Manufacturing drugs on demand | Burning Issues | Free PDF Download

Changes in manufacturing processes

• Unlike in the days before the Industrial Revolution when shoemakers, tailors, carpenters and other artisans made every last bit of their products by hand, very few production facilities today are capable of producing the entire finished product from scratch

Impact on pharma industry

• Non-continuous, “batch” processes
• Production the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API)
• Complex multi-stage process
• Quality and supply

The scope of 3D printing in the pharma sector

• Revolutionise industrial production.
•  Machines like this will be able to synthesize many drugs

Desktop manufacturing system

• Small patient populations
•  Short shelf life
• Manufacture essential drugs on demand in rural medical facilities will be invaluable

Important findings observed by MIT

• They built a single refrigerator-sized unit that was capable of synthesizing four commonly used drug molecules Benadryl (used in the treatment of the common cold), Lidocaine (a local anaesthetic and antiarrhythmic drug), Diazepam (a central nervous system depressant better known as Valium) and fluoxetine hydrochloride, an antidepressant that is widely prescribed under the name Prozac.

Impediments in applying this technology

• Regulatory framework
• Pharmaceutical facilities through tests and periodic inspections

Way forward

• Given the apparent benefits of this new technology, the government would do well to figure out how to redesign regulations to facilitate its adoption
  

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