It’s not just pills, though. Some scientists have been using 3D printing to develop single vaccines containing all the antibodies a patient needs, and researchers at the University of Michigan have created a new 3D printing technology that allows them to print precise doses of medication onto dosing devices such as dissolvable strips, similar to breath strips, or microneedle patches.
The printing technique was created through a collaboration between the Michigan Engineering departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering, as well as the College of Pharmacy and the Department of Physics. It was adapted from an electronics manufacturing technology called organic vapor jet printing, which is capable of printing a fine, crystalline structure over a large surface area. When applied to pharmaceuticals, the technique creates a medication that easily dissolves.
How it works is that the active ingredient, usually a powder, is heated and evaporated to combine it with a stream of heated, inert gas like nitrogen. The gas and evaporated medication travel through a nozzle, which is pointed at a cooled surface. The medication then condenses on that surface and sticks to it in a thin crystalline film. Fine-tuning the printing process can control the formation of the layers of film, and the whole process requires no solvents, additives or post-processing.“Pharma companies have libraries of millions of compounds to evaluate, and one of the first tests is solubility,” said Max Shtein, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. “About half of new compounds fail this test and are ruled out. Organic vapor jet printing could make some of them more soluble, putting them back into the pipeline.”
“Organic vapor jet printing may be useful for a variety of drug delivery applications for the safe and effective delivery of therapeutic agents to target tissues and organs,” said Geeta Mehta, the Dow Corning Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering.
The research was documented in a paper entitled “Printing of small molecular medicines from the vapor phase,” which you can access here. The study tested the printed medication on cultured cancer cells in the lab, and found that it destroyed them as effectively as conventional medicines, which require chemical solvents to enable the cells to absorb the medication. This method has promising implications for drug testing, as the medications easily dissolve in the water-based medium used to culture cells without any need for solvents.
The technique could also allow doctors and pharmacists to combine multiple medications into one easy-to-deliver dose. The 3D printing of mass-market pharmaceuticals is likely years away, according to Shtein, but he believes that the technology may be used for drug characterization and testing much sooner.“When researchers use solvents to dissolve drugs during the testing process, they’re applying those drugs in a way that’s different from how they would be used in people, and that makes the results less useful,” said Anna Schwendeman, an assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Michigan and an author on the paper. “Organic vapor jet printing could make those tests much more predictive, not to mention simpler.”
“One of the major challenges facing pharmaceutical companies is speed to clinical testing in humans,” said Gregory Amidon, a research professor in the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy and an author on the paper. “This technology offers up a new approach to accelerate the evaluation of new medicines.”
The research team is working on a roadmap for exploring additional applications of the technology, and plans to work with experts in pharmaceutical compound design and manufacturing. Eventually, they hope to scale the technology to mass production.
Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com, or share your thoughts below.
[Source: University of Michigan]
Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter
Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.
You May Also Like
Precision at the Microscale: UK Researchers Advance Medical Devices with BMF’s 3D Printing Tech
University of Nottingham researchers are using Boston Micro Fabrication‘s (BMF) 3D printing technology to develop medical devices that improve compatibility with human tissue. Funded by a UK grant, this project...
3D Printing Webinar and Event Roundup: April 21, 2024
It’s another busy week of webinars and events, starting with Hannover Messe in Germany and continuing with Metalcasting Congress, Chinaplas, TechBlick’s Innovation Festival, and more. Stratasys continues its advanced training...
3D Printing Webinar and Event Roundup: March 17, 2024
It’s another busy week of webinars and events, including SALMED 2024 and AM Forum in Berlin. Stratasys continues its in-person training and is offering two webinars, ASTM is holding a...
3D Printed Micro Antenna is 15% Smaller and 6X Lighter
Horizon Microtechnologies has achieved success in creating a high-frequency D-Band horn antenna through micro 3D printing. However, this achievement did not rely solely on 3D printing; it involved a combination...