Imagine a machine that builds a tablet layer by microscopic layer, the same way it would build a plastic toy, until it becomes a fully functional dose of medicine tailored to a single patient. This lecture takes you on a comprehensive journey through 3D printing in pharmacy, starting with its history and the 2015 approval of Spritam, the first 3D-printed medicine, then covering the four printer technologies most used in pharmaceutical research (FDM, SLA, SLS, and powder bed inkjet printing) and when to choose each, all the way to 4D printing and smart stimuli-responsive materials. It explores real applications from multi-layered tablets and microneedles to tissue bioprinting, with recent clinical examples such as 3D-printed hydrocortisone tablets for children, the polypill concept combining five drugs with different release profiles in a single tablet, and the role of artificial intelligence in formulation design. The lecture also gives an honest account of material, cost, and regulatory challenges, and the move toward point-of-care manufacturing, all grounded in the newest published literature. Suitable for pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences students and researchers interested in the future of drug manufacturing.
Professor of Biochemistry, King Saud University
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