Printed Drug-Delivery Systems for Improved Patient Treatment

Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2016 Dec;37(12):1070-1080. doi: 10.1016/j.tips.2016.10.002. Epub 2016 Oct 27.

Abstract

The use of various types of printing technologies offer potential solutions for personalized medicine and tailored dosage forms to meet the needs of individual treatments of the future. Many types of scenario for printed dosage form exist and the concepts include, on the simplest level, accurately deposited doses of drug substances. In addition, computer design allows endless opportunities to create suitable geometries with tailored functionality and different levels of complexity to control the release properties of one or multiple drug substances. It will take some time to convert these technological developments in printing to better treatments for patients, because challenges exist. However, printing technologies are developing fast and have the potential to allow the use of versatile materials to manufacture sophisticated drug-delivery systems and biofunctional constructs for personalized treatments.

Keywords: 3D printing; drug-delivery systems; inkjet printing; personalized drugs.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Chemistry, Pharmaceutical / methods
  • Computer-Aided Design
  • Drug Delivery Systems*
  • Drug Design*
  • Drug Liberation
  • Humans
  • Pharmaceutical Preparations / administration & dosage
  • Precision Medicine / methods*
  • Printing, Three-Dimensional
  • Technology, Pharmaceutical / methods

Substances

  • Pharmaceutical Preparations