RRemember to take your medications. Remember to take them all. Use only that dose, perhaps dividing the tablet in half. Alternate drops with tablets to get the dosage you need. And much more… All this could become a mere memory, if 3D medicines will be increasingly widespread as it seems. But what is special about these medicines? And why could they solve many of the most common problems that patients encounter, when they have to follow treatments that are a little more complex than usual?
The first was patented in America
It was way back in 2015. Yes, only 8 years have passed, but in the world of pharmaceutical technology every month counts as five years, because progress in this sector is the order of the day. So good 8 years agoFDAi.e. the American body that supervises drugs and foods, approved the first 3D printed medicine. This production technology was chosen to be able to increase the active ingredient present in a single dose. The medicine was used for epilepsy and being able to customize the “tablet” allowed a treatment tailored to the patient. Indispensable for this type of disease.
They are increasingly spreading in Italy too
Thanks to various collaborations between private companies and public universities, even in our country 3D medicines are becoming an increasingly concrete reality. For example, Marche Biobank, a platform for personalized medicine financed by the Marche Region, has recently signed an agreement with Angelini Pharma to develop drugs in 3D. «The Marche BioBank project has allowed us to acquire specific skills in drug development through innovative technologiessetting up an area dedicated to 3D printing” he explains Luigi Boltri, Global R&D PLCM Executive Director of Angelini Pharma.
Who are 3D medications useful for?
Medicines produced with 3D printing they are currently being developed for those patients considered more vulnerable. This category includes those with complex diseases, that is, they suffer from multiple disorders, even serious ones, at the same time. But patients are also candidates for using 3D drugs the most fragile ones, such as the elderly or small children. In both cases, in fact, regularly taking multi-drug therapy could be a problem. In simpler words, instead of taking many different medicines, you could print one that contains everything you need. This is not yet possible in everyday practice, but from a scientific point of view it is no longer an unachievable goal. On the contrary. And this is thanks to the 3D printing of medicines.
3D printed medicines are especially useful for those who have to take a lot of medicines. (Getty Images)
The advantages of “three-dimensional” drugs
The technology used for 3D printing, both of a plastic object and of drugs, is based on the additive method. The printer adds layer after layer the material it uses to print, that is, to produce the object it is creating. If it is used to “print” drugs the various layers will not be made of plastic, but of active ingredient and other components that each drug has. Layering, however, will allow you to customize the medicine you are printing. In theory each tablet could have a different weight and quantity of principle from the others. This allows us to think about a new way of treating people.
Increasingly personalized care
For years, medicine has been moving towards therapies that are increasingly “cut and sewn” on the individual patient. 3D medicines from this point of view are perfect, because they guarantee the possibility of producing a medicine with the necessary quantity of active ingredient in a non-standard manner. But based on the needs of the patient, he must use that particular drug. «Marche BioBank represents a partnership of great value, as it makes one of our main objectives even more effective and concrete: put the patient at the center of the criteria and logic for the development of new and innovative pharmaceutical products” explains Rafal Kaminski, Chief Scientific Officer of Angelini Pharma. Putting the patient at the center of care also means produce drugs flexibly, that is, which also takes into account the weight of those who have to take them. Or age, or certain physiological conditions, such as allergies and intolerances, for example.
Help also for those with a rare disease
The 3D printing of medicines, in fact, allows us to have in our medicine cabinet not the pill designed for everyone, but the tablet designed for our individual problem. It may seem like science fiction, but the technology is already widely used and is giving good results even in those sectors where solutions may exist, but are not implemented properly. This is the case of rare diseases. These patients often they do not have access to all care necessary for them, because no company intends to produce a drug with a very limited market, in numerical terms. With 3D printing this problem is partly solved, because it is easier to produce a personalized drug, as those useful for rare diseases often are.
Will the pharmacist print the drugs?
If 3D printing technology has made so much progress in a short time, is it plausible that pharmacists could soon be able to print medicines directly? In theory, for some types of medicines, this it might already be possible. In theory, because in practice this opens up a whole series of safety and ethical problems that still need to be addressed. In practice, however, 3D printing guarantees the possibility of developing new solutions, even in the therapeutic field. Thus opening new paths, all to be explored.
iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED