This all-in-one pill can contain a whole day's medication

3D printed components of the all-in-one superpill
3D printed components of the all-in-one superpill Credit: National University of Singapore

If you've ever had to take multiple medications in a day, you'll know what a nuisance it can be.  

A new all-in-one super pill can solve that problem: the pill contains all your different medications for the day; once you swallow it, it releases them at different times in the correct dosages, so you don't need to remember to take each one yourself. 

"This overcomes the problem of remembering to take your pills and improves quality of life, especially for older people, and those who have particular difficulty remembering," said chemical engineer Soh Siow Ling, who developed this 3D printed pill with PhD student Sun Yajuan.

Designed at the National University of Singapore (NUS), the ingestible pill is a 3D printed shell whose design is customised for each patient.

The scientists used a computer software to create a unique mould with grooves that can hold different drugs; the design of the mould and the shape and length of the grooves dictate when each drug is released in the body.

The mould was printed using a £1,000 desktop 3D printer called the UP Plus 2, rather than a specialist machine, so could easily be operated by GPs, pharmacies or hospital staff. 

Soh is currently in talks with many multinational drug companies about commercialising the pill, which he believes could hit markets in a few years. "I don’t see any limitations, like insurance or government regulations, because we are using materials already approved by regulators," he says. 

The technology doesn't actually 3D print any drugs itself - just the ingestible shell that allows you to combine several drugs and control the timing of their release in the body.  

So far, it has only been tested the pill in the lab, using coloured dyes and a few everyday drugs (Soh can't disclose what these are, he says) but warns that anything being consumed by humans will need to be tested out in patients first. "Human consumption that is a big deal, so of course it will need to be trialled." 

Earlier this year, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first-ever 3D printed drug, known as Spritam and used to treat epilepsy.

3D printing allows pharmaceuticals companies to customise and tweak standard drugs more easily. For instance, Spritam dissolves more easily than its generic counterpart Levetiracetam.