3D printed drug delivery and testing systems — a passing fad or the future?

Additive Manufacturing of Precision Biomaterials

“…Therefore, the design of personalized dosage forms that contain multiple drugs with differential release profiles could be beneficial for enhanced therapeutic effect and reduced toxicity . To address these limitations in drug formulation and delivery, pharmaceutical scientists have begun to explore AM technologies to fabricate advanced pharmaceutical products ( Figure ) . Two main themes are emerging within AM of precision DDS: precision in drug release kinetics and precision to the individual patient.…”

“…[190] To address these limitations in drug formulation and delivery, pharmaceutical scientists have begun to explore AM technologies to fabricate advanced pharmaceutical products (Figure 5). [191,192] Two main themes are emerging within AM of precision DDS: precision in drug release kinetics and precision to the individual patient.…”

Model Building and Slicing in Food 3D Printing Processes: A Review

“…In addition to the food printing, the 3D printing technique was reported to be one of the solution methods that can build drugs with delivery ability and personalization (Norman, Madurawe, Moore, Khan, & Khairuzzaman, 2017). With complex model designing, 3D printing technology can print difficult-tomake shapes for producing highly porous products that orally disintegrate, or toroidal products with approximately zero-order release to control the release of drug (Budmen, 2013;Lim, Kathuria, Tan, & Kang, 2018;Yu et al, 2009). Additionally, by digitally controlling the arrangement of materials, the release of drug can be modified as gradients (Goyanes et al, 2015).…”

Is 3D Printing of Pharmaceuticals a Disruptor or Enabler?

“…Fueled by the wave of enthusiasm following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the first 3D‐printed drug Spritam (Levetiracetam) marketed by Aprecia Pharmaceuticals for epilepsy in 2015, 3D printing has been tipped to be the next disruptive technology that would revolutionize the way standard drug formulations are made. Compared to traditional manufacturing methods, such as compacting, milling, and molding, 3D printing offers many advantages such as rapid and on‐demand production, flexibility in terms of drug dosages, and complexity in terms of object geometry . It is expected that the last two factors would bring us closer toward the grand vision for healthcare—personalized medicine, i.e., the tailoring of the drug combinations and concentrations to individual requirements and the shape of any printed devices to specifically match one's anatomy .…”

“…Thus far, in the area of pharmaceutical products, AM of oral formulations has been the most extensively investigated. Various groups have fabricated solid oral dosage forms using 3D printing and demonstrated the ability to encapsulate multiple drugs with varying dosages, print shapes with complicated internal structures, as well as control the release profiles of each constituent . These advances have led to the proposition of a polypill—a tablet containing customized doses of several medicines can be tailored to each patient, in response to physical attributes, metabolic activity and severity of disease.…”