Associate Professor Amirali Popat and PhD student Liam Krueger from UQ’s School of Pharmacy spoke with The Medical Journal of Australia about using 3D printing technology to develop personalised medication for patients.
“This is where the future is heading,” said Associate Professor Popat in an exclusive MJA podcast.
“I know it sounds like a sci-fi movie – you press a button and the drug will be printed – but it will happen, and it will happen very shortly [technologically].”
The technology – the printers themselves, the polymers, the filaments – already exists, and clinical trials have already shown personalised medication production is doable.
What is missing in Australia is the legislation and regulatory framework.
“There is one 3D-printed pharmaceutical currently on the market in the US which is approved by the Food and Drug Administration,” said Mr Krueger.
“There’s no legislation around it in Australia. There are no regulations around 3D-printed dosage forms, and definitely nothing in the way of customising doses.”
