Drugmakers currently mass-produce pills in the most common dosage sizes and in simple round shapes that are easy to swallow. But researchers at the UCL School of Pharmacy, University College London, have been experimenting with using 3D printers, extruding a water-soluble polymer mixed with acetaminophen and salts, to produce custom pills of various shapes and sizes.
Instead of requiring patients to take a set number of pills repeatedly throughout the day, the research could one day result in pharmacies using 3D printers to make custom pills of the exact required dosage. But even more exciting was the researcher’s experiments with pills of different shapes and surface areas. It turns out that a pyramid-shaped pill is absorbed by the body the fastest, while a cylinder-shaped pill takes much longer.
via Gizmodo
