3D Printed Medication May Change The Way We Take Pills

[Brian_Krassenstein]

Researchers at the UCL School of Pharmacy, University College London have found a way to change the rate of dissolution within medication via a 3D printing method. Researchers used MakerBot's water- soluble filament, cut it into tiny pieces and mixed in acetaminophen. They then used the Filabot extruder to extrude a drug infused filament. With this filament they printed odd shaped pills and tested them to see what effect different shapes had on the speed at which they dissolved. What they concluded was that 3D printing allows for unique custom shapes not possible with traditional pill fabrication. More details on this research can be found here: http://3dprint.com/64223/3d-printed-drugs/

Below are some pictures of the 3D printed pills:

[TehStranger]

Would the heat affect the potency of the medication though?

[americamakesralph]

Good work but not a novel idea. From 15 years ago:
http://www.mit.edu/~tdp/medical.html

[curious aardvark]

well you'd choose a substrate that extruded at a temperature low enough so that it didn't effect the chemical composition of the drug.

Also you could easily mould pills into different shapes with current technology - it's just that nobody's ever bothered to.