Microfluidics
and 3D printing will allow a faster research and
development in pharmaceutical and medical areas, supporting new solutions
for active pharmaceutical production and clinical tests without the
necessity of in vivo animal models. The present review
aims to show the role of these two technologies in the resolution
of current pharmaceutical issues (e.g., efficient continuous production
of active pharmaceutical ingredients, high costs for medicine development
and lack of preclinical systems capable to predict accurate human
responses to new medicine drugs) and in the development of biomedical
and tissue engineering. The present paper was divided into the following
sections: microfluidics and active pharmaceutical ingredients synthesis,
organs-on-a-chip and multiorgans microdevices, 3D printing/bioprinting,
and hydrogels and bioinks. Finally, conclusions and future perspectives
are exposed.
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