PERaME: Personalised polypills with programmable release made by 3D printing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing enables the production of personalised, programmable-release polypills, which may help address polypharmacy and poor medication adherence. However, this requires feedstock materials that can meet printability requirements, dosing accuracy, and tailored dissolution behaviour simultaneously. The PERaME (Personalised Adaptive Medicine) project aims to develop feedstock filaments for 3D printing capsule shells that can be filled with powder or granulated drug formulations.

This study aimed to evaluate how tablet geometry, specifically wall thickness, diameter, and layer height, governs dissolution behaviour using hypromellose acetate succinate as the feedstock material.

HPMCAS-based filaments were fabricated by hot melt extrusion and characterised for their thermal and mechanical properties. Of the three formulations tested, the formulation containing 20 wt% plasticiser demonstrated the most favourable feedability and printability characteristics. Dual-compartment tablet geometries were generated using FullControl GCode Designer and printed from this filament, with fluorescein sodium salt incorporated as a model drug surrogate. Sequential pH dissolution testing (HCl pH 1.2 followed by PBS pH 6.8) confirmed pH-dependent drug release behaviour in vitro.

Wall thickness was the main geometric factor affecting release rate, while diameter and layer height had comparatively little effect. These findings help define key design parameters for the PERaME platform. Subsequent investigations will extend this approach to immediate- and controlled-release formulations, to construct a reference database correlating geometry, material composition, and release kinetics, supporting future development of personalised oral dosage forms.