This Tuesday, the BioTrace congress brings together major players in health innovation at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Montpellier. Ian Soulairol, CTO and Co-founder of MB Therapeutics, presents the use of 3D printing to transform drug production while highlighting a project for which he was a winner, 3DforPedia.

Award-winning expertise: the 3DforPedia project

In the pharmaceutical industry, manufacturing methods had not undergone any fundamental evolution for nearly 50 years. While mass production meets the needs of the majority of adults, it reaches its limits in pediatrics. Each child, depending on their pathology, weight, and age, requires a unique dosage, which is often unavailable with standard dosage forms.

It was to meet this public health challenge that the 3DforPedia project was born. Winner of the Companies and Campus scheme, a call for projects supported by the University Innovation Pole (PUI) of Montpellier, this program is the result of a collaboration between the Charles Gerhardt Institute of Montpellier (UM, CNRS, ENSCM), the Nîmes University Hospital and MB Therapeutics. The goal: to develop an additive manufacturing process capable of producing custom-made medicines.

Pharmaceutical ink, the key to custom-made

The innovation is based on the development of a proprietary pharmaceutical ink. This formulation, which integrates active ingredients and excipients, allows the dosage to be adjusted with precision during printing, but also delivers new pharmaceutical functionalities:

1. Dispersible and orodispersible forms: 3D printing makes it possible to create medicines that disintegrate rapidly in the mouth or in a very small volume of water, a major breakthrough for populations experiencing swallowing difficulties for example.

2. Sustained release: The process allows the medicine to be structured to control the diffusion of the molecule, an unprecedented option for personalized dosages.

3D printing of medicines at BioTrace

Ian Soulairol's participation in BioTrace highlights all the expertise in transforming research into industrial solutions. Drawing on the results of the 3DforPedia project, MB Therapeutics demonstrates its ability to deploy 3D printing directly in pharmacies to produce custom-made medicines.