3D biotechnology company regenHU with Wako Automation combined to exploits the potential of cell-based therapies and 3D bioprinting to develop biomedical products for drug discovery and regenerative medicine. They will use their specialization of bioprinting solutions, laboratory automation and high content imaging for the same. They demonstrated their technologies at SLAS Conference in San Diego.

Munam Arshad from Pakistan under his thesis for MS Mechanical Engineering, recently outlined the effectiveness of 3D Printing in drug delivery via a vibrating mechanism that moves the medications through small ‘slits.’ Using PMC-744 as the material of choice due to its biocompatibility and flexibility, the research team 3D Printed the final model using SOLIDWORKS and PLA, featuring one system with both a haptic motor and drug reservoir with drug release area .

A team of researchers based at the University of Utah worked on unmet clinical needs of 3D Printing and explained the needs in terms of structural support for skeletal and tubular organs, novel drug delivery strategies, organ-on-a-chip platform and finally, multimaterial 3D printing, which can help speed up the creation of bioelectronic constructs to impart active functionalities to an otherwise passive construct. Through the research, they addressed how 3D Printing Potential can be explored furthermore to increase compliance and comfort in terms of human satisfaction.

Researchers from FabRx are working on using 3D Printing to create personalized medicine for patients that could reduce the adverse effects to individuals. Though FDM 3D Printing has potential, the high extrusion temperature limits the potential active ingredients to only heat-stable ones, it was still chosen over SLA 3D Printing since it was unsafe. A regenHU 3D bioprinter was used to print paracetamol into three different tablet geometries – solid, ring and mesh and the results could be invariably beneficial if successful for the individual personalization of medicines.

A Research paper was recently published by Preethy Ani Jose, with the Oxford College of Pharmacy, and Peter Christopher GV, from pharmaceutical company Strides Shasun Limited in Bangalore, concerning the challenges faced by Pharmaceuticals when being introduced with 3D Printing. The paper presents regulatory agencies expectations, limitations, problems in establishing such setups for production of drug products, etc. The research paper also discusses how 3D Printing faces challeneges such as proper testing of Design and Manufacturing Process Considerations, validating the 3D printing process and software to determine the level of accuracy, and documentation in order to confirm that any products conform to existing guidelines.

A group of researchers from the University of Sussex are working towards Drug Delivery Systems by combining FDM technology with Hot-Melt Extrusion (HME) which involves blending of Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) with a thermoplastic polymer, and extrusion as filaments. Through pairing of HME with FDM technology, the researchers can help increase the range of usable FDM polymers and improve the usability of FDM 3D printers across many industries. HME, which does not require the use of a solvent, can be used to make drugs with a less bitter taste, while also lowering production times and increasing process efficiency.

A Team of Researchers from UK experimented on using 3D Printing to create Orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs) of Ondansetron, a drug used in Vomiting receiving Chemotherapy, with the help of SLS 3D printing. The researchers developed a new type of ondansetron-cyclodextrin complexes meant to disintegrate rapidly, which were compared to Vonau Flash 8 mg, a commercial example of Ondansetron. Both 3D printed formulations disintegrated at ~15 s and released more than 90% of the drug within 5 min independent of the mannitol content, thus concluding that these results were comparable to those obtained with the commercial product with added benefit of using a manufacturing technology able to prepare medicines individualized to the patient.