Three Dimensional Printing (3DP~TM) is a novel pharmaceutical processing technology that has the ability to fabricate oral dosage forms with complex release profiles such as pulsed release, double release, and extended release(1,2). The technology is similar to ink jet printing such that a motion-controlled printhead deposits fluid selectively into a two-dimensional pattern. The printing surface is a thin layer of pharmaceutical grade excipient powders, and the fluids range from liquid binders to active drug solutions. The powder bed is lowered after each print pass, and new powder layers are added. The printing process is continued to build three dimensional tablet matrices out of the individual layers. Several different actives and other modifying materials can be placed within the desired locations of the form. 3DP can use this ability to design the release profiles of the drug(s) inside.
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