University College Of London Develops 3D-Printed Designer Medicines

One of the many promising uses for 3D printing is the creation of personalized medicines, in which dosages and drug combinations can be tailored to an individual's needs.

Photo Insert: The technique is called volumetric 3D printing, and rather than a layer-by-layer approach it cures the entire resin structure at the same time.

A new advance in this area has demonstrated how these types of medicines could be produced onsite and on-demand, with a printing technique that produces tablets in a matter of seconds, Nick Lavars reported for New Atlas.

The breakthrough is the work of scientists at University College London (UCL), who were looking to build on a 3D printing technique known as vat photopolymerization.

In the context of medicine production, this method involves a resin containing dissolved drugs and a photoreactive chemical, which can be solidified by light during printing to form a tablet. The study was also published in the journal Additive Manufacturing.

As is typical with 3D printing, the resin is extruded layer-by-layer to form the desired object, and as it stands this takes minutes. But the UCL team has been able to shorten this to mere seconds by manipulating the light in a highly-controlled way.

The technique is called volumetric 3D printing, and rather than a layer-by-layer approach it cures the entire resin structure at the same time. It does so by shining images of different angles of the desired object onto the resin, adjusting the intensity of the light until polymerization occurs simultaneously.

The scientists used this approach to fabricate 3D-printed tablets loaded with paracetamol within 17 seconds. By tweaking the composition of the resin the team could also fine-tune the drug release rates of the tablets. This also enabled some tablets to be printed even faster, in as little as seven seconds in some cases.

“Personalized 3D-printed medicines are evolving at a rapid pace and reaching the clinic," said co-lead author, Dr. Alvaro Goyanes. "To match the fast-paced clinical environment, we have developed a 3D printer that produces tablets within seconds. This technology could be a game-changer for the pharmaceutical industry.”

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