Pharmaceutical 3D printing in Africa: a scoping review of trends, challenges, and implications for future adoption

Pharmaceutical 3D printing (3DP) is transforming global medicine manufacturing, enabling personalised therapies and fabrication of patient-friendly formulations. However, there is uneven adoption of this innovation across different regions. This scoping review evaluates pharmaceutical 3DP research in the low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), with particular focus on Africa, assessing progress, gaps, and challenges against global trends. The systematic search of literature generated a total of 205 studies, and six eligible studies were included for the review. Only 2 out of the 54 African countries produced the 6 studies, representing 3.7% of the continent. Four studies were conducted at three universities in Egypt, and two studies were conducted at one university in South Africa. The 3DP technologies explored from the continent were limited to Semi-solid extrusion, Fused deposition modelling, and Liquid crystal display, and 50% of the studies received no dedicated funding. Findings demonstrate a vast research-to-implementation gap on pharmaceutical 3D printing in Africa. There was no study on its clinical implementation to treat patients from the continent despite its dire need for digital health innovations to provide personalised treatments and mitigate healthcare emergencies. Enhanced funding, strategic global collaborations, and the development of regional policies through bodies such as the African Medicine Agency (AMA), the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), and the African Union (AU) are crucial for supporting local healthcare innovations and building a resilient medicine supply chain, which is essential for the future adoption of the technology in Africa.