Scottish engineers offer patient manufacturing own needed medicines
A group of medical technologies and engineers from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, have invented a mini-pharmaceutical reactor, which anyone can use for production of necessary medicines.
Scientists have developed pharmaceutical tool kit, which includes 3D-printer, software, precursors and user manual.
3D-printer prints outs the reactor according to the parameters set by the software. Pharmaceutical appliance, consisting of various vessels, tubes and other laboratory parts, can be printed even by a child, say the developers.
Next, a patient, guided by the attached manual, using the 3D-printed reactor and precursors-ingredients, produces the needed medicine.
Scientists have tested their "brainchild" in practice through the production of baclofen, the muscle relaxing drug.
The researchers explain the fruitfulness of their idea by the inexpediency of huge costs of pharmaceutical industries, spending mega-funds for the purchase of equipment and technologies and producing millions of doses, which, in fact, may need a narrow group of patients.
The team will continue to work on the project and is likely to improve in the future device by including a module containing standard validation tests that produce a visual readout.
