3D Printing Drugs: the future of Personalized medicine

3D Printing Drugs: Personalized medicine: the future

Pharmaceutical business traditionally is one of the most progressive, and one of the most promising innovations in the recent years is a 3D printing technology 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is changing the world, and healthcare – is not an exception. In the pharmaceutical world, there is a trend that capture the attention of many people, Organizations, societies and governments mainly the 3D printed drugs.

This article will further look at 3D printing of drugs, its uses, its advantages, its disadvantages and the prospects for this remarkable innovation. If we plunge deeper into this topic, then it will also be important to see how this perspective could transform medicine, enhance patient’s experiences and resolves timely problems in drug manufacturing.

What does 3D Printing in Drug Manufacturing stand for?

3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing carried out using computer software in which a physical structure of an object is produced through successive deposition of material in layers. Today 3D printing is most commonly used in automotive, aerospace, manufacturing industries but in the pharmaceutical field, it is quite futuristic.

When applied to pharmaceuticals then 3D printing is use in forming drugs in different shapes, quantities and administration techniques. Methods of drug manufacturing characteristic of the traditional approach include creation of pills or tablets of set quantity and general dosage. However, 3D printing provides the opportunity of administrating medications according to patient’s requirements which allows for easiness and diverse medications delivery.

3D printed drug has different kind of materials which includes polymers, active pharmaceutical ingredient (APIs) and excipients. These materials are accurately printed in a controlled environment for the formulation of multi-tiered drug delivery systems. This is perhaps one of the major ways that we have seen 3D printed drugs being developed especially so in the formation of tablets for the individual patient. But the options are not limited to tablets, and with the help of 3D printing, it’s possible to manufacture complex drug delivery systems, including targeted drug release systems.

3D Printing Drugs Use-Cases

There are numerous potential uses of the technology in drug production, and it has a lot of potential for enhancing patient outcomes in numerous ways and changing the near future of drug treatment. Here are some of the key applications of 3D printing drugs:

1.Personalized Medicine

The use of 3D printed drugs offers one more interesting possibility: the creation of personal drugs. No two patients are identical instances and the ways they metabolize drugs can be influenced by age, weight, family history and other more conditions. Industry processes for making drugs entail preparation of doses in standardized manner but these dose can be prescribed based on the individual patient characteristics with the help of 3D printing.

For example, 3D printing can also be applied such that the resulting tablet should contain required specific amount of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Instead of prescribing a patient a certain amount of mg, doctors can prepare a small tablet with the right amount for that particular patient. This is particularly helpful where the patient needs very precise dosage, for instance children or the elderly people who need proportionate amounts of the drugs.

Furthermore, this technology opens up opportunities to build up sophisticated active agents, such as multi-compounds that are printed into a single pill. This could enhance compliance levels among patients since they will be forced to take less number of pills and leading to improved self reporting of their medicine schedules.

2. Advanced and Advanced Control Drug Delivery Systems

3D printing also has potential in the formation of efficient and precise drug delivery systems that were earlier hard to design. For the traditional drug formulation, this is usually just a simple tablet or capsule that gives the drug at a specified rate. However, 3D printing potentially allows the construction of more complex systems such as controlled or delayed-action systems.

For instance, 3D printing in the manufacture of tablets involves design of special structures within the tablets to provide for programmed release of the drug in the body hence reducing the number of doses per day. This is especially so in conditions that require regular drug levels such as diabetes or high blood pressure in order to enable patients to lead normal healthy lives.

Third, through 3D printing technology, it is easier to produce implants, or patches that can directly release medication to the required part of the body as this enhances effectiveness of drug. Such networks of drug delivery could be engineered to deliver drugs to the targeted organs, tissues or cells in the human body thus enhancing better treatment outcomes with lesser side effects.

3. In the following section, rapid prototyping and drug development is discussed as the combination of RP with the processes of the drug development cycle.

The journey through the discovery and approval of medicines is slow and hugely costly as it takes several years, on average, for new drugs to make their way through labs and stores. Yet another benefit of using 3D printing includes the fact that it can greatly help reduce the time needed for drug development to progress through the prototyping stage. In terms of dosages, researchers notice that it takes maximum of a day or two, to design and print formulations of drug and therefore try out new dosages drugs combinations and delivery systems.

Using 3D printing, pharmaceutical manufacturers can quickly develop a formulation and change small aspects on the 3D prototype, speeding up medicine production. As such, there is the prospect of greatly shortening the time and cost usually incurred in the introduction of new drugs into the market. Also, it might even bring about more effective fight of new diseases for the same reason of treatment and vaccines development.

4. On-Demand Drug Production

Yet another great use of 3D printing is in the manufacturing of drugs on-demand. Typically, drugs are produced at mass scale in large plants, which is time-consuming and not easily adaptable for the local markets. 3D printing opens the question of local production of drugs, which can be manufactured on site where they are needed, for example in pharmacies or hospitals.

This has several benefits. First, it can decrease the requirement for big stocks of medications, while drugs can be printed on demand. This is especially does in for rare or specialty drugs who are likely not stocked in every pharmacy. On the same note, on-demand printing could enhance provision of key drugs to regions of the globe that are not well served by the conventional supply channels.

5. Combination Drugs

Combined preparations are pharmaceutical products which contain more than one active substance in one tablet or dosage form. Such a drug formulation may be challenging to prepare using conventional procedures for drug formulation. However, combination drugs are easy to develop by using 3D printing, because the technology will enable the printing of several layers of the respective drugs in a single procedure.

For instance, a patient having both hypertension and diabetes can take a tablet that is a 3D print of a blood pressure reducing drug and a diabetes drug. The possibility to combine different substances into one tablet can simplify the process of taking potentially effective medicine, thereby enhancing the patients’ adherence to prescribed treatment regimens and reducing the resulting perceived burden of having to take multiple pills a day.

Advantages of 3D Printing Drugs

There are a number of benefits which can definitely change the industry when it comes to using 3D printing in pharma production. These benefits include:

1.Customization and Personalization**

Another major benefit of 3D printing of drugs is the possibility of developing medications according to the patient’s need. Dosing regimens, drug mix and timing of administration guarantee that the patient is given the best chance of remission yet suffer minimal side effects.

2. Cost Efficiency

While the Go to investment may be high at the time of initial purchase, the longer term advantage to be gained from the use of 3D-printing technologies include cost saving. Because of this 3D printing eliminates the high cost of developing drugs and manufacturing them at a central location, then taking tests on these drugs only to realize they do not have the market demand as initially anticipated, this usually leads to high costs in inventory and transportation.

3. Faster Development

In drug design, 3D printing advances the rate at which new formulations can be developed for testing since it can be used to model the drugs. Out of it one can benefit from having a quicker reaction to a health threat, shorter time to get a new drug to the market, and enhanced development cycles.

4. Enhanced Drug Delivery

3D printing helps design new and better drug delivery systems to deliver the medication in a controlled or a period release system. These can result in better treatments and less or no side effects at all since the drugs will only be administered to specific parts of the body that require them.

Challenges & Limitation

Despite the immense potential of 3D printing drugs, there are several challenges and limitations to consider:

1. Regulatory Issues

As it stands currently, 3D printed drugs are not fully regulated. Officials including the U.S Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicine Agency are in the process of developing clear standards of 3D-printed drugs. One significant issue that holds the approval from different aspects of the globe is the standard regulations that are yet to be standardized and these present a challenge to pharmaceutical firms willing to adopt the technology in their production line, such as 3D printing.

2. Quality Control

The processes of quality and consistency of 3D-printed drugs are also a major concern since they are rarely uniform. As it might be difficult to prove that each tablet or dosage form is uniform to the required potency, purity or other elements that matter most in drug making, 3D printing of drugs entail layer by layer formation of a product.

3. Material Limitations

One key area is that though 3D printing technology can print in different material types, the choice of material type suitable for drug manufacturing is still limited. Current efforts have been made to include more types of material to print drugs, but specific issues are under study about how many and what kind of material is safe for usage, efficient, and capable to support complicated mechanisms of drug delivery.

3D PRINTING DRUGS IN FUTURE

The future for producing drugs through 3D printing looks very promising. With growing technology, drug formulation, production and delivery is bound to increase in personalized, efficient and effectiveness Maybe through 3D printing technology we will have access to medicine.

Therefore, we may expect increased use of 3D printing technology in the further pharmaceutical manufacturing with 3D printed drugs in supermarkets and in clinics, for example. Progress in further researches, changes in legislation and development of new technologies allow to expect that 3D printing will be the key element of advanced healthcare systems.

Conclusion

Hailing the use of 3D printing in the pharmaceutical industry, proponents of the technology view many advantages including; personalized medicine, enhanced drug delivery, easier and quicker production, and cheaper to make drugs. Still there is immense possibility of changing the drug manufacturing process and impending healthcare through the new-age technology of 3D printing. With such progression in the technology field, there won’t be any doubt that the future of 3D-printed drugs will be very soon and because of this people with diseases will have better treatments and the general way of thinking about medicine will be different.