that’s growing significantly—we expect it to reach $22.1 billion by 2031. Put simply, almost everyone knows someone who uses a pMDI. 

While the HFC propellants we use today have a high global warming potential (GWP), there are promising alternative low GWP propellants that have been developed. The industry urgently needs to act and move to more climate-friendly propellants for our patients and our planet. We are an industry that is at the forefront of this change. At Bespak, collaborating with our partners to bring greener, low GWP propellants to a product used by so many is something we are proud to be a part of.

Can you tell us about Bespak and its impressive legacy in nasal and inhaled drug delivery?

Chris: Bespak has a long-standing, highly credible legacy. It is a brand that is known all over the world. We have three sites: North Carolina in the US, and Holmes Chapel and King’s Lynn in the UK.

Historically, Bespak is the name used by our King’s Lynn site. As a leading inhalation player, we’ve been manufacturing components at King’s Lynn since the late 1960s, when we produced valves for one of the first pMDI products. Now we are known for being a leading global supplier of pMDI dosing valves and actuators, and complex dry powder inhaler (DPI) devices.

In North Carolina, we have over 20 years’ experience in developing inhalation products. We work primarily in formulation, but more specifically, our early-stage laboratory investigates formulation feasibility, and has a well-established reputation for analytical method development and analytical studies.

Meanwhile, the Holmes Chapel site has been around since the 1940s, and there we have been manufacturing inhalers since the 1960s. Our legacy spans generations of experts, with some of our workforce having been with us for 30 to 40 years, meaning we effectively have grandparents, their children and even their grandchildren working in the company. As a result, our team has an unmatched depth of understanding of producing inhaled products, and the fully integrated process as a whole.

What motivated the evolution to the new Bespak, and carving out the three historic sites?

Chris: Our company unites three former Recipharm sites, each with decades of experience and expertise in designing, developing and manufacturing inhalation products. Bringing these three sites under the Bespak brand means we now have credible experts from across each site all working together under one clear and ambitious strategy. With our integrated offering, we can support our customers from concept to commercialization and streamline the process to get their products to market. Holmes Chapel, our new headquarters, has huge potential for expansion and we have made significant investments into the site to help our customers move to sustainable options.

The new Bespak will be the trusted innovation partner and sustainability leader in the transition to greener propellants. This spin-out gives us scope to build on our legacy of making one highly successful propellant switch and leading the way through the next. We have the capabilities and we have the passion to chart our way forward and add significantly to our existing legacy.

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important, in general but particularly in the inhalation industry – what do you think is driving the increased interest in greener processes and propellants?

Chris: The demand for more climate-friendly propellants will increase significantly in the coming years. Eventually, the high GWP HFC propellants will be phased out. And on the road to being phased out, their prices will increase due to the gradual decline of use across multiple industries. We have a responsibility to ensure we make this transition quickly so we can continue to deliver the best value medicine to patients globally, as rapidly as possible.

At Bespak, we feel it is our responsibility to lead. Leadership is about bringing the industry together and collaborating to find a solution to a problem that needs to be solved. From those who produce components to those who distribute medicine, we all have a role to play. And, at Bespak, we have all the elements of the solution. We have incredibly talented, educated and passionate people in the organisation, and we can put our collective skills towards a business that can make a real impact in a short space of time.

It is clear that Bespak is working hard to become a leader in sustainability. Can you expand on what else the company is doing to facilitate sustainability?

Chris: In 2023 we achieved a gold EcoVadis rating for sustainability at our Holmes Chapel site. We also have a silver rating at the King’s Lynn site. These ratings are globally renowned and demonstrate our commitment to acting responsibly as a company. Obtaining gold ratings for both sites is something we are taking seriously, and we have made significant progress since receiving our gold and silver ratings. For example, after installing solar panels on the roofs of our buildings at Holmes Chapel, we now generate and supply over 10% of the electrical energy used at the site. Despite already having a best-practice process in place to recover and re-use wasted materials, we are also in the process of phasing in new injection moulding technology at King’s Lynn—the result will be even less wastage during the plastic moulding process.

Additionally, Bespak recently announced a significant investment into the expansion of our Holmes Chapel site. This enables us to install both commercial-scale and pilot-scale filling lines that manufacture pMDIs using low GWP propellants. One of these is HFA-152a, for which we’ve spent several years researching and optimizing our devices’ performance. Now, with this investment, we’re preparing to provide our customers with options to move forward to full commercialization.

Last year, we announced a collaboration with Honeywell. Honeywell is the manufacturer of the near-zero GWP propellant, Honeywell Solstice® Air (HFO-1234ze(E) cGMP). This propellant has 99.9% lower GWP than the HFCs typically used as propellants. We have already manufactured the very first Honeywell propellant-containing pMDIs—the first CDMO to do so, in fact. The expansion at Holmes Chapel will make us the first CDMO to manufacture at large-scale with both of the new low GWP propellants. This is something we are extremely proud of and is just one achievement from our efforts towards driving sustainability in the industry.

How do you think these sustainability efforts will shape the inhaled and nasal drug delivery industry in the next five to 10 years?

Chris: My ambition is that by the end of the decade, we will have transitioned more than half of all pMDIs to sustainable, more climate-friendly propellants. Considering the number of devices that are sold and used by patients around the world will be in excess of a billion devices, this will be a significant milestone. Bespak will play a major role in supplying the expertise and capabilities necessary to handle the transition, and to support customers with their products as they make the switch. I hope we can use our collaborative core values to influence other parts of the industry to follow suit and think closely about how their actions affect our planet. In short, our vision is to be a sustainability leader.

Learn more about the new Bespak here: https://bespak.com/