" Big Pharma will not like commodity 3D printers making prosthetics and the like as we are seeing already in so-called third world nations. They'll want to get their hands around that kind of disruption to their business, but will they be able to? I think the genie is out of the bottle on that score."

I don't see "Big Pharma" caring one way or the other about people designing and printing custom prosthetics. This isn't the sort of thing that's massively profitable for them; that requires a product that can be manufactured in bulk at low cost but sold at a big mark-up to customers in search of cures or (even better from a profitability standpoint) palliatives for chronic conditions. Making custom prosthetics is more of a cottage industry, with lots of small shops putting in a lot of work to individually tailor replacement parts for particular people. A 3D scanning to 3D printing workflow will certainly make this easier to do, but it's not the kind of low-hanging fruit that attracts Big Pharma.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com