3D-printed personalized meds are almost here, thanks to this Finnish startup

Pharmaceutical manufacturing is closely linked to mass production. In order for medicines to be sold cheaply, they often have to be made in huge amounts. But what happens if you need a drug in a different dose than what’s being sold? Or a different ingredient in the mix than what’s on offer?

While personalised medicine currently exists, its strictly small batch stuff, as compounding (the manual preparation of individualised drug treatments) is difficult, time-consuming, and lacks quality control. But now Helsinki startup CurifyLabs is automating the process by bringing 3D drug printing to hospitals and veterinary facilities.

CurifyLabs was founded last year and has since raised €3.5M in seed funding. With an ethos of Medicine-as-a-Service, the company 3D prints drugs. It’s created a way to safely develop medicines that respond to a patient’s exact needs and can accommodate their size, physiology, and species — as well as any allergies.

3D printing creates the capacity for one-of-a-kind medication

From inkjet to 3D printing

I spoke to the company briefly at Slush yesterday in Helsinki. Founder Niklas Sandler Topelius is a former professor in pharmaceutical technology at Akademi University. He started his experimentation using a supermarket-purchased inkjet printer, replacing the ink with pharmaceutical ingredients for proof of concept. The results were promising, and the idea of 3D printing drugs took off.