3D Printing in Drug Delivery and Biomedical Applications: A State-of-the-Art Review

Personalized medicines are gaining popularity day by day as they empower patient genomics and assist in improved drug design with minimum side effects. Various dosages can be combined into one dose that fits the patient’s requirements. For this purpose, 3D printing is a new technology to produce medicine based on patient needs. It utilizes controlled devices to prepare active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in a layer-wise fashion to develop an appropriate tailored drug transport structure. It contains numerous methods, including inkjet printing and fused deposition modeling. For this purpose, scientists have used various materials, including polyvinyl alcohol, polylactic acid and polycaprolactone. These materials have been applied to design and develop forms that are suitable for tuning the drug release. Different forms of dosages, including tablets (immediate and pulsatile release) and transdermic dosages, can be produced using the 3D printing technique. Furthermore, the 3D printing technique can also be used to prepare customized medicines to treat life-threatening diseases. In the case of patients needing various medicines, a 3D printer can be used to design and manufacture only one dosage incorporating different medicines. This article reviewed 3D printing utilization for customized medicines based on one’s needs. Various methods and materials used in medicine 3D printing were discussed with their applications.