Charles G. Thiel Award sponsored by 3M Drug Delivery Systems

In 2008, the Charles G. Thiel award was presented to Lars Borgström of AstraZeneca. Lars has been at the forefront of correlating and translating in vitro performance of inhaled products to in vivo situations. He has developed and validated charcoal block, isotope labeling and semi simultaneous pharmacokinetic techniques for measuring lung deposition, and used these methods to quantify lung deposition in  different patient groups including smokers, cystic fibrosis, asthma and COPD sufferers, the elderly and children.

Dr Borgström's work has encompassed the evaluation of different inhaled drug delivery systems when subjected to variations in breathing patterns, storage conditions and other real world conditions of use. He has also characterized the relationship between lung deposition and clinical effects in asthma and COPD patients, and elucidated the effects of oropharyngeal impaction on inhaled drug product performance. Lars has made a substantial contribution to our understanding of the factors that influence inhaled drug delivery. He has accomplished this at the same time as holding line management responsibilities at AstraZeneca, and an academic position at the University of Uppsala. Congratulations Lars!

(Pictured are Steve Wick from 3M Drug Delivery Systems, Lars Borgström and Charlie Thiel).

Previous Awardees

2006 - Charles G. Thiel

In 2006, the Charles G. Thiel award was presented to Charlie Thiel himself. Charlie has had a long and distinguished career in the industry. He was a joint inventor of the MDI, he designed an early cascade impactor and invented a novel metering valve to improve dosing reproducibility. His passion for high speed photography also gave us insight into the behavior of aerosol sprays. His dedication to the area is made evident by his continued contributions to the United States Pharmacopeia long past retirement.

About the Charles G. Thiel Award

On the 50th anniversary of the commercialization of the pressurized Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI), and in celebration and recognition of the foundational work done by Mr. Charles G. Thiel in the field of pulmonary drug delivery, the VCU School of Pharmacy established the Charles G. Thiel Award for outstanding research and discovery in respiratory drug delivery. This award is sponsored by 3M Drug Delivery Systems.

About Charles G. Thiel

In 1956, the world's first pressurized MDI was introduced. Invented by Charles Thiel and two colleagues at Riker Laboratories, the MDI enabled asthmatics to administer repeated inhaled dosages of medi­cine without cumbersome refilling procedures. The idea was born after the daughter of a Riker president asked "Why can't they put my asthma medicine in a spray can, like they do hair spray?" The invention of the MDI revolutionized the field of respiratory drug delivery and today, over 70 million patients worldwide rely on these devices for their asthma treatment.

In a 46 year career as a Division Scientist in what became in 1970, the Drug Delivery Systems Division of 3M Pharmaceuticals, Charles Thiel recalls one truly defining moment. He was visiting as an invited speaker. After giving a lecture, he was approached by a physician from the audience who gave him a bear hug and told him “If it hadn't been for your invention, I'd be dead.” The physician had suffered from asthma since early childhood.

Mr. Thiel graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara in 1954 with a BS in Chemistry and joined Riker Laboratories, then a subsidiary of Rexall Drug. Armed with a chemistry degree, he started work that spring in a laboratory with a handful of other employees in a non-air-conditioned building in Los Angeles. Thiel's first job involved iso­lating compounds from Indian snakeroot that were used in blood pressure medications.

Two years later he started his work on inhalers. Riker was the first company to develop pressurized MDIs. Thiel changed the inhaler formulation design from one using 50 per­cent alcohol (which burned patients' nostrils when administered as a nasal spray) to one using an inno­vative suspension of the medication in a liquefied gas propellant - a design still in worldwide use today. The new design was also more efficient than previous methods at delivering medica­tion to the lungs. 3M, which still develops MDIs based on Thiel's design, acquired Riker Laboratories in 1970. The MDI revolutionized the treatment of respiratory illness and laid the foundation for what has now become a growing pharmaceutical specialty - the field of respiratory drug delivery.