Researchers at University College London School of Pharmacy are investigating whether 3D printing drug tablets can improve how they are ingested and absorbed. The researchers used hot melt extrusion combined with 3D printing to produce five different shapes of tablets, including a cube, pyramid, cylinder, sphere, and a torus.
They showed that the manufacturing process of the acetaminophen tablets that they created didn’t affect the drug itself. Surprisingly, they showed that drug release from the tablets was related to the ratio of the surface area to volume rather than just to the surface area. This finding can help drug manufacturers to design tablet shapes that accurately release the drugs at precisely defined rates.
More at 3DPrint.com: Researchers 3D Print Odd Shaped Pills On A MakerBot, Completely Changing Drug Release Rates…
Study in International Journal of Pharmaceutics: Effect of geometry on drug release from 3D printed tablets…
(hat tip: Gizmodo)