Lotte De Wever

Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Technology

Ottergemsesteenweg 460
B-9000 Gent (Belgium)
Tel.: +32-9-264.8105
E-mail: lotte.dewever@ugent.be

Biography

Pharm. Lotte De Wever graduated as pharmacist in 2022 from Ghent University where she obtained her Master of Science in Drug Development. For her master’s thesis, she evaluated the impact of different print settings on various properties of fused deposition modeling 3D printed zolpidem tablets. In 2022, she started her PhD research on the project of single-screw extrusion followed by additive manufacturing (SSE-AM).

Summary of Research Project

Pharmaceutical industries are shifting to small-scale individualization where personalized medicine is the main aim. 3D printing allows flexible and on-demand dosing resulting in higher safety for the patient and therapeutic efficacy. Extrusion-based additive manufacturing is of great interest due to its low cost and relative simplicity. This study aims to evaluate the potential of SSE-AM for 3D printing of pharmaceutical oral solid dosage forms using drug-loaded pellets, granules, and powders as feedstock. The aim is to define the ideal feedstock characteristics and target a broader formulation window such as drug substances prone to thermal degradation and drug substances extruded with polymers that showed unsuitable mechanical filament properties via filament-based EAM. After successful printing of pharmaceutical dosage forms via SSE-AM, the down-scaling and optimization of the currently available SSE-AM patented 3D printing process will be included. The ultimate goal is to produce 3D printed tablets that meet pharmaceutical requirements confirmed by extensive tablet characterization.