Roughly 30 per cent of medication needs personalising rather than mass manufacturing. Studio founder Aslak Siimes cites that figure as the reason the PharmaPrinter Aurum, a new pharmaceutical compounding system, exists.
The machine is the work of Studio Aslak Siimes and Finnish health tech startup CurifyLabs, which the studio has worked with for two years. Aurum sits within a wider range of CurifyLabs products.
Pharmaceutical compounding means combining ingredients to make a tailored dose. Pharmacists usually do this by hand, with tools such as a pestle and mortar. The team wanted to automate part of that job and give pharmacists “system-guaranteed” dosage consistency with less friction.
Siimes said the aim was to cut the chance of human error in the medication compounding workflow. He added that the machine should let pharmacists produce high-quality medication for patients “with ease.”
Reducing error often starts with simpler, repeatable inputs, as seen in Logitech’s AI-Friendly MX Keypad with LCD Keys for quicker, customisable control.
How the pharmaceutical compounding system works
The process starts when a doctor’s prescription arrives. A compounding pharmacist then selects the correct recipe for that prescription, known as a blueprint.
Loading, weighing and dispensing
The active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), the drug component that produces the therapeutic effect, is weighed and mixed with an excipient base, the inert carrier that gives the dose its form. The mixture then goes into a syringe.
The syringe is installed in the heating jacket and placed in the machine. Siimes described the patented plunger attachment, called the gripper: “you simply squeeze a lever and move the gripper against the syringe plunger manually and then release it.” Once attached, it controls how much medication the syringe dispenses.
Blisters, also designed by the studio, sit in a dedicated holder on the scale. The scale checks weight for quality control before printing begins. Siimes said the machine then dispenses compounded medication in the exact dose and weight required.
Once printing finishes, staff remove the blisters, seal them and apply dosage-specific labels. The medication is then ready for distribution. Siimes summed up the process in one line: “put medication into syringe, put syringe into Aurum, press play and you have ready meds.”
Interchangeable modules allow one system to produce several dosage forms. These include tablets, films, suppositories and troches.
Adoption and early feedback
Siimes calls Aurum the “only fully working semi-automated compounding ecosystem in the world.” CurifyLabs formally introduced the system on 11 February 2026, according to its news page. Compounding pharmacies and hospitals across Europe and North America already use it.
Siimes said the technology is present in 30 US states and that reception has been highly positive. He reported that clients say the machine makes a real difference to the products they deliver to patients.
Patient outcomes matter most in care, and data-driven tools are pushing that further, as explored in AI Models Predicting Cancer Patient Outcomes from Faces for a look at where medical AI is heading.
Siimes said clients find it easy to operate. “It has been such a lovely thing to notice that all the hard work put into it really translates into positive outcomes,” he said. For a process that still depends on hands and mortars in many pharmacies, that outcome is the real test of the design.
H/T dezeen.com
Frequently asked questions
What is the PharmaPrinter Aurum compounding system?
The PharmaPrinter Aurum is a new pharmaceutical compounding system made by Studio Aslak Siimes and Finnish health tech startup CurifyLabs. It automates part of the work of combining ingredients into tailored doses that pharmacists usually make by hand.
What is pharmaceutical compounding and how is it usually done?
Pharmaceutical compounding means combining ingredients to make a tailored dose. Pharmacists usually do this by hand, using tools such as a pestle and mortar.
How does the Aurum system process a doctor’s prescription?
A compounding pharmacist selects the correct recipe, called a blueprint, for the prescription. The active ingredient is weighed and mixed with an excipient base, loaded into a syringe, and dispensed by the machine, with a scale checking weight before blisters are printed, sealed and labelled.
What dosage forms can the Aurum system produce?
Interchangeable modules allow one Aurum system to produce several dosage forms. These include tablets, films, suppositories and troches.
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