3D Printing of Pediatric Medication: The End of Bad Tasting Oral Liquids?—A Scoping Review

Abstract

3D printing of pediatric-centered drug formulations can provide suitable alternatives to current treatment options, though further research is still warranted for successful clinical implementation of these innovative drug products. Extensive research has been conducted on the compliance of 3D-printed drug products to a pediatric quality target product profile. The 3D-printed tablets were of particular interest in providing superior dosing and release profile similarity compared to conventional drug manipulation and compounding methods, such as oral liquids. In the future, acceptance of 3D-printed tablets in the pediatric patient population might be better than current treatments due to improved palatability. Further research should focus on expanding clinical knowledge, providing regulatory guidance and expansion of the product range, including dosage form possibilities. Moreover, it should enable the use of diverse good manufacturing practice (GMP)-ready 3D printing techniques for the production of various drug products for the pediatric patient population.

A Review of 3D Printing Technology in Pharmaceutics: Technology and Applications, Now and Future

“…Three-dimensional printing technology is highly flexible and can be used to print targeted medicines by adjusting model parameters such as size, shape, or fill rate [ 16 ]. For pediatric patients, 3D printing technology can be used to produce low-dose personalized medicines suitable for children, and can also be used to improve the appearance and taste of the medicines to increase the compliance of pediatric patients [ 17 , 18 , 19 ]; for elderly patients who have difficulty swallowing, 3D printing technology can prepare loose and porous preparations, thus, helping them to take medication; for patients who take multiple drugs at the same time, different drugs can be partitioned and combined into a single tablet to avoid errors or missed drugs, which can increase the safety and effectiveness of medication; in addition, specially shaped preparations can be printed or special symbols can be printed on the surface of the preparation to provide convenience for patients with visual impairment [ 20 , 21 , 22 ]. The advantages of 3D printing technology for personalized drug delivery provide technical support for people to achieve personalized medicine, and some 3D printed drug companies are moving towards the goal of personalized medicine, such as FabRx in the UK, which prepares personalized drugs for children with maple diabetes, and has placed SSE printers in the pharmacy of a Spanish hospital and conducted clinical trials on the subject [ 23 ].…”

Novel Approach to Pharmaceutical 3D-Printing Omitting the Need for Filament—Investigation of Materials, Process, and Product Characteristics

“…There are several fundamental approaches to deliver tailored drug doses through 3D printing [34]. Dosage flexibility is realized by altering the number of printed layers, printing multiple objects, adjustment of feed drug loading, or modification of tablet volume [34][35][36][37][38].…”

Acyclic Cucurbit[n]urils: Effective Taste Masking Nanocontainers for Cationic Bitter Compounds

“…[3] Since the annoying taste of drug often makes it difficult to swallow, it is highly desired to mask this bitterness. [4][5][6] According to the taste transmission mechanism, there are mainly two methods for bitter taste masking. The first method aims to block the taste transmission pathway, [7] such as adding sweeteners or bitter inhibitors, to avoid the bitter taste of medicine by competing with the drugs to stimulate taste receptor cells (TRCs).…”

“…Many drugs contain bitter active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), which brings unpleasant flavors to oral drug formulations [3] . Since the annoying taste of drug often makes it difficult to swallow, it is highly desired to mask this bitterness [4–6] . According to the taste transmission mechanism, there are mainly two methods for bitter taste masking.…”