Three-dimensional printing (3DP) is a rapidly growing additive manufacturing process and it is predicted that the technology will transform the production of goods across numerous fields. In the pharmaceutical sector, 3DP has been used to develop complex dosage forms of different sizes and structures, dose variations, dose combinations and release characteristics, not possible to produce using traditional manufacturing methods. However, the technology has mainly been focused on polymer-based systems and currently, limited information is available about the potential opportunities for the 3DP of soft materials such as lipids. Methods: This review paper emphasises the most commonly used 3DP technologies for soft materials such as inkjet printing, binder jetting, selective laser sintering (SLS), stereolithography (SLA), fused deposition modeling (FDM) and semi-solid extrusion, with the current status of these technologies for soft materials in biological, food and pharmaceutical applications. Result: The advantages of 3DP, particularly in the pharmaceutical field, are highlighted and an insight is provided about the current studies for lipid-based drug delivery systems evaluating the potential of 3DP to fabricate innovative products. Additionally, the challenges of the 3DP technologies associated with technical processing, regulatory and material issues of lipids are discussed in detail. Conclusion: The future utility of 3DP for printing soft materials, particularly for lipidbased drug delivery systems, offers great advantages and the technology will potentially support to address patient compliance and drug effectiveness via a personalised medicine approach.

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Purpose: The use of three-dimensional printing (3DP) in the development of pharmaceutical dosage forms is growing rapidly. However, the research is almost exclusively focussed on polymer-based systems with very little reported on 3D printing of lipid-based formulations. Thus, the aim of the work was to explore the feasibility of 3DP technology to prepare solid lipid-based formulations. Here, 3DP was applied for the preparation of solid selfmicroemulsifying drug delivery systems (S-SMEDDS) with defined surface area to volume (SA/V) ratios. Methods: The S-SMEDDS formulations, comprised of Gelucire ® 44/14, Gelucire ® 48/16 and Kolliphor ® P 188 were loaded with fenofibrate or cinnarizine as model drugs. The formulations were printed into four geometrical shapes-cylindrical, prism, cube and torus, and compared to a control cube manually prepared from bulk formulation. Results: The printing process was not significantly affected by the presence of the model drugs. The as-printed S-SMEDDS formulations were characterised using differential scanning calorimetry and wide-angle X-ray scattering. The kinetics of dispersion depended on the SA/V ratio values. The digestion process was affected by the initial geometry of the dosage form by virtue of the kinetics of dispersion of the dosage forms into the digestion medium. Conclusions: This proof of concept study has demonstrated the potential of 3DP for the development of customised S-SMEDDS formulations without the need for an additional carrier or additive and with optimisation could elaborate a new class of dosage forms based on 3D printed lipids.

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