Pharmaceutics & Novel Drug Delivery Systems

2D & 3D Printing in Drug Delivery

There has been increased activity in the field recently regarding the development and research on various printing techniques in fabrication of dosage forms and drug delivery systems. These technologies may offer benefits and flexibility in manufacturing, potentially paving the way for personalized dosing and tailor-made dosage forms.

2D and 3D printing permits fabricating functional structures of metals, polymers, and biomaterials. 3D structures can be printed on a variety of surfaces with characteristic permeability, porosity, hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity and surface energy. This allows controlling the properties of the printed substances. Besides accurate patterning, printing on tailored functionalized substrates and multi-layer printing makes automated high-speed manufacture of complex structures possible. It opens up new avenues for tailoring physicochemical properties of organic substances.

3D-printing (3DP) is the art and science of printing in a new dimension using 3D printers to transform 3D computer aided designs (CAD) into life-changing products. This includes the design of more effective and patient-friendly pharmaceutical products as well as bio-inspired medical devices. It is poised as the next technology revolution for the pharmaceutical and medical-device industries. After decorous implementation scientists in collaboration with CAD designers have produced innovative medical devices ranging from pharmaceutical tablets to surgical transplants of the human face and skull, spinal implants, prosthetics, human organs and other biomaterials. a limitation exists in the availability of 3D printable biomaterials for most applications.

With the FDA approval of the first 3D printed tablet, Spritam®, there is now precedence set for the utilization of 3D printing for the preparation of drug delivery systems.

The high degree of flexibility and control with 3D printing enables the preparation of dosage forms with multiple active pharmaceutical ingredients with complex and tailored release profiles. A unique opportunity for this technology for the preparation of personalized doses to address individual patient needs. This review will highlight the 3D printing technologies being utilized for the fabrication of drug delivery systems, as well as the formulation and processing parameters for consideration