If the dose is small enough, the ratio between active and inert ingredients cannot be controlled from pill to pill. Theriforming, in contrast, can place a single microgram of active pharmaceutical dead center in the volume of a tablet. Every tablet thus made metes out the exact same dosage. Except for a sintering process that follows their fabrication, these filters are finished as they come off the 3-D printer. The complex internal flutes add surface.
Manufacturing holds the void size to a tight range.
Another Theriform benefit derives from the way in which a tablet can be built layer by layer in any number of configurations. Concentric rings of pharmaceutical can be interspersed between rings of inert powder, Gaylo explained, and thus create timed release in a lone oral tablet. Indeed, the Theriform process requires a different approach to pill-making than most pharmaceutical manufacturers are used to, Gaylo said. The CAD model becomes the principal design carrier, replacing any recipe by which drug developers might normally work. The tablet is, in a sense, a mechanical assembly.