title: Oral dosage forms fabricated by three dimensional printing.
abstract: Three Dimensional Printing is a novel technique used in the fabrication of complex oral dosage delivery pharmaceuticals. It is possible to engineer devices with complicated internal geometries, varying densities and diffusivities, and multiple actives and excipients. Samples were fabricated using this technique using standard pharmaceutical materials. Erosion mechanism delayed-release tablets were constructed with varying polymer content from 8.9 to 17. 9%. Lag times varied between 25 and 50 min with a corresponding decrease in release rate as polymer content increased. Diffusion mechanism tablets were constructed with varying polymer content from 9.0 to 16.7%. The peak release rate decreased and the time to exhaustion increased with polymer content, whereas lag time was not affected. Active delivery studies with fluorescein indicated that Three Dimensional Printing is capable of accurately constructing dosage forms with active content as low as 10(-12) moles per tablet. Hardness and friability testing indicated that samples fabricated with this technique are comparable to other standard pharmaceutical products.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: W E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Katstra
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Palazzolo
authors.forename: C W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Rowe
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Giritlioglu
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Teung
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Cima
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002482:Cellulose; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations; D004339:Drug Compounding / Q000379:methods*; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000295:instrumentation; D005079:Excipients; D019793:Fluorescein / Q000737:chemistry; D006244:Hardness; D007700:Kinetics; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011208:Powders; D012995:Solubility; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013608:Tablets, Enteric-Coated
chemical_list: D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations; D005079:Excipients; D011208:Powders; D013608:Tablets, Enteric-Coated; D002482:Cellulose; D019793:Fluorescein