COVID- 19 impacts 3D Printed Drugs Market

COVID- 19 impacts 3D Printed Drugs Market

3D printed drugs are drugs manufactured by solidifying layers of materials to form a definite 3D structure.

2021-09-30

The COVID-19 pandemic has busted out as the demand for medicines, medical equipment, and devices therefore, the adoption of 3D printing has witnessed an uptick.

3D printing is a faster manufacturing technique because of its digital manufacturing capabilities. The companies in the additive manufacturing industry have launched several printers to boost the production of medicines and other required products.

During the COVID pandemic, HP deployed "D300e Bioprinter" to researchers to aid in the development of a vaccine and drugs to fight COVID-19 in the U.S. and Europe.

Moreover, the drug shortage during the COVID pandemic has gain pharma manufacturers' interest in the quick delivery of medicines. As per the U.S National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health, Medication shortages in 2020 have reached 87% that of the shortages reported in 2019 in half of the time. 

The Food and Drug Administration entered into this interagency MOU to support the use of advanced manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

FDA is actively working with the members of the MoU collaboration and non-profit partner America Makes on communications and criteria for evaluating open source designs that have been uploaded to the NIH 3DPX.

As the pandemic diseases can easily overpass frontiers, it is important to develop strategies for producing and distributing drugs to all parts of the world during supply chain disruptions. Regarding this, there is the possibility to 3D print oral solid dosage forms (OSDF) with different drugs in a customized way.

These medicines can be produced with controlled dosages, according to patients’ characteristics, with controlled release and, most importantly in a pandemic scenario, in a decentralized way.

Therefore, 3D printing can be used for producing drugs at hot spots where conventional drugs cannot reach. However, quality control, costs lowering, and the selection of the 3D printing  technology according to the formulation requirements are some key challenges that must be addressed for this application to be viable possible future pandemic scenarios.

In the context of the current pandemic, the suitability of different 3DP technologies will depend on the physicochemical properties, unit dose strength and BCS classification of the repurposed drug compounds currently being trialed for COVID-19.

Furthermore, the deployment strategy should focus on simplifying dosage forms and formulations, scaling down the size and complexity of the printing systems and real-time quality assurance via process analytical technologies (PAT).

The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy’s Pharmaceutical Engineering and 3D Printing (PharmE3D) Lab earned a Texas Global Faculty Research Seed Grant for its work on patient-specific treatment of COVID-19.

Scientists at Stanford University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have created a 3D-printed vaccine patch that provides greater protection than a typical vaccine shot.

The resulting immune response from the vaccine patch was 10 times greater than vaccine delivered into an arm muscle with a needle jab, according to a study conducted in animals and published by the team of scientists in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Considered a breakthrough are the 3D-printed microneedles lined up on a polymer patch and barely long enough to reach the skin to deliver vaccine.

The ease and effectiveness of a vaccine patch sets the course for a new way to deliver vaccines that’s painless, less invasive than a shot, does not require cold storage and can be self-administered.

HP deployed its D300e BioPrinter to researchers in the U.S. and Europe to aid in the development of a vaccine and drugs to fight COVID-19. The D300e is an inkjet-based fabrication 3D printer that prints pharmaceuticals instead of ink. 

Using bioprinters such as the HP D300e BioPrinter may prove to be a crucial tool in the fight against COVID-19. The pandemic has wreaked havoc on global supply chains for an array of goods, including medical equipment and supplies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a dramatic mismatch of supply and demand that manufacturers are struggling to forecast. On the supply side, manufacturing and supply chain processes in hubs such as China, India, and the United States are being disrupted due to global lockdowns.

On the demand side, conflated factors make demand difficult to predict. On one hand, patients delay seeking treatment, particularly for less convenient administration methods such as infusions, which can lead to lower patient volume and overall demand. 

On the other hand, stockpiling and demand for subcutaneous or oral formulations may cause a spike in demand for certain products despite decreasing patient volume. 

Although all manufacturers are working to mitigate the risk of supply shortages, biosimilar manufacturers that rely on facilities in Europe and Asia may be particularly at risk on the supply side.

In addition, delays in drug approvals and clinical trials are likely to be delayed due to challenges managing protocols, de-prioritization in favor of more immediate acute care needs, and patients’ inability to travel to appointments. Beyond the logistics and prioritization challenges, manufacturers run the risk of trial participants contracting the disease, which leads to poorer outcomes. 

The COVID-19 crisis has created the importance of a robust drug supply chain which can be quickly and flexibly ramped up to produce life-saving drug treatments. 

3D printing (3DP) of oral solid dosage forms (OSDF) could be a viable part of the emergency drug production response to support vulnerable patients in rural regions and other isolated locations. 

The suitability of different 3DP technologies will depend on the physicochemical properties, unit dose strength and BCS classification of the repurposed drug compounds currently being trialed for COVID-19. 

Furthermore, the deployment strategy should focus on simplifying dosage forms and formulations, scaling down the size and complexity of the printing systems and real-time quality assurance via process analytical technologies (PAT).

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of people globally, stimulating the demand for vaccines for reduction in infected people. More than 1 million people have died because of this infectious disease. Several measures have been undertaken for the development of vaccine as effective measure for controlling infection. Storage and distribution of vaccines to different parts of the world have been the main intent of the government and authorities.  

Thus, with rapid vaccine development activities and specific temperature requirement of certain vaccines, the 3D Printed Drugs market will grow substantially in the forecast period. 

For instance, in October 2020, Stirling Ultracold collaborated with various communities for COVID-19 vaccination administration. The company offers commercially available freezers capable of storing any COVID-19 vaccine candidate. This strategy will help the company in strengthening its market position, thereby generating more revenue.

In addition, Pfizer is planning to distribute more than 200 million doses of vaccines annually in almost 165 countries. The recommended storage temperature for these vaccines is -70°C±10°C for up to 10 days unopened. Thus, growing demand for the vaccines and technological development in the industry will further drive the growth over the coming years.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a Singapore-based 3D printing company, Structo worked with other 3D printing partners, universities and medical institutions to help ramp up COVID-19 testing across the region. Whilst Singapore has deployed effective contact tracing mechanisms to curb the spread of the virus, continued large scale testing is seen as critical in allowing it to return to a state of normality. 

The company has worked in collaboration with authorities and healthcare professionals in Singapore, the dental 3D printer manufacturer is scaling up to deliver over 1 million pre-sterilised NP testing swabs each week to fulfil orders from healthcare institutions and other key parties.

Structo's 3D printed NP testing swabs are FDA registered medical devices, manufactured in accordance with Structo's ISO 13485 QMS requirements from biocompatible material, and sterilised and packed individually to ISO 11135 standards.

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Sai Kiran
Sales Manager at DataM Intelligence
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +1 877 441 4866

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