PHARMACISTS and engineers in the US have developed a 3D printing process capable of producing the exact dose of medication needed by a child, Pharmacy Practice News has reported this week.

The process, developed at Texas A&M University, in College Station, is meant to be used in hospitals and pharmacies on an as-needed basis.

“It is hard to fix doses based on body weight in still-developing children,” said Prof Mansoor Khan at Texas A&M, making paediatric medications an “unattractive market” generally for pharmaceutical companies.

“Almost all drugs are tested and developed for adults because adults are of more stable weight,” Khan added.

To give medications intended for adults to children, one common method is to dissolve an adult-dosed product into liquid and then administer it to a child as drops.

But this can affect the potency of a drug intended to be taken in solid form, he commented.

Furthermore, crushing a solid drug often reveals the bitter taste of the chemicals, which would otherwise be shielded by masking coatings, “if a six-month-old spits out a drug, it may be because it tastes bad,” Khan said.

3D printing could solve these challenges, he noted.

“This is a compounding issue now, not a manufacturing issue,” Khan explained, requiring only a 3D printer in a hospital or pharmacy.

If the hospital pharmacy has the raw materials to make a drug, apparently the process can be fully accomplished in-house.

He also noted that the active pharmaceutical ingredients used in these preparations typically do not have expiration dates.

They are periodically tested for safety in the US, with the test dates noted each time.

As for the workflow involved, ideally, a physician in one part of the hospital would send a prescription to the hospital’s compounding pharmacy, where a technician or pharmacist 3D prints a bespoke solid medication tailored to the child’s weight, and with a coating that makes it easier to consume, he said.

This process might take 20 to 25 minutes, Khan estimated.

“Dose flexibility is the key thing 3D printing brings about.” JG