An inhaler for delivery by inhalation of a medicament from the canister which is compressible to deliver a dose of medicament. The inhaler comprises a housing (1) for holding a canister (2) having a generally cylindrical body (3) with the cylindrical axis of the body (3) in predetermined direction and a loading mechanism for loading a resilient loading element (7) which is arranged, when loaded, to bias compression of the canister (2). The loading mechanism comprises a loading member (8) engaging the resilient loading element (7) and two contact members (9) movable relative to the housing (1) in a movement direction orthogonal to said predetermined direction and arranged to drive the loading member (8) to load the resilient loading element (7), through a cam arrangement between the contact member (8). The cam arrangement may allow for the ratio of the amount of driven movement of the loading member (8) to the amount of mount of the contact members (9) to be non-linear, preferably reducing over the driven movement to compensate for the increasing resistance by the resilient loading element.