Will we be printing our drugs in the future?

Printing medication the future?
Printing pills, drugs, medicin with
a special 3D chemical printer

Whether it regards medically prescribed drugs, painkillers or even party drugs and narcotics, we may not too far from now be able to use a printer to get them. Dutch scientists are currently developing a printer that is able, with the use of specific apps, to

print mixtures of chemicals into pills

. The app would have access to a database containing blueprints of common drugs. It would download the required blueprint and instruct the "chemical printer" to print the correct mixture of chemicals into a pill.

The existence of a drugs printer would give great benefits especially for certain patients who require very specific, customized and carefully measured personalized medication. Today, most medication comes in standard pills and a patient often consumes just a little too much or too little then he needs. Also, change of dosage and adjusting medication according to a patient's food intake on a specific day will become much more efficient.