3D printed medical marijuana inhaler is the first of its kind

3D printing has had a major impact on the medical industry with various applications and technologies.

The increasing availability of technologies such as 3D scanning and modeling has enabled doctors to 3D print medical model replicas of patients to practice on before conducting complex surgeries. Companies have also created virtual reality surgical simulation systems with 3D printing. But this latest 3D-printing-related addition the medical industry is a little less conventional: An Israeli startup has developed a 3D printed medical marijuana inhaler.

READ: Medical 3D printing: Boston child saved by simulation surgery

Startup Syqe Medical Ltd has been working on the Syqe Inhaler for the past four years. The Israeli government-backed startup, whose team consists of mechanical and electrical engineers, physicians, pharmacologists, chemists and biologists, says its goal is to "transform cannabis and other psychoactive botanicals into mainstream medical drugs."

Syqe Medical has created two inhalers - the Syqe Inhaler for home use and the Syqe Inhaler Exo, which is designed for hospital use. Both inhalers are wifi-enabled and allow physicians to administer prescribed controlled doses of medical marijuana to patients. The inhalers can be hooked up to a smartphone or tablet for monitoring, and physicians can tailor the dosage per individual user as well as view the effectiveness of each dosage and remotely control it or make adjustments when necessary.

"A physician could prescribe a custom-tailored, individualized treatment for that patient, and not have a hit or a miss, but a very close hit on the accurate dosing that the patient required," said Syqe Medical CEO, Perry Davidson.

Physicians' ability to remotely control the dosage in the Syqe Inhaler at all times is a breakthrough in the world of medical marijuana. Many arguments against the drug revolve around the inability to properly control the dosage or corresponding effects experienced by patients. With the Syqe Inhaler, physicians can literally fine tune doses to each individual user at all times.

The Syqe inhalers were around 75 percent 3D printed using Stratasys industrial 3D printers and various materials.

"Since metered dose inhalation of raw botanicals is a highly unconventional undertaking, we had to develop the tooling and machines for many of our processes," said Davison. "More than half of our production equipment, jigs, and analytical tools were printed in house. We used the family of Vero photopolymers, digital ABS, MED610, and PLA, and we printed the parts on Objet30 Pro, Connex3, Objet Eden260v, and Replicator 2 systems."

Sqye Medical Ltd. hopes to raise $10 - $15 million in the near future before introducing the inhalers to hospitals around Israel. If all goes as planned, the company hopes to have them distributed by the end of 2014. Check out the video of the Syqe Inhaler below.

http://www.inside3dp.com/3d-printed-medical-marijuana-inhaler-first-kind/ 30/09/2014