Edinburgh’s 1nhaler secures £2.2m to advance cardboard inhaler
Edinburgh-based medical technology company 1nhaler has secured £2.2 million in new funding to advance development of its cardboard inhaler and prepare its first product for clinical trials.
The investment round, announced on 3 November 2026, was led by Scottish investment syndicate Archangels, with backing from Scottish Enterprise and BBB Investments.
The latest funding follows a £2 million investment in 2023 and a further £1.5 million raised in November 2025.
Funding to support clinical trials
The money will support further development of the company’s lead product, 1nhaler Salbutamol, which combines its inhaler technology with salbutamol, a medicine commonly used to treat asthma.
A key part of the work involves transferring production to a contract manufacturer to produce material for clinical trials. The company also plans to undertake a small clinical study to support a regulatory submission targeted for late 2027.
Some of the funding will go towards a manufacturing engineering study with German company Harro Höfliger, examining how the inhaler could be produced commercially at scale.
Lisa McMyn, co-founder and chief executive of 1nhaler, said the investment would take the company towards one of its most important milestones: testing its lead product in a clinical setting.
A cardboard inhaler the size of a credit card
Unlike conventional plastic inhalers, 1nhaler’s device is made predominantly from cardboard and folds flat to approximately the size of a credit card.
When needed, it opens into a three-dimensional inhaler capable of delivering a single dose of powdered medicine.
The propellant-free device uses a patented membrane-based delivery system. Its design is intended to reduce manufacturing costs and the environmental impact associated with conventional inhalers.
Although the company’s immediate focus is asthma treatment, it believes the technology could eventually be used to deliver other medicines, including treatments for pain relief and vaccines.
These wider applications remain potential uses rather than approved products.
Edinburgh company backed by Scottish investors
1nhaler was founded by Don Smith and Lisa McMyn. The Edinburgh business was incorporated in 2017 and has attracted continued investment from Archangels since 2023.
The company’s work in medical technology places it within Scotland’s growing life sciences sector. Its development team includes chief scientific officer Helen Muirhead, formerly head of GSK’s Respiratory Centre of Excellence, where she had responsibility for the development of the Diskus and Ellipta inhalers.
The company has already established manufacturing relationships with Upperton for clinical production and Harro Höfliger for larger-scale manufacturing development.
Dr Sarah Hardy, director and head of new investments at Archangels, said the investors had been encouraged by interest from potential commercial partners in using the technology with different medicines.
The next stage will focus on preparing 1nhaler Salbutamol for clinical testing and progressing the manufacturing work required ahead of a possible regulatory submission in late 2027.
Another Scottish medical technology company to attract investment is Glasgow-based Nami Surgical, which secured £3.4 million in funding to develop its robotic surgery technology.
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