The "Polypill" for "Polypharmacy"

Abstract

Patient medication adherence is a serious barrier to improving patient outcomes. A contributor to poor medication adherence is the concept of “polypharmacy”: the number of medications being taken is associated with regimen complexity. Adherence is also complicated by multiple disease states, cognitive decline, and perception of taking too much medicine. 3D printed drugs may hold the answer to this problem. 3D printing is the latest advancement in technology which makes it cheaper and faster to create new products which gives it the possibility of creating individualized dosage forms. One example of the ability to create a complex dosage form is the only FDA-approved, commercially available 3D printed tablet, Spritam®, which is an orodispersible tablet (ODT) that disintegrates in a matter of seconds, reaches Tmax within minutes, and contains significantly more drug than competing ODT drugs. Another example of using 3D printing to create complex dosage forms is the “polypill”. It was shown in laboratory settings that 3D printing can be used to combine multiple drugs with different release mechanisms. Another possible advantage is to allow dispensing pharmacies to print individualized dosage forms with their own 3D printer for the patient to pick up. 3D printing offers an economic and patient-friendly solution to poor adherence due to complex medication regimens.