Three-Dimensional Printing for Precision and Personalized Patient Care: A New Paradigm for Pharmacy Practice?

TL;DR

3D printing could transform pharmacy by enabling personalized medicine, allowing tailored drug doses and multidrug tablets to improve patient care.

Contribution

This paper explores the potential of 3D printing in pharmacy practice and outlines a new paradigm for personalized patient care.

Findings

3D printing can enable on-site production of customized medicines tailored to individual patient needs.

Pharmaceutical 3D printing offers opportunities for dose adjustments and multidrug single tablets.

Adoption of 3D printing in pharmacies may redefine pharmacists' roles and improve healthcare outcomes.

Abstract

Objectives: Personalized medicine is gaining rapid attention over the current drug prescription approach of ‘one-size-fits-all’. Three-dimensional (3D) printing is one such product development technique that has the potential to transform the pharmaceutical and biomedical sectors. Methods: To establish the future of 3D printing in mainstream pharmacy practice, initially, pharmaceutical preclinical and clinical scientific databases (peer-reviewed articles, patents, and marketed products) over the past 10 years were critically scrutinized. Additionally, to provide context, we developed a hypothetical case study illustrating the capabilities of the 3D printing super-compounding pharmacy in personalized patient care, emphasizing the critical role of pharmacists in this process. Results: Acknowledging the potential of 3D printing in pharmacy practice, this review effectively summarizes the advances and opportunities of pharmaceutically feasible 3D printing methods, as well as the challenges in translating this technology into a future super-compounding pharmacy facility. Furthermore, the review highlights the promising capabilities of such pharmaceutical 3D printers in enabling on-site printing of 3D medicines tailored to individual needs, which may range from dose adjustments to multidrug single tablets (polypills). Conclusions: We believe that 3D printing technology has the potential to revolutionize precision and personalized medication approaches in pharmacy practice, which will significantly benefit patient healthcare outcomes. Additionally, the adoption of such technology in pharmacies will lead to a reinvention of the role of pharmacists, thereby creating more job opportunities. Ultimately, 3D printing will create a new paradigm of super-compounding pharmacy practice, providing a new sense of excitement for those looking to enter the pharmacy profession.

Figures