Federal regulators approved the first 3D-printed drug, a groundbreaking decision that could change how drugs are made.
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Aprecia calls the technology “ZipDose” and believes it could significantly improve how patients take medication.
SPRITAM’s 3D-printed designed makes it water soluble with a minimal amount of liquid, which absorbs into the blood stream in less than 10 seconds.
While we’ve seen a lot of interesting 3D printed medical applications appear in surgery rooms already – think about 3D printed titanium implants or plastic replicas of organs – most 3D bioprinted innovations will easily take years before reaching patients.
Aprecia announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Spritam (levetiracetam) tablets as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of partial onset seizures, myoclonic seizures, and primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures in patients with epilepsy.
“In my experience, patients and caregivers often have difficulty following a treatment regimen”, he said. Aprecia also says 3D printing will allow doctors to know that the medicine they’re prescribing delivers the exact dose intended, as each pill will be completely uniform.
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Nearly 3 million Americans have been diagnosed with epilepsy, according to Aprecia, including 460,000 children. According to Wedbush Securities analyst Tao Levy, he believes that with 3D printing, it could allow pharmaceutical companies to start creating drugs designed specifically for a patient as opposed to a one-size-fits-all drug. In the meantime Spritam is expected to be made available in the first quarter of 2016.
