1nhaler raises £2.2M to put a cardboard inhaler into clinical trials
Edinburgh's 1nhaler raised £2.2M in follow-on funding led by Archangels to take a cardboard single-dose asthma inhaler through manufacturing transfer and a clinical trial.
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Founded 2017 · Edinburgh, United Kingdom
1nhaler, an Edinburgh company building a single-dose dry powder inhaler out of cardboard, raised £2.2 million (about €2.6 million) in follow-on funding led by Archangels, with Scottish Enterprise and BBB Investments taking part, to move its lead asthma product into a clinical trial.
Three investors, one clinical trial
The round was announced on November 3, 2026, in the company’s own announcement and covered the same day by Tech.eu. The source calls it follow-on funding and gives no stage label. Archangels leads, and Scottish Enterprise and BBB Investments participate. You can read about the lead on Archangels’ Sesamers profile.
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The money has four jobs. It pays to transfer the lead product to a contract manufacturer so clinical trial material can be made, to run a small clinical trial that supports a regulatory filing targeted for late 2027, and to carry out a manufacturing engineering study with Harro Höfliger on scaling the inhaler commercially. It also supports business development talks with parties interested in the platform.
Dr Sarah Hardy, Director and Head of New Investments at Archangels, said: “Having backed 1nhaler since 2023, we see this latest round as a reflection of our confidence in the team.”
A credit-card inhaler with a membrane inside
The device is about the size of a credit card and unfolds into a three-dimensional dry powder inhaler. It is made mostly of cardboard, uses few components and relies on a patent-protected membrane-based system, which the company says is meant to be cheaper to make at scale. The lead product, 1nhaler Salbutamol, pairs the device with salbutamol, an established asthma medicine. The company also sees the platform carrying other dry powders, such as pain relief and vaccines.
Lisa McMyn, co-founder and CEO, leads the company alongside co-founder Don Smith. Helen Muirhead, formerly Head of GSK’s Respiratory Centre of Excellence, is Chief Scientific Officer, and Lars Larsson, formerly Medical Director, Licensing at AstraZeneca and Head of Clinical Research at Novartis, is Chief Medical Officer. McMyn described the round this way: “This investment takes us to one of the most important milestones in our journey.” This is not a first cheque. BioPharma-Reporter reported a £2 million raise in November 2023, and the full company record sits on 1nhaler’s Sesamers profile.
A $38 billion market growing 6.7% a year
Grand View Research sizes the global inhalable drugs market at $38.0 billion in 2025 and projects $63.3 billion by 2033, a 6.7% CAGR for 2026-2033 (report published August 2026). The same report says North America led in 2025 with a 41.2% share, followed by Europe, without giving a European figure.
For scale inside our own database, Vitroscope raised a €4.45 million seed on November 3 in biotech, and Pontosense raised €3.9 million in September 2025 in medtech, led by Adrenaline Fund. At about €2.6 million, 1nhaler’s round is smaller than both. Its use of funds covers a manufacturing transfer, a clinical trial and a scale-up study with Harro Höfliger. Our European funding round database shows where the rest of the field sits.
What a regulatory filing in late 2027 would settle
So what does £2.2 million buy a device company? Time to reach a filing, and little more. The reality is that the trial, the contract manufacturer and the scale-up study all sit ahead of the 2027 target, and each step has to land for the next one to start.
The good news is in the roster. An investor that has backed the company since 2023 came back, a Scottish public body joined, and the two clinical and scientific chairs come from GSK, AstraZeneca and Novartis. Derek Shaw of Scottish Enterprise put the regional case plainly: “Scotland has distinct global strengths in industries such as human health.”
Imagine if the trial material comes off the contract manufacturer’s line on schedule and the business development talks turn into a first partner for the platform. That is the pattern to watch: the transfer, the trial and the Harro Höfliger study, in that order, with the late 2027 filing as the test of all three. Let’s keep following the builders who make medicines lighter to carry and cheaper to make!
