Hybrid Manufacturing of Oral Solid Dosage Forms via Overprinting of Injection-Molded Tablet Substrates

Abstract

Since 3D printing allows for patient-specific dosage forms, it has become a major focus in pharmaceutical research. However, it is difficult to scale up drug product manufacturing. Injection molding has been used in conjunction with hot-melt extrusion to mass produce drug products, but making tailored solid dosage forms with this technology is neither cost-effective nor simple. This study explored the use of a combination of fused filament fabrication and injection molding to create patient-specific solid dosage forms. A tablet fixation and location template was used to overprint directly on injection-molded tablet bases, and theophylline was combined with polycaprolactone and Kollidon® VA64 via hot-melt extrusion to produce the filament. Dynamic mechanical analysis was used to evaluate the brittleness of the filament, and differential scanning calorimetry was used to analyze the thermal results. The results showed that theophylline had a flow promoting effect on the polymer blend and that overprinted tablets were manufactured faster than 3D-printed tablets. Drug release studies also showed that overprinted tablets released faster than injection-molded tablets. This method demonstrates the potential of hybrid manufacturing for the pharmaceutical industry as a means of bridging the gap between personalized dosage forms and mass production.

The Influence of the Molecular Weight of Poly(Ethylene Oxide) on the Hydrolytic Degradation and Physical Properties of Polycaprolactone Binary Blends

“…PCL degradation can be tailored by copolymerization, and creating composite and blends [13]. The frequent use of PCL across a range of medical applications including drug delivery [15][16][17][18], orthopedic implants [19][20][21], and nerve regeneration [22,23]. In addition, PCL has been widely used as a scaffold material for tissue engineering due to its biocompatibility, biodegradability, and mechanical properties.…”

“…Melt blending is the most preferred method for mixing thermoplastics and has the highest relevance for industrial applications [37], including the production of medical devices [38][39][40][41], drug delivery [19][20][21]31,[39][40][41], scaffold [42][43][44], and tissue engineering [43][44][45][46], including the creation of aliphatic polyester blends for tissue engineering [29,47], drug delivery [15][16][17], and scaffolds [41]. In specific to melt blending production methods, hot melt extrusion (HME) has widespread acceptance not only in the production of many pharmaceutical products, but also in the production of implants and medical devices [48].…”