Goh Wei Jiang, Lim Seng Han and Lim Seng Han are pharmacists who have seen a common problem among elderly patients. An overwhelming number of medications are being prescribed for multiple diagnoses – mainly diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol.
Patients would often leave the hospital after each visit carrying bags of pills and a complicated treatment plan. This led to confusion and errors.
The duo didn’t stop at observing the problem. They decided to go beyond academic publishing and solve the problem during their final PhD studies at the National University of Singapore.
Seng Han’s expertise in 3D printing sparked an idea: Could they combine the active ingredients of various medications and put them altogether in a single pill?
The couple later received a small grant for research to prove that their theory actually works.
They enrolled in the NUS Graduate Research Innovation Programme, a three-month structured curriculum that leads participants through a startup journey.
“Essentially, GRIP is like an incubator,” explained Wei Jiang. “We were the first cohort of participants when it was launched in 2018. It gave us ample opportunities to speak with many stakeholders – hospital administrators, doctors, clinicians, pharmacists, patients, among others.”
“After weighing all the evidence, we concluded that both the demand for better medication management and solution (3D printing medicine) are real, and thus, Craft Health was born.”
It is not easy to make a new technology function.
Craft Health is set to transform the pharmaceutical industry.
Although promising, Wei Jiang acknowledged that it was difficult to attract investors at the beginning. In 2019, 3D printing was still an unfamiliar concept for many.
“Most of the time, it’s just Seng Han and I with our laptops. We didn’t have much to show and convince people. So, they were sceptical about what we could offer,” he added.
Many investors were thrilled to see Craft Health as the first and only 3D-printed medicines and nutraceutical business in Singapore and Southeast Asia. However, the cautious ones wanted to know if 3D printed medicine is something that had been done before so they could pattern match Craft Health’s success rate.
The irony is that out of the 80 potential investor Wei Jiang and Seng Hans spoke to, only one was willing make a leap of faith in their company. Just when they thought things were moving in the right direction the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
We do have a degree of naivety in the beginning. It was our belief that 3D printing technology is the only problem. This is just the beginning.
– Goh Wei Jiang is co-founder of Craft Health
Seng Han and Wei Jiang quickly discovered that there are more challenges in managing the logistics for mass production of 3D printed medicines. They also need to educate potential clients about the key benefits of 3D printing and ensure Craft Health delivers all its promises safely and efficiently.
But Craft Health’s secret weapon lies in the chain of workflow that they had developed to support the entire 3D printing drug delivery process.
All-in-one shop for 3D printed medicines and supplements
It starts with 3D printers (Craft).Make). These hardware devices are made to 3D print at room temperature without using heat or UV light.
This protects active ingredients within each drug and allows for multiple active ingredients to be combined into one pill. Craft is also included.Control The software that instructs 3D printers to print medications in the right way.
Craft Health can customize the active ingredients and profile of medications for specific patient needs. As such, CraftBlends is the “recipe book” that carefully cooks up different formulations.
Craft also generates or uses information.MakeCraftControlCraftBlends CraftDatabase. This archive system – one of the first in the world – allows Wei Jiang and Seng Han to better understand the interplay of various materials and factors, so they can 3D print more specialised or even personalised medicines.
Some active ingredients can give medicines an unpleasant taste. Craft Health can 3D print a multi-layer or encapsulated pill to disguise the unpleasant taste. The outer layer of the multilayer pill can also be customized to protect against acidic stomach contents and allow for the release of intestine content.
Craft Health is also expanding its nutraceutical arm.
CraftBeads There are 3D-printed granules available that can be customized for supplementation. Craft is a better alternative to buying vitamins from the shelf and eating them one at a time.Beads can mix and match to create custom blends based on individuals’ supplementary needs.
Craft, on the other handDelights This side project, which is 3D printed gummy gummy, was originally intended for paediatric patients. However it quickly gained popularity among adults.
We can also incorporate probiotics into these gummies because they are 3D printed without the use of heat or UV light. This technique allows for different shapes, sizes, geometrics, and tastes. That’s probably why people are excited about it, as they can see very highly personalised gummies being made.
– Goh Wei Jiang is co-founder of Craft Health
The regulatory hurdle to 3D printing medicines
There is currently no regulatory framework in Singapore for 3D printing medicine.
It is unclear how drug approvals are made in general. Most often, health authorities will approve a particular brand of medication when it comes in a certain dose. Any changes in active ingredients or dosage require a new consent.
In the case of 3D printing medications when the combination of active ingredients and dosage becomes limitless, it’s impossible to officially register and green light every mix. Craft Health plans to overcome this hurdle by using the compounding route.
According to Wei Jiang, compounding is a pharmaceutical practice that’s not very common in Singapore.
Patients can ask for certain ingredients to be removed or added to a medication they take due to allergies or other medical reasons. In that case, pharmacists will have to specially “compound” the drugs for the patients.
Craft Health will conduct a small clinical study with a public hospital at the end this year. They want to prove that it’s just as efficacious for patients to take a 3D printed pill containing active ingredients from three different types of medications versus taking them separately.
“It’s a very low bar for us to cross,” Wei Jiang said confidently. “But our rationale is to provide some preliminary evidence to the doctors that our products are safe and effective.”
Craft Health hopes to create a 3D printing medicine menu that doctors can simply prescribe from.
Take a less traveled road
While it may still be years before Craft Health, and probably the whole 3D printing medication industry, arrives at their ultimate goals, the founders are glad it’s emerging as a pioneering and dominant player in the field.
“Establishing Craft Health as a deeptech spinoff from NUS is already a huge advantage. It is a sign that an institution of trust supports our technology. There are some validations that this is doable,” noted Wei Jiang.
It’s exciting, Wei Jiang admitted that being an entrepreneur is not as thrilling as it sounds. However, he also acknowledged that being an entrepreneur can expose him to many uncertainties that he wouldn’t have experienced while working as a pharmacist.
Entrepreneurship is all about taking on everything. You have to do everything, even fix your aircon at work.
– Goh Wei Jiang is co-founder of Craft Health
Whether it’s the 3D printing technology itself, or the operation, business, and legal side of things, Wei Jiang and Seng Han had learnt a lot in the past four years, and they learnt them fast despite the steeo growth curve.
As with the amazing array of prescription combinations that 3D printing can offer, the 3D printing technology holds a seemingly limitless potential for the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical sectors. It is impossible to keep up with the pace of technological advancement.
Credit to National University of Singapore for the featured image