Enabling Next Generation Additive Manufacturing Design and Manufacture of Drug Delivery Platforms

In collaboration with Warwick and Birmingham Universities, as well as with the School of Pharmacy and Physics at Nottingham, the Centre for Additive Manufacturing (CfAM) http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/cfam/index.aspx will continue a deeper exploration the area of multifunctional AM through the recently awarded Programme Grant, Enabling Next Generation Additive Manufacturing.

The programme vision is to establish controlled next generation multifunctional AM and translate this to industry and researchers. Initially focussing on novel electronic and pharmaceutical/healthcare applications, the aim is to move beyond single material AM by exploiting the potential to deposit multiple materials contemporaneously for the delivery of spatially resolved function and structure in three dimensions.

Project description:
Drugs in the early stages of assessment are usually only available in small amounts. This lack of availability presents difficulties when attempting to assess the pharmacokinetics and the efficacy of a product, since one does not have sufficient material to iterate many times over product form. Recent developments in understanding how the molecular structure of an API can be used to predict key behaviours including log P, solubility and pKa, and how the formulation design and/or geometry of a drug delivery tablet or implant can be used to control drug dissolution rate, will be combined to produce a design system that will enable rapid optimisation of 3D printable solid dosage forms ready for clinical trial and early stage assessment.