The future is here.Scientists at M.I.T may have revolutionised the pharmaceutical industry with the latest invention,a portable machine that can produce individual drugs on demand.No more "batch processing".No more expensively produced drugs.This fridge sized machine can produce what you need for you in no time at all.
Usually drugs are produced in assembly plant format. Different chemical constituents are produced in different locations and brought to a place where they are mixed.With the new machine these chemicals can be mixed in small constituents in the machine to produce the required end product.While it may still take time before it is available for commercial use it has already been used to produce antihistamines,anxiolytic(diazepam),anti depressant.
The project was funded by D.A.R.PA and the possible potentials are endless.
                John Lewin, the division director of critical
care and surgery pharmacy at Johns Hopkins
Hospital, says this type of manufacturing
could bring down production costs and help
patients get better access to the drugs they
need.
“This sets the foundation for a new paradigm
in terms of the way we manufacture
pharmaceuticals and distribute them to
patients,” says Lewin, who was not involved
in the study. “Such a device could really
meet a lot of the supply chain challenges around the world.”
One of the advantages of this small-scale
system is that it could be used to make
small amounts of drugs that would be
prohibitively expensive to make in a large-
scale plant. This would be useful for so-
called “orphan drugs” — drugs needed by a
small number of patients. “Sometimes it’s
very difficult to get those drugs, because
economically it makes no sense to have a
huge production operation for those,” Jensen
says.
It could also be useful in regions with few
pharmaceutical storage facilities, because
drugs can be produced on demand,
eliminating the need for long-term storage.
The idea here is you make what you need,
and you make a simple dosage form,
because they’re going to be taken on
demand. The dosages don’t have to have
long-term stability.People
line up, and you make it.
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Interesting. But where will you get the drug constituents?