with the advent of 3d printing and medicine merging in a multitude of ways&mdashthis time, pharmaceutical&mdashmanufacturing may be undergoing transformation and be in the midst of a true revolution&mdashbut that doesn&rsquot mean the new norm will be rendering current, skilled employees homeless. a great example of this would be the latest announcement thataprecia, surely standing right on the very cutting edge of one of the most exciting breakthroughs in 3d printing, has leased the former forest labs facility in blue ash, ohio. production ended there upon the takeover last year by actavis, another progressive pharmaceutical company.actavis scratched all ideas of using the facility and moved productions to another actavisowned location, selling the blue ash building to cincinnati united contractors. as forest labs and actavis merged together and moved on and out to create a new business model in pharmaceuticals, they made way for a divergent new process to come into play as aprecia makes plans to use their facility for producing &lsquofast dissolving&rsquo drugs through 3d printing.they will be creating 150 new jobs there in the 3d printing of their zipdose product, which was &lsquoaccepted&rsquo for use with 3d printing by the fda last year. zipdose dissolves rapidly in the mouth with water or liquid, and it is hoped it will help patients manage medications better as they become so much quicker and easier to ingest.the zipdose products allow for higher dosages than are otherwise available and also allow for better accuracy in dosage. as aprecia points out, 3d printing is the catalyst for this product, and it is only one as they plan to roll out several different lines of medication as well.aprecia&rsquos goal is to change the way patients take their medicine, and they plan to use 3d printing to do that. currently, their focus is in the cnc therapeutic area. they have inked a deal with inventiv health to work as the sales force for the product which will be 3d printed at the blue ash facility.as the potential for medications as well as drugdelivery devices grows, this could be an enormous area of industry to experience change.
