How 3D printed drugs can change the healthcare industry forever

Healthcare Discussion Healthcare management
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3D printing has been around for many years; it has been used mainly in processing. This method of printing, also called stereolithography, can create almost any object to form a physical version of a digital 3D image by fusing different materials, layer by layer. 3D printing has grown into the healthcare field over the last 15 years, where it is used to build personalized prosthetics and dental implants. Today, for personalized healthcare as well, there might be an ability to use it.

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1.Personalized Dosing of Drugs

3D printing could add a whole new dimension of possibilities to personalized medicine. In its most simplistic form, the idea of experts and researchers is to produce personalized 3D printed oral tablets. Medical writer C. Lee Ventola has conducted extensive research on this for her publication, “Medical Applications for 3D Printing: Current and Projected Uses.” She writes that personalized, 3D-printed medications may serve particularly well for patients who respond to the same drugs in different ways.
In addition, a physician or pharmacist will be able to use the individual details of each patient, such as age, ethnicity, and sex, to deliver their optimum dose of medication rather than depending on a common collection of dosages. 3D printing can also make it possible to print pills in a complex layered build, using a combination of medications to treat several ailments at once. The idea is to send a single pill to patients that provides medication for everything they need.

2. Special Types of Dosage

3D printing may also be used in the pharmaceutical manufacturing process to create specific dosage types. In the method to create unlimited dosage types, the concept would be to use inkjet-based 3D printing technology. It is probable that this will threaten traditional drug production, according to experts. Many medicines have already been studied in the process of developing new dosage formulations, and we can only see more progress as time goes by.

3. More complicated profiles for drug release.

Drug release profiles describe how when taken by the patient, a drug is broken down. It is also simpler to understand their release profiles by designing and printing drugs firsthand. By printing a binder onto a matrix powder bed in layers, 3D printing makes it possible to print customized drugs that promote targeted and managed drug release. This creates a buffer between the active ingredients, enabling researchers to more closely examine variations of the release.

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PERSONALIZED MEDICAL DEVICES AND PATIENT-SPECIFIC IMPLANTS

  • 3D printing can create medical devices and implants that are tailor-made for a patient’s specific physiology — or even a specific surgery — making it potentially more effective than a mass-produced device.
  • With the emergence of this novelty technology, a few manufacturers are already developing their own patient-specific medical devices. Some significant developments in patient-specific medical devices include external prosthetics, orthopedic implants and customizable airway stents.

JUST-IN-TIME MANUFACTURING APPROACH TO ON-DEMAND DEVICES

  • The speed of 3D printing means it’s possible for manufacturers to quickly create devices in response to patient demand. Traditional implants can take weeks to design and manufacture, especially if they need to be customized for a patient. 3D printing is already being used to cut down the time needed to create bone implants to as little as possible.
  • Combined with the possibility of personalized medical devices, the just-in-time approach enabled by 3D printing could result in on-demand personal devices. These components could be a better fit for patients than the devices they may have needed to wait for in the past.
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