Researchers develop edible QR code for personalized medicine

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Åbo Akademi University in Finland have developed an edible QR code that could advance the development of personalized medicine. Findings were published in International Journal of Pharmaceutics.

"This technology is promising, because the medical drug can be dosed exactly the way you want it to. This gives an opportunity to tailor the medication according to the patient getting it," said Natalja Genina, an assistant professor at department of pharmacy at the University of Copenhagen. “Simply doing a quick scan, you can get all the information about the pharmaceutical product. In that sense it can potentially reduce cases of wrong medication and fake medicine.”

Produced from a white edible material, the QR code includes drugs for personalized dosages. While still in development, researchers hope to one day use a regular printer to implant the drugs into the pattern of the QR code.

"If we are successful with applying this production method to relatively simple printers, then it can enable the innovative production of personalized medicine and rethinking of the whole supply chain," said professor Jukka Rantanen with the department of pharmacy at the University of Copenhagen.