Inhaled medicines continue to be an essential part of treatment for respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cystic fibrosis. In addition, inhalation technology, which is an active area of research and innovation to deliver medications via the lung to the bloodstream, offers potential advantages such as rapid onset of action, enhanced bioavailability, and reduced side effects for local treatments. Certain inhaled macromolecules and particles can also end up in different organs via lymphatic transport from the respiratory epithelium. While the majority of research on inhaled medicines is focused on the delivery technology, particle engineering, combination therapies, innovations in inhaler devices, and digital health technologies, researchers are also exploring new pharmaceutical technologies and strategies to prolong the duration of action of inhaled drugs. This is because, in contrast to most inhaled medicines that exert a rapid onset and short duration of action, long-acting inhaled medicines (LAIM) improve not only the patient compliance by reducing the dosing frequency, but also the effectiveness and convenience of inhaled therapies to better manage patients’ conditions. This paper reviews the advances in LAIM, the pharmaceutical technologies and strategies for developing LAIM, and emerging new inhaled modalities that possess a long-acting nature and potential in the treatment and prevention of various diseases. The challenges in the development of the future LAIM are also discussed where active research and innovations are taking place.

吸入药物仍然是治疗哮喘、慢性阻塞性肺病和囊性纤维化等呼吸系统疾病的重要组成部分。此外，吸入技术是一个活跃的研究和创新领域，通过肺部将药物输送到血液中，具有潜在的优势，例如快速起效、增强生物利用度和减少局部治疗的副作用。某些吸入的大分子和颗粒也可以通过呼吸道上皮的淋巴转运最终到达不同的器官。虽然吸入药物的大多数研究都集中在输送技术、粒子工程、联合疗法、吸入器设备创新和数字健康技术上，但研究人员也在探索新的制药技术和策略，以延长吸入药物的作用持续时间。这是因为，与大多数起效快、作用持续时间短的吸入药物相比，长效吸入药物（LAIM）不仅通过减少给药频率提高了患者的依从性，而且还提高了吸入治疗的有效性和便利性以更好地管理患者的病情。本文综述了 LAIM 的进展、开发 LAIM 的制药技术和策略，以及新兴的具有长效性质和治疗和预防各种疾病潜力的新型吸入方式。还讨论了正在进行积极研究和创新的未来 LAIM 发展中的挑战。