THE CUSTOMIZED, 3D-PRINTED, SEVEN-SECOND MEDICATION

The evolving technologies of personalized medicine—tailoring treatment of an illness to each individual’s medical and biological profile—has gotten a boost from University College London’s new method of 3D-printing medications on demand.

The technique combines dissolved drugs in a resin with a biologically inert chemical that hardens under light.

When used at full scale, the technique could combine different medications in a single dose, each in the proper amount for an individual person. That would save people from having to manage or remember different pills during the course of a day.

Printing pills has been tried before, but past methods take minutes: 3D printing is done layer by layer, with each layer needing to harden before the next is set down. 

The London team slashed the required time by forming the pill as a whole, then bombarding with hologram-like lasers—a technique called “volumetric printing”—that hardens the entire structure at once.

As a result, the university’s process can turn out a pill in as little as seven seconds, although some might take as long as 17 seconds.

TRENDPOST: As personalized medicine gradually becomes the norm in the years ahead, the demand for individualized combinations and formulations of drugs will increase. 

Formulating and printing pills volumetrically has the capacity to eventually transform pharmacy into a custom printing operation. 

Volumetrically printing pills with University College London’s new method.

Credit: University College London