Research Foundation News

October 5, 2016

Purdue-affiliated startup commercializing drug dosage printer to improve personalized medicine production, reduce side effects

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A Purdue affiliated startup is commercializing a portable inkjet printer to produce precise, personalized medication dosages faster than traditional methods, which could improve overall drug effectiveness and decrease patient side effects.

Arun Giridhar, an associate research scientist in Purdue’s School of Chemical Engineering, founded PharmaPrinter LLC to further develop and commercialize the technology based on research led by a team of multiple Purdue faculty and students.

Giridhar said there is a growing need for personalized medication and a better way to produce it.

“In healthy adults, by law, pharmacists are allowed to produce personalized medicine with a plus or minus 10 percent variation. This variance was legalized decades ago when there wasn’t technology to improve that number; however, it’s yet to be changed,” he said. “Depending on the market pharmacists are in, there may or may not be health consequences to these variances based on the health, metabolism and size of the patient. In general, if you have a lot of size variation in your patients you can’t make a one-size-fits-all drug. Personalized pharmaceuticals are more effective because they’re based on each individual’s makeup and have less side effects due to less variance.”

Giridhar said the company completed market research to gain insights into the industry.  

“We interviewed many pharmacists about the 10 percent variance and although a few didn’t see too much of an issue with it, others thought it was clear that number needed to be a lot lower, with one pharmacist calling a 10 percent variance sloppy,” he said. “We believe our technology will help pharmacists achieve more precision in personalized drug dosages and reach the best drug dose for the specified patients by closing the gap on that 10 percent variance, which will in turn reduce patient side effects and make the drug more effective.”

PharmaPrinter has developed an inkjet-like printer for medicine. Pharmacists key in a specific dose and the printer is able to take the drugs, in the quantity, mix and position needed and print out precise, personalized medication.

“Compounding pharmacists or pharmacists in hospitals are developing personalized medication by hand, which includes calculating, weighing and packaging the material into a capsule or tablet. Our printer helps with production of the drugs after the calculations have been completed to achieve better precision and an increase in production rate,” Giridhar said. “On average a pharmacists takes 40 minutes to complete the production of the capsules, so filling and making the final dosage for whatever shape or form, our technology can reduce that to about three minutes.”

Giridhar said even though the printer is able to drastically reduce production time, the main purpose is to provide better precision and increased personalized medicine so patients receive better treatment.

“We are focusing on certain patient segments that need a lot of individual tuning for size variation, which is our primary motivation for this technology,” he said. “Our printer is not a 3-D printer, it’s an inkjet printer so it is a lot simpler, easier to handle and, therefore, a lot more reliable.”

PharmaPrinter is currently building a market prototype after receiving nearly $50,000 through the Purdue Trask Innovation Fund.

“The research stage and research prototype is completely done, and now we are working on building a market prototype to test with prospective customers,” Giridhar said. “Once we get feedback we’ll be able to further develop the technology and take it to market.”

Technology used by PharmaPrinter LLC has been licensed through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. PharmaPrinter is a member of the Purdue Startup Class of 2016. Purdue has 27 startups based on Purdue intellectual property that were launched in the 2016 fiscal year.

Pharma Printer is a client of Purdue Foundry, a startup accelerator in Discovery Park’s Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship. The company also recently completed the National Science Foundation I-Corps program.

For information on other Purdue intellectual property ready for licensing and commercialization, visit http://www.otc-prf.org. For more information about available leadership positions, investing in a Purdue startup or licensing a Purdue innovation, visit http://www.purduefoundry.com.

About Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization

The Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the United States. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university's academic activities. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2014 Incubator Network of the Year from the National Business Incubation Association for its work in entrepreneurship. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at innovation@prf.org.

Purdue Research Foundation contact: Hillary Henry, 765-588-3586, hkhenry@prf.org

Source:   Arun Giridhar, agiridha@ecn.purdue.edu


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