Easy to Swallow: Deglumed’s Personalized Medicine Uses 3D Printing

Deglumed is a project that aims to move towards personalized medicine. Through the use of various technologies, including 3D printing, the aim is to create drugs that adapt to the needs of each patient. This initiative could make it easier for people with swallowing difficulties to take medication. Funded by the Valencian Institute of Business Competitiveness (IVACE), the project has the participation of Aimplas (Technological Institute of Plastics), NUTRISPAIN, IT3D and the laboratory of Centrum Pharmaceutical Specialties. This pooling of experiences will allow the development of personalized drugs for this type of pathologies and other similar ones.

Today, one in 25 adults in the USA suffer from dysphagia, a condition that hinders the swallowing process. In Europe, the figure is 30 million. For dysphagic patients, the body needs more effort and time to move food from the mouth to the stomach. In addition to these data, studies also suggest that it disproportionately affects the elderly, with one in four people over the age of 70 suffering from it to some extent. This condition also affects patients with neurodegenerative pathologies, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, where swallowing medication can sometimes be difficult. But what role do new technologies play in this field, and how is additive manufacturing being used in the project?

Aimplas is one of the companies participating in the Deglumed project (Credits: Aimplas).

3D Printing in The Deglumed Project

Currently, many drugs are available in as solid pills, often difficult for some patients to swallow. Taste is also an important factor when swallowing a drug, as it is not unheard of for patients to vomit up foul-tasting medicines. In order to make further progress towards personalized, easy-to-ingest medicine, the Deglumed team focused their efforts on designing drugs and health supplements that are easy to take. To do this, they combined the use of several technologies. The first is called hot melt extrusion, which, in the pharmaceutical field, is used to mix drug molecules with bioactive polymers.