Abstract: An inhaler for administering powdered medicaments comprising a one-piece, elongate body that has an elongate magazine in a magazine passage extending through the elongate body. The elongate body also has an air inlet, a mouthpiece, and a capsule cutter. The elongate magazine has a plurality of capsule chambers defined in it and spaced along its length, each capsule chamber having an air inlet alignable with the air inlet to the elongate body and an air outlet alignable with the mouthpiece. The magazine is slidable step-wise along the magazine passage to align a capsule chamber with the air inlet to the elongate body, the mouthpiece and the capsule cutter. The capsule cutter, upon activation, pierces both ends of a capsule in the capsule chamber.

Abstract: An inhaler for delivering metered doses of a particulate drug. The inhaler is formed of a housing, a drug reservoir attached to the housing to contain multiple doses of the particulate drug, a drug transporting slide in the housing that contains a metering chamber of volume corresponding to a desired dose of the drug, and a vacuum pump that creates a partial vacuum in the metering chamber. The drug transporting slide is movable from a load position, in which it communicates with the drug reservoir to receive in its metering chamber drug from the drug reservoir, to a release position in which it communicates with an air outlet passage to release drug from the metering chamber into the air outlet passage. The drug reservoir has an air permeable portion that permits air flow into the drug reservoir but prevents drug escape. In use, the vacuum pump draws a dose of drug into the metering chamber. The drug transporting slide then moves to deposit the drug in the outlet passage for inhalation.