Today’s pharmaceutical industry largely depends on classical drug production and the development of new technologies that spill over into the pharmacy field. One such tool that can potentially revolutionise how we produce drugs is 3D printing. How can this ever-growing technology help with drug printing?
What is 3D printing?
Tridimensional (3D) printing is the technology that can print tridimensional structures designed on the computer. A 3D printer builds up two-dimensional layers of some specific material to create the vertical dimension of the desired object.
Even though plastic is most often used, printers can adapt to any material. Hence, metal and other nonorthodox materials are often used. A recent study of human organ printing, for which cell culture was used as a material, shows this.
Application in the pharmaceutical field
3D printing is mainly being researched as a way of personalised drug dosage. The problem that often occurs in some groups, such as geriatric and pediatric, is the need for non-commercial dosages. Healthcare workers are finding a way around this problem by diluting solutions or transforming solid to liquid drug forms.
Although these methods are often used, they are neither precise nor adequate to meet the patient’s therapeutic needs. On the other hand, producing such doses commercially is not financially viable since very few patients actually need them. The solution to this problem is creating a personalised drug, more precisely, producing a small amount of pharmaceutical forms for that specific patient. That is where 3D printing shines with its unique advantages.
Advantages of 3D drug printing
3D printed drugs can have precisely dosed active substances and excipients due to the precise inputs the 3D printer receives from the computer. In addition to geriatric and pediatric patients, the dosage problem is also present in drugs that have narrow therapeutical indexes, meaning that the difference between toxic and therapeutic doses is very small.
Furthermore, 3D printing meets the requirements for evenly distributed substances in solid pharmaceutical form. Hence, it is possible to combine more than one active substance to achieve better patient adherence, especially in those who take more than one drug at a time. 3D printing could also be used in the developmental phases of drug research due to the need to formulate many different doses and characteristics. The process could be optimised with 3D printing.
Future
Traditional drug production methods are highly optimised for mass production. However, they lack in some other areas, like dosage flexibility. The solution to this and several other problems lies in personalising drug production, despite the fact that it is neither financially viable nor possible in the current system.
3D printing offers an alternative way of producing drugs. It introduces us to drugs that are customised to the specific needs of each patient by dose, shape, and composition, eliminating the risks and negative outcomes due to incorrect dosage.
Literature
2. Trenfield SJ et al. 3D Printing Pharmaceuticals: Drug Development to Frontline Care. Trends Pharmacol Sci, 2018, 39(5), 440-451.
3. Tracy T et al. 3D printing: Innovative solutions for patients and pharmaceutical industry. Int J Pharm, 2023, 631, 122480.