The utilisation of 3D printing tablets has been manufactured in medicine to produce multi-active tablets. The polypill constructed indicates that complex medication can be merged into a single tablet from combining ‘multiple active pharmaceutical ingredients’ and this tablet is “personalised” to fill particular needs for each individual.
3D printing is used in the drug Spritam Levetiracetam which will be used to treat certain types of seizures in patients with epilepsy. The printer builds the pil by soreading the layers of the drug until the right dosage is reached. This proficiency allows drugs to be delivered at a higher dosage. This can be beneficial for patients who need a higher dosage of medication where they needed to take multiple tablets to make up that dose and had trouble swallowing them. However 3D printing allows professional to print drugs up to 1000 milligrams which rapidly dissolve.
3D printing tablets allows healthcare professionals such as Pharmacists and Doctors to use the patient’s information in order to get their pill for them with the medication dose suited to them. This is time consuming as every patient has individual needs, and some are suited to taking medication in different ways. For example, some will use injections, patches, ointments and creams in order to cure them. Therefore, the costly equipment and procedure for this could be worthless as this is not suited to all of the population. Additionally, some people have several types of medication to take at different times this can cause many errors when printing tablets. Everyone’s body functions in different ways therefore individual factors need to be taken into consideration such as genetic information, age, race, gender and environmental factors. Nevertheless, 3D printing has flexibility when designing and manufacturing single/multiple drugs. Consequently, this has “built-in immediate and controlled-release layers that can be suited to individual situations. 3D printing tablets may have unknown side effects which could be fatal. I think 3D printed tablets are better suited to individuals with fewer illnesses. Therefore, we know that this is easier for professionals to print without making large errors which is also a safer way in drug delivery.
Moreover, 3D printing allows the process of evaluating much faster when working out the amount and quality of new drugs. 3d printing tablets allow a drug to be tailored by changing the CAD file used to print it. They are used to create distinctive dosage forms in the pharmaceutical production process. 3D printing allows scientists to produce limitless dosage forms.
Journalist, Mike Power disputes that 3D printing tablets can be outdated when controlled substances are being provided to patients. In addition to this every Pharmacy labels drugs, giving patient instructions on when to take the drug and who the medication belongs to. However, Mike also worries that 3D printing can lead to mislabelling which can be lethal. Drug design and composition can be suited to many illnesses depending on the drug and its strength whereas 3D printing will only allow the drug to have one description and it can be higher/lower than advertised and be replaced for another drug instead. However, Hilton argues that any mistakes are due to human error such as “putting the wrong spool of base material into the printer”. He acknowledges that the product will need to pass a validation check where they “compare the chemical formulation of the tablet to slandered”. This is to ensure the medication patients are taking are the exact ones that they use to take singularly. This is time consuming and would take a lot of time for the Pharmacist to check and employees would need to be computer literate to understand the procedures.
Additionally there are concerns about encrypted codes being hacked but Cronin reassures that 3D printing will have an “inbuilt validation system which will allow drugs to be checked against known standards.”
In May 2015, Gizmodo reported that researchers of FabRx are experimenting with different sizes and shape of the pills as well as improving drugs. They are testing ways in which the absorption process could be much more effective in the outcome of 3D printing. Studies show that pyramid shaped pills are absorbed fastest in the body than the regular sized cylinder ones. Goyanes explains that if you increase the surface contact with the dissolution media whilst keeping the volume of printlet persistant the drug release is increased.
3D printing is used in many areas and will become common in the healthcare industry. Medical researches have been conducting 3D technology for several applications such as such as organ transplants, tissue regeneration, and replacement bones and prosthetics. It is used to print artificial bone for orthopaedic surgeons using scans to frame surgical materials into the required size to replace the damaged or missing bone. This has been used to create skull implants for patients with head trauma.