3D-printed polypills for personalized medicine and precision oral drug delivery in pharmaceutical practice: A review

3D-printed polypills have considerably changed the way oral medications can be delivered. They offer a way to create a single dosage form that can be customized to meet the needs of individual patients, while also allowing multiple drugs to be stored in distinct compartments, layers, or designs. Using 3D printing techniques such as fused deposition modeling (FDM), inkjet printing, stereolithography (SLA), selective laser sintering (SLS), and Arburg Plastic Freeforming (APF), it is possible to create tablet structures that provide control over various aspects of dissolution and drug release through engineered porosity and density of the material used during fabrication. Several technologies have been developed to enable the fabrication of polypills, along with methods for selecting the correct excipients, controlling drug release through various mechanisms, and considering the principles of quality-by-design when creating a polypill. In recent years, new material innovations have significantly enhanced the ability of polypills to deliver drugs with improved mechanical strength, stability, and accuracy upon printing. The ability to provide personalized medication regimens for patients with chronic diseases requiring precise titration or a complex regimen is expected to have a great impact on the management of patients taking 3D-printed polypills. 3D-printed polypills have significant translational challenges due to inconsistent production, difficulty obtaining regulatory approval, the inability to scale up batch manufacture, and inadequate long-term stability of the final product.