Resumen de 3D printing of pharmaceutical products
Iria Seoane Viaño, Francisco Javier Otero Espinar, Álvaro Goyanes Goyanes
The manufacture of pharmaceutical products is moving toward the production of smarter and more personalized drug delivery devices, more cost-effective, and with better outcomes for the patients. The era of “one-size-fits-all” approach is coming to an end, and three-dimensional printing (3DP) technology is forecast to revolutionize the medicine manufacture through the production of personalized medicines, easy to swallow, and with high acceptability. This chapter presents how 3DP has been successfully used in the manufacture of printlets (3D-printed tablets), incorporating multiple drugs into a single printlet with different geometries and drug release characteristics, thus improving drug efficacy and minimizing side effects. This chapter also highlights four main 3DP technologies that are useful for pharmaceutical field: binder jetting, material extrusion, powder bed fusion, and vat polymerization. Furthermore, 3DP is a high flexible production method that could improve the entire medicine development process from the early phases, meeting the requirements of preclinical studies in animals, to front-line medical care, producing personalized dosage forms on-demand at the dispensing point. Overall, a large number of benefits that 3DP can provide through the production of bespoke formulations are evident and cannot be overlooked. All prospects point to a rapid development of this manufacturing tool over the next years with the aim of improving patient’s quality of life.
