The “cocktail” of prescription drugs that some people and many seniors have to take every day often leads to deviation from the rules. The large number of pills in different sizes and colours that have to be taken at different times can cause confusion and ultimately overwhelm the patient. Researchers at the Materials Research Institute, Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT), Athlone, Ireland, have combined their expertise in materials science, additive manufacturing and injection molding to offer one possible solution: personalized medicine via a 3D printer in your pharmacy. Their ultimate goal is to accelerate the process to the point where mass production techniques can be applied.
Pharmacogenetics enables physicians to use a patient`s genetic profile to predict the efficacy of drugs and control dosage, as a press release on the AIT website shows. Based on this, PhD candidate Evert Fuenmayor and supervising Professor Dr. Ian Major developed a concept for adjustable tablets that combine and release drugs in the prescribed amounts and conditions over a longer period of time. The 3D printing technique they perfected over three years is based on specific polymers and printing parameters to deliver active ingredients. “We mixed and melted the material, produced filaments on it and fed them to the printer,” Fuenmajor explained. “Depending on the settings we chose, we can create very different profiles of active ingredients. With just two clicks, I was able to produce a tablet that could last three days in the body or six hours, depending on the patient`s needs“.
The next step of the research project focused on the development of double-layer tablets for the administration of several rugs. They used clinically relevant drugs such as lovastatin and hydrochlorothiazide, which typically control a combination of diseases in which the patient does not necessarily “feel” (i.e. that it is not comparable to influenza with headaches and other symptoms), explained Fuenmayor. “The reality with strokes, heart disease and heart failure is that they just happen.” And since the patient may feel well at the moment, there is a strong temptation to stop taking the drug.
The key technology for this form of personalized medication is 3D printing, according to Fuenmayor. He sees its use in pharmacies, where “pharmacists can put together the drug profile according to the individual needs of a patient every now and then”. With the right drug-containing polymers in stock and a small 3D printer, they can print their tablets themselves in the actual pharmacy”. However, there is one drawback and that is the time it takes to print the drugs – about four hours to print a batch of 30 pills, Fuenmayor said. In comparison, “traditional production methods can produce thousands of tablets per hour on a tableting machine”. This has led the researchers into the next phase of their project.
They decided on a mass customization approach. A high-volume process that combines injection molding and 3D printing to produce customized tablets at a significantly higher production rate, according to the press release. “For the first time we have successfully integrated melt filament production with injection modling in a multi-stage manufacturing process for the production of customized double-layer tablets with two active ingredients, “Fuenmayor and co-authors write in an article published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics.
While research is still at an early stage, this work has proven promising as it is capable of producing personalized tablets which, according to the researchers, will enable revolutionary, customized personalized medicine.
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