3D printed flexible design for personalised Drug release

Abstract

Three-dimensional printing is becoming more appealing to pharmaceutical research in recent years, especially after the approval of Spritam by the FDA. However, its role in personalized medication is still hindered by quality control barriers among other development barriers. In this work, a novel design is suggested to offer a middle ground to solve regulatory barriers. This design was printed into four units that can be attached through hinges like a jigsaw puzzle. This work will showcase the capability of this design to control the release of the model drug theophylline. Two formulations were prepared one immediate release using PVP 40K and one sustained release using Eudragit EPO. Using the principles of the surface response method, the experiment was designed where three variables -drug load, infill density, and number of immediate release units- were adjusted to study their effect on theophylline release in the dissolution test. Both the drug load and number of units had a significant effect on both the level and the shape of the drug release curve in 24 hours dissolution study.

Keywords

• 3d printing
• fdm
• personalised medication
• theophylline
• control released