Getting personal – the changing role of 3D printing in pharma

We have read about 3D printed pharmaceuticals but the technology has an increasing role to play in personalised medicine. Professor Ricky Wildman, University of Nottingham explains

Additive Manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, is a disruptive technology, that can potentially revolutionise the way we manufacture goods. It has become widely recognised due the expiration of a number of key patents that has allowed small manufacturers to explore the technology for home use. This use most often focuses on the creative and democratic aspects of 3D printing. However, it has the most utility when being used for the fabrication of objects that require complexity, multiple and graded materials or lend themselves to a distributed manufacturing model. Most importantly, the near zero marginal cost of changing a design, means that the technology is particularly suitable for personalisation. These latter advantages also apply strongly to biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. For both the need to personalise is becoming a driving force – biomedical devices are often required to have a personalised fit to be effective and the pharmaceutical world is moving beyond single blockbuster drugs and towards treatments that match the growing recognition that is the genotype that provides the key to treatment.

However, the manufacturing model developed to service large numbers of single dosage drugs – tabletting, is not best placed to offer personalisation. One possible route to achieving this ‘bespoke’ manufacturing is 3D printing. This is not without precedent – Aprecia has just received FDA approval for a 3D printed tablet. 3D printing of tablets is not without challenges – it requires an intimate understanding of process and design, exquisite control over material process and production and in line characterisation for quality assurance. However, 3D printing offers significant benefits to companies and patients alike.  We are looking at the production of personalised tablets, within which have been embodied one or more drugs with release rates that are tuned to the need of the patient and that can be placed near to point of care (in the local pharmacy for example).  In the future these can be combined with sensors and diagnostics that provide clinical carers with real time information on the treatment.

To achieve this requires a multidisciplinary effort. At Nottingham, our team includes chemists and chemical engineers, pharmacists and physicists all working together, with support from the UK funding agency EPSRC and key movers in the industry such as GSK and Astra-Zeneca, to solve key challenges to realise mini desktop factories that can bring personalised treatments to the patient. 3D printed polypills and controlled release tablets are already available in the lab and have shown to be effective – in the future, new materials, new formulations and new processes offer the prospect of a new way of delivering drugs that will be more tailored, more precise and most importantly, more effective than the tablet 1.0!