3D printing a personalized dosage of medication can be highly beneficial if you have a medical condition. Obviously, this also is an interesting field for 3D printing startups. Unfortunately, things will be more difficult for these companies, as the drugs may react with the photopolymers.

The London-based biotech-company FabRx uses stereolithography to manufacture these 3D printed oral drugs. They combine four drugs needed to lower blood pressure in a single pill. Each printed layer consisted of a different common oral drug including ibuprofen, paracetamol, caffeine, and naproxen.

Now, the company has run into a problem: One of the ingredients wasn’t delivered as expected, as it was reacting with the photopolymer. “Our study demonstrated for the first time that the drug and the photopolymer could possibly undergo unexpected reactions, which is clearly undesirable,” explains Professor Simon Gaisford, who is Head of Department of Pharmaceutics at UCL School of Pharmacy and also works as Printing Technology Director at FabRx.

“I wouldn’t say is a bad idea for 3D printed drugs because this was a very specific reaction that happened between this specific drug and the monomer we used,” says Gaisford. “However, the reaction we reported here was a common type that may happen with other functional groups and possibly with other drugs. It is very important for researchers to keep this in mind when they are making 3D printed drug-loaded medicines.”

(Source: Chemistryworld)