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Updated: May 25, 2026
05:32
A Soft Tooling Process Chain for Injection Molding of a 3D Component with Micro Pillars
Published on: August 4, 2018
Injection Molding and its application to drug delivery
Lucia Zema1, Giulia Loreti, Alice Melocchi
1Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche "P. Pratesi", Università degli Studi di Milano, via G. Colombo 71, 20133 Milano, Italy.
Summary
Injection molding (IM) offers cost and manufacturing advantages for drug products, enabling novel dosage forms. This review explores IM
Area of Science:
- Pharmaceutical technology
- Materials science
Background:
- Injection molding (IM) is a high-pressure process for shaping heat-softened materials.
- It presents potential benefits for drug product development, including reduced production costs and enhanced product characteristics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To discuss process steps and formulation aspects of IM for pharmaceutical applications.
- To review the advantages and challenges of transferring IM from plastics to drug manufacturing.
- To critically analyze proposed pharmaceutical applications of IM in literature.
Main Methods:
- Review of process steps and formulation considerations for IM in pharmaceuticals.
- Analysis of advantages and challenges in adapting IM technology for drug delivery.
- Critical review of existing literature on pharmaceutical applications of IM.
Main Results:
- IM offers advantages such as solvent-free processing, continuous manufacturing, scalability, and patentability.
- The technique allows for versatile product design and composition, including solid molecular dispersions.
- Challenges exist in transferring IM from plastics to pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Conclusions:
- IM is a promising technology for developing conventional and controlled-release dosage forms.
- It can serve as an alternative manufacturing strategy or enable innovative drug delivery systems.
- Further research and development are needed to fully realize IM's pharmaceutical potential.
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