Needless Needles: 3D Printing, Fabrication, and Delivery of Drugs and Vaccines

One of the primary disadvantages of conventional pharmaceutical manufacturing techniques is the inability to develop products that can be tailor-made to meet individual patient needs. The additive manufacturing, aka “3D-printing” (3DP) technology, has wide array of applications ranging from prototypes to fully functional medical devices. It had recently made great impact in the development of drug delivery systems for pharmaceutical applications as evident from steady increase in published articles and patents. However, as promising as this technology is, some challenges must be overcome before its practical applications in the commercial-scale production of pharmaceuticals. This review aims to compare different 3DP techniques and their applications in dosage forms such as tablets, polypills, and microneedles. In addition to pharmaceutical products, this review also explored the applications of 3DP in drugs and vaccine delivery systems.