Design and 3D printing of capsular devices for immediate drug release

JUAN FRANCISCO PEÑA; COTABARREN, IVANA; GALLO LOREANA

Congreso; 7ma Reunión Internacional de Ciencias Farmacéuticas (RICiFa 2023); 2023

3D printing (3DP) is one of the most widespread and promising emerging technologies, constituting a great field of creativity and innovation with the ability to impact substantially in people's lives. Among the potential applications that have yet to be explored, the development of products with personalized or innovative characteristics in the pharmaceutical area stands out, especially in the field of compounding pharmacy [1]. In fact, 3DP facilitates the creation of complex drug delivery systems, enabling the production of personalized medicine based on patients' specific needs. Specifically, the fabrication of capsular systems of different geometries and variable wall thicknesses offer potential modified drug release application, enhancing treatment efficiency and patient compliance. Among I3D technologies, fused deposition modeling (FDM) is the one that has received the most attention in the development of pharmaceutical formulations for human and veterinary use due to the low cost of the printers, its high precision and easy use. FDM printers feature an extruder that heats a polymer filament above its melting temperature. The molten filament is then extruded through a nozzle in the form of a thin thread and is deposited layer by layer on a building platform where it quickly solidifies creating a three-dimensional shape [2][3].In this work, capsular devices (CDs) with different wall thickness were carefully designed and printed using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and following the design of hard-gelatine capsules (HGC) size number 0. The printing process was coded to allow a successful stop at 80% of the CD construction in order to manually feed it with 50mg of pure losartan (antihypertensive drug); afterwards, the process was resumed to properly build the capsule cover involving several printing parameters adjustments. Their in-vitro dissolution rate was analyzed and compared with the drug release profile from commercial HGCs. It was observed that wall thickness highly affected the release profile, being 100% of the drug released at 20 min, 30min and 60min for 0.3 and 0.4mm, 0.6mm and 0.9mm and 1.2mm, respectively. DCs with 0.4mm thickness presented a release profile similar to HGC, being this value selected to design and print CDs resembling sizes number 1 and 2 of HGCs. Their release profile showed that the smaller the CDs the lower the 100% release time. To conclude, it is possible to prove that by carefully designing and properly setting the printing parameters it is possible to replace the traditional HGCs, offering the compounding pharmacy a more accurate and automatized production process. [1] Araújo MRP, Sa-Barreto LL, Gratieri T, et al. DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics11030128[2] Joo Y, Shin I, Ham G, et al. DOI: 10.1007/s40005-019-00451-1[3] V. Mazzanti, L. Malagutti, F. Mollica. DOI: 10.3390/polym11071094