REVIEW   

Panminerva Medica 2018 December;60(4):170-3

DOI: 10.23736/S0031-0808.18.03467-5

Copyright © 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

3D-printing: an emerging and a revolutionary technology in pharmaceuticals

Gautam SINGHVI ¹, Shalini PATIL ¹, Vishal GIRDHAR ¹, Dinesh K. CHELLAPPAN ², Gaurav GUPTA ³ ✉, Kamal DUA ^{4, 5, 6}

¹ Department of Pharmacy, Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, India; ² Department of Life Sciences, School of Pharmacy, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; ³ School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Jaipur National University, Jagatpura, India; ⁴ Discipline of Pharmacy, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, Australia; ⁵ School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia; ⁶ Priority Research Centre for Healthy Lungs, Hunter Medical Research Institute, Lot 1 Kookaburra Circuit, New Lambton Heights, Newcastle, Australia

One of the novel and progressive technology employed in pharmaceutical manufacturing, design of medical device and tissue engineering is three-dimensional (3D) printing. 3D printing technologies provide great advantages in 3D scaffolds fabrication over traditional methods in the control of pore size, porosity, and interconnectivity. Various techniques of 3D-printing include powder bed fusion, fused deposition modeling, binder deposition, inkjet printing, photopolymerization and many others which are still evolving. 3D-printing technique been employed in developing immediate release products, various systems to deliver multiple release modalities etc. 3D printing has opened the door for new generation of customized drug delivery with built-in flexibility for safer and effective therapy. Our mini-review provides a quick snapshot on an overview of 3D printing, various techniques employed, applications and its advancements in pharmaceutical sciences.

KEY WORDS: Printing, three-dimensional - Drug delivery systems - Tissue engineering