UPDATED 15:31 EDT / AUGUST 06 2015

NEWS

The future of custom medication: FDA approves first 3D printed pill

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first 3D printed pill, paving the way for the future of customized medication. The drug involved, an anti-seizure medication called Spritam (levetiracetam), is printed by a specialized device into a carefully crafted delivery system in the form of a porous indigestible pill.

Aprecia Pharmaceuticals announced Monday that the FDA had approved the company’s rapidly-dissolving pill technology including the anti-seizure medication. Much like how 3D printers produce 3D models from plastics, the Aprecia pill is printed layer-by-layer to form a highly porous structure with a technology called ZipDose. The highly porous pill provides a maximum of surface area so that when submerged in liquid it dissolves quickly, delivering the medication rapidly.

“By combining 3DP [printing] technology with a highly-prescribed epilepsy treatment, Spritam is designed to fill a need for patients who struggle with their current medication experience,” Aprecia CEO Don Wetherhold said in a statement.

According to the Ohio-based pharmaceutical company the 3D printing technology can package up to 1,000 milligrams of drug into individual tablets. The first pills containing Spritam are expected to ship in the first quarter of 2016.

This is the latest in a trend of the FDA looking for insights into the innovations surrounding 3D printer technology and medical applications. In the past, the FDA has approved various 3D printed devices to assist in saving lives and increasing the quality of life of individuals in need including 3D printed hearts used to model delicate surgeries and 3D prosthetics for amputees.

The implications of a 3D printed pharmaceutical era

For the most part, pills are just a substrate for the delivery of a medication—a compacted non-reactive material such as starch is used to pack the medication so that it can be swallowed or the medication is held in tiny balls that are sealed into a capsule. Coatings on the pill or capsule may be used to slow down how quickly the medication is released to allow for regulating dose levels over time.

With 3D printing, it should become much easier for pharmaceutical companies to produce pills that contain particular dosages within specific substrates. This permits drugs an even greater customization of delivery—one that can be tailored for specific conditions or even patients.

Another innovation that has not yet been put to medical use is a chemical printer unveiled by REVOLUTION Medicine, Inc. The chemical printer is capable of building molecules of particular families reaction-by-reaction to allow for pure samples of particular end products to be produced from starting reagents on the fly.

While still a ways off, it may be possible for small scale custom medications to be produced by running the necessary chemicals through a chemical printer to produce the active medication and then packaged by a technology such as ZipDose. In this fashion doctors working with pharmacists could carefully tailor medications and medication delivery to specific patients based on their needs.

This is not a new idea, in 2012 researchers at the University of Glasgow started work on 3D printed chemical reaction vessels for exactly the above applications. The technology to support all of these components are still in development, but every year the potential for something the FDA can examine gets closer.

photo credit: via photopin (license)

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU