3D printed tablets for personalised dose titration of prednisone using selective laser sintering

The recent clinical emergence of 3D printing in pharmaceutical development has opened the possibility for a shift away from standardised medication dosing and towards more precise and personalised medicines and treatments. Prednisone is a commonly utilised steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that often requires complex combinations of tablets to achieve dosage regimens and titration, which can lead to poor adherence and adverse effects. This study utilised selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printing to produce custom prednisone tablets of various clinically relevant doses with high accuracy. Incorporating 3D models of different sizes, five doses of prednisone tablet were successfully printed ranging between 5 and 25 mg. Across the five distinct dosage groups, the SLS printed prednisone met conventional tablet manufacturing and British Pharmacopoeial quality standard criteria. When compared to commercially available prednisone tablets, the SLS printed tablets demonstrated a similar immediate release profile with complete drug release within 25 min. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates the capability of SLS 3D printing to produce custom therapeutic doses of clinically relevant medications, showing the viability of translation to clinical practice for the provision of personalised medications.