3D-Printed Customized Medicine on the Horizon

With 3D-printed food on the way, printing other compounds like medicine seems like the next logical step. Researchers at the University of Central Lancashire are working on a printing solution that can create tablets that contain precise quantities of medicine.

The system could potentially enable the printing of customized medicine that can be tailored for specific patients.

The team, led by Dr. Mohamed Albed Alhnan at UCLan’s School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, developed a drug-polymer filament system that allows a 3D printer to replicate tablets, accurately matching dosage and weight.

“Thanks to this technology, the invented system can provide medical institutions with a new option and maintain dosage form properties while accurately adjusting the dose with a simple software order, something that was considered before to be costly and required experienced staff and dedicated facilities,” Alhnan said. “Eventually, we hope to see that units can be kept at home for patients who continuously need to change their daily dose.”

Alhnan predicts that the solution could be used by pharmaceutical companies and hospitals within five years, and by the general public within a decade.

There have been other “drug printing” innovations in the past several years. Researchers at Louisiana Tech University have also come up with a biodegradable material and printing solution that could deliver drugs and chemotherapy compounds in medical implants.

A team at the University of Glasgow also came up with a 3D printing solution that could potentially enable home manufacturing of medicines.

You can see the UCLan solution in action in the video below:

Source: Medical News Today