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

In 2010, the Charles G. Thiel award, which recognizes outstanding research and discovery in respiratory drug delivery, was presented to Michael T. Newhouse of Hamilton, Ontario. Mike's contributions to the area as a physician, scientist, inventor and educator have improved the lives of many children and adult patients suffering from lung disease. Mike pioneered the design, manufacture, research into and use of AeroChamber - the device that is now a mainstay of asthma therapy and enables patients to use pressurized metered dose inhalers successfully.

Mike was serenaded with 'Ode to AeroChamber'.

Ode to AeroChamber

Does your inhaler fail to work,
‘cos you inhale too fast?
Does your inhaler fail to work,
Because of its cold blast?
Well AeroChamber can fix that
So you can breathe my dear
And the guy we have to thank for that
Is Michael, who’s right here

Mike's many other contributions include the use of gamma scintigraphy to investigate pulmonary ventilation and perfusion; research to enhance our understanding of the origins of occupational and air-pollution related lung disease and the standardization of bronchial provocation tests.

Mike spent most of his career as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at McMaster University where he helped found the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health and the Barnett Medical Aerosol Research Laboratory at St. Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. Mike has been honored as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Canada and the American College of Physicians. He is a past President of International Society of Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM) and received the ISAM Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Mike has made a substantial contribution to our field as a practicing clinician with an outstanding knowledge of pulmonary physiology and an intuitive understanding of aerosol physics - he continuously reminds the aerosol science community to do 'research meaningful to clinical practice'. Congratulations Mike!

(Pictured are Charlie Thiel, Mike Newhouse and Lars Borgström together with Stephen Stein from 3M Drug Delivery Systems).

Previous Awardees

2008 – Lars Borgström

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 pharmacokinetic techniques for measuring lung deposition, and used these methods to quantify lung deposition in  different patient groups. 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.

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 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.