Cardboard inhalers and hospital pagers: health companies built outside London

1nhaler, in Edinburgh, wants to make inhalers out of cardboard. The company says its single-dose dry-powder device is propellant-free and made predominantly from cardboard, and that it unfolds from a flat, credit-card-sized form into a three-dimensional inhaler. The company argues that inhaler delivery has been held back by accessibility, cost, performance and the environment. Lisa McMyn, the chief executive and co-founder, runs it with Don Smith, the inventor and co-founder. The company says its development work is led by someone previously responsible for developing GSK's inhalers.

1nhaler raised £2.2m in October, with shares allotted on 26 Oct 2026. Its previous round, in Nov 2025, brought in £1.5m. BusinessCloud reported that Archangels led the round, with Scottish Enterprise and BBB Investments taking part. According to BusinessCloud, the money moves the lead product, 1nhaler Salbutamol, into contract manufacturing for clinical trial material, ahead of a small trial to support a regulatory filing targeted for late 2027. The company's own timetable puts a first human trial in early 2027, and it says its focus for 2026 is making clinical samples to a manufacturing standard.

Alertive works inside hospitals. The company says its platform replaces pagers and bleeps with secure, role-based communication for healthcare teams. It calls itself a "workforce orchestration platform", built for healthcare settings where, in its words, "systems acting like barriers instead of enablers" slow the work. It was launched in 2020 in Derby, and its registered office is in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. Kevin Douglas is its chief executive.

Alertive's case studies name Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Alertive says Doncaster and Bassetlaw went trust-wide in 1.5 weeks. The company lists Digital Transformation Project of the Year at the Health Tech Digital Awards among its wins, alongside Best Use of Digital for NHS Trusts at the HTN Health Tech Awards and Digital Health App of the Year at the Health Tech World Awards. Alertive also raised £2.2m in October, with shares allotted between 9 and 14 Oct 2026. Its filing reached Companies House on 4 Nov 2026.

Neither company is in London. Region here means the registered office, so 1nhaler counts as Scottish and Alertive as East Midlands. They were two of the 91 companies that filed priced share issues from 2 to 5 Nov 2026, Monday to Thursday, worth £118.5m together. Of that group, 44 were the company's first priced round in our data. London registered offices accounted for 46 rounds and £68.1m of the cash. 1nhaler was one of three Scottish companies to file this week, worth £3.5m between them, and Alertive one of three in the East Midlands, worth £3.3m.

Learn more at bradshawdata.com. Corrections are listed with their dates.