Additive manufacturing will help speed up the development and production of tablets. (Credit: Merck)
Additive manufacturing leader EOS is partnering with pharmaceutical company Merck in an effort to "revolutionise the way tablets are produced" using 3D printing.
Through its AMCM business, which delivers customised 3D printing solutions, EOS will work with Merck to deploy its powder bed fusion technology to speed up the clinical development of new drugs. The partners believe the collaboration will allow tablet manufacturing to become faster and cheaper due the scalable nature of the technology which reduces the need for costly reformulations throughout development and commercial production. Furthermore, the goal is to enable flexible tablet production closer to the point of need according to specific market and patient requirements.
“Our partnership with AMCM / EOS has the potential to revolutionise the way tablets are produced. It will be a massive move towards digitalisation of the industry,” said Isabel de Paoli, Chief Strategy Officer at Merck. “Our goal is to develop the industrial application of this technology, which we will make available for clinical trials first, and then move to full digital solutions at commercial scale.”
Read more: EOS CEO wants 3D printing to be a sustainable, mainstream process
At Merck's Innovation Center in Darmstadt, Germany, where teams are working on upscaling ideas into new business across healthcare, life sciences and materials, engineers are said to be actively exploring 3D printing for next-generation tablet manufacturing.
Marie Langer, CEO of EOS, added, “We are excited to support Merck on its innovation journey. This cooperation combines Merck’s formulation competences in Healthcare as well as its excipient expertise in Life Science with our long-standing additive manufacturing know-how. Together, we will help make drug development more flexible and faster.”
