Analysis: 3D printing can allow multiple medications for patients to be combined into a single daily pill or 'polypill'
By Marion McAfee, ATU
Personalised medicine is an emerging approach to healthcare where clinicians are moving away from a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to prescriptions, towards therapies tailored to meet the patient's specific requirements. The way you respond to a drug treatment can vary widely, depending on age, body mass, ethnicity and many other factors, so having standard doses won't always deliver the best outcome for each patient.
Given our ageing demographic and consequent rise in chronic diseases, enhanced therapies are needed to help reduce pressure on the health service and to ensure a quality of life for older people. According to a recent report, the number of people in Ireland over 65 years of age is expected to almost double over the next 30 years. With that, we expect a huge rise in chronic diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, osteoarthritis, cancer and diabetes which become increasingly prevalent among older generations.
Many older people suffer from multiple co-morbidities so are on a complex mix of different medications taken at different times throughout the day. Most of us know an elderly relative with a complicated-looking pillbox of different tablets to be taken morning, noon, evening and night. Sticking to a medication regime like this is not easy.
From TED, physician Daniel Kraft says the pharmacy of the future will mean personalised pills which are 3D printed at home
3D printing offers a solution to this problem, in that it can allow multiple medications to be combined into a single daily pill or 'polypill'. Recent clinical trials have shown that polypills can significantly reduce risks of heart attack and stroke compared to traditional medication. 3D printing also allows for customising the combination and dosage of drugs according to the personalised needs of the individual patient. Providing the precise dosage an individual needs minimises side effects and simplifies medication routines. Taking a single daily pill is far easier and safer than managing multiple doses throughout the day, reducing the chances of missed doses or accidental overdose.
In some cases, implantable drug delivery devices can be a better option than oral dosage forms. For example, it is much better in cancer treatment to have local release of chemotherapy at the tumour site than to flood the whole system with a toxic drug. Implantable drug delivery devices often have mechanical functions as well: you might need a stent in the treatment of throat cancers to hold open the airway as well as delivering anticancer drugs. Other examples include bone pins and scaffolds, cardiovascular stents, etc.
The performance of such devices would often be improved by being personalised in shape and size to the patient while releasing the required drugs over a sustained period (such as antibiotics or anti-inflammatories). The idea of using a scan of a patient’s internal anatomy to design and 3D print an implant specific to that patient has been around for many years, but concerns around safety have yet to be addressed. How can we assure that the printed device is accurate? Is the correct drug dosage present? Were the drugs damaged during the development process?
From ATU, Dr Marion McAfee on how 3D printing could produce polypills for patients on more than one medication
The PROCEED 3D project is a Research Ireland-funded project aimed at addressing this problem. A collaboration between ATU and the University of Limerick, as well as industrial partners, is researching sensing and control technologies to monitor the 3D printing process and ensure that the printed devices – whether polypills or drug delivery implants – are safe.
We are investigating different optical sensor technologies based on how molecules interact with different wavelengths of light, that allow us to monitor in real-time the content, distribution and chemical stability of drugs – ultimately, to be utilised in a local hospital or pharmacy. Using a combination of materials science, mathematical modelling and AI, we are developing methods to help rapidly optimise device formulation and control the process parameters to ensure the quality of the printed device.
While it may be some years before your GP can access personalised data from wearable devices to generate a unique digital prescription to printed at uour local pharmacy, 3D printing in hospitals is already having an impact in surgical planning. At the moment, surgeons often use 3D printed patient anatomical models to help prepare and plan for complex surgeries. If we achieve a breakthrough in ensuring the safety of locally 3D-printed devices, we can advance to the next phase creating customized implants for patients directly within the hospital. This would open the door to significantly improved patient outcomes and a new era of personalised care
Dr Marion McAfee is a Senior Lecturer in Systems and Control Engineering and Co-Director of the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Intelligent Systems for Health and Environment (MISHE) at Atlantic Technological University. She is the co-lead on the Research Ireland-funded PROCEED 3D project.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
