Novel Modalities & Specialist/Personalised Therapies

Hopefully, you found our stories regarding some of the exciting developments in personalised medicine interesting. Now it’s time to get down to the business of how we actually deliver these treatments to healthcare providers and, ultimately, the patients who are counting on them.

Perhaps understandably, new and complex treatments require new and complex logistics solutions. However, with a little innovative thinking, these challenges are far from insurmountable, and we may even be on the cusp of a revolution in the process thanks to a remarkable piece of technology.

3D Printing

Take a 3D printer back in time just fifty years and you’d have probably been accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake. However, now these remarkable devices are more affordable and thus more numerous than ever and are capable of producing a wide variety of forms from an ever-increasing range of materials.

In the world of personalised healthcare, 3D printing has largely been deployed to produce custom prosthetics and supportive devices such as the splint being created in the image at the top of this article.

However, the time is rapidly approaching when 3D printed generic and personalised drugs will be a normal part of the business. In February, 2021, an anti-epileptic drug – Aprecia Pharmaceuticals’ Spritam (levetiracetam) – became the world’s first ever entirely 3D printed medicine, paving the way for a paradigm shift in pharmaceutical logistics, where personalised medicines can be produced and delivered without the need for any freight considerations at all.

“As the pharmaceutical industry moves away from mass production towards a more personalised model, 3D printing of drugs have the potential to revolutionise the market,” reported Medical Device Network. “The main benefit of using 3D printing technology for personalised pharmaceuticals is the ability to produce small batches with carefully tailored dosages, shapes, sizes, and release characteristics. 3D printers can be installed in pharmacies, hospitals, clinics, and remote locations, enabling on-demand production of drugs.”

Cold Chain

The business of getting temperature sensitive personalised medicines from one place to another comes with its own set of logistical challenges. How do you guarantee the absence of temperature excursions through a multi-phase supply chain and how do you hold those responsible accountable when they do occur?

To answer this challenge, we are seeing IoT and blockchain step into the arena. IoT sensors embedded in shipping containers can detect and analyse the temperature of those items throughout a journey and record the data using the immutable hash coded ledger of blockchain technology.

This means any excursions which occur during the medicine’s journey can be easily traced to their source. With personalised medicines only being good for an individual patient, the importance of ensuring the safety and security of each and every shipment increases significantly. Any spoilage could lead to serious health ramifications for the end user which means supply chain stakeholders need to be held accountable.

Final Thoughts

The logistics of getting personalised medicines to where they are most needed requires an investment in technology, that much is sure. However, once these technologies are in place, the process becomes a whole lot simpler, and the benefits will be felt in every corner of the healthcare industry.