Additive Manufacturing in Developing Localized Controlled Drug Delivery Systems (LCDDSs)

Patients may show various defects to medications depending on race, gender, fitness, age, pharmacokinetic and health conditions. To address this challenge, there is a need to establish personalized, on-demand, programable and smart carriers that can control drug release with new and robust techniques. Additive manufacturing (AM) is the key sustenance of digital technology that has been developing and growing recently. AM offers several opportunities in localized controlled drug delivery systems (LCDDS), including materials recycling as well as on-site manufacturing, design freedom and full customization. Moreover, the industrial, biomedical and academic requests for AM for LCDDS have been continually rising, demonstrating significant marks for an extensive range of products. This chapter outlines AM approaches and their functions for LCDDS and describes AM technologies, such as recent advances in controlled drug release, as well as their processed materials and working principles. Furthermore, the benefits of 3D printing in the progressions of the LCDDS, the advantages of 4D printing, the impression of designing and material selection in these techniques are discussed. Finally, the potentials of AM approaches and their LCDD applications that designate a promising healthcare future are described.

Keywords: 3D printing, 4D printing, Additive manufacturing, Localized drug delivery, Smart delivery, Stimuli-responsive material.