Recent advances in the development of microparticles for pulmonary administration

[Display omitted] •The pulmonary route is an efficient route for respiratory diseases.•Technosphere® and PulmoSphere™ are novel inhalable technologies for drug delivery.•Microparticles are considered as the efficient inhalable drug delivery substrate.•Spray drying and lyophilization are majorly used techniques in inhalable products.•Supercritical fluid technology can produce microparticles (up to 3μm). Pulmonary drug delivery offers several benefits for the management of various conditions over other conventional routes. Inhalation of drugs can also be useful for targeting alveolar macrophages and for maintaining a higher drug concentration in the lung tissues to improve the efficacy of drugs and shorten the duration of treatment, thereby reducing drug toxicities. Thus, such an approach is useful in the treatment of various pulmonary and nonpulmonary diseases. Newer techniques and delivery devices have been used for the formulation of inhalable microparticles. Here. we not only focus on advances in inhalation therapy and in the preparation of microparticles, but also address the clinical development and regulatory aspects of such therapies. We discuss the significance and recent advances in technologies for inhalable microparticles.