About
Why creating a website about Controlled Drug Release. Actually, there is more than one reason for doing so. First of all I have more than 25 years’ experience in development of controlled release formulations. I am a chemical engineer and joined Organon Biosciences in 1986 and was involved in many development projects. Moreover, I had the opportunity to be involved in the development of successful controlled delivery formulations based on polyethylene vinyl acetate polymers. Later on in 2005 I received my PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences for my thesis: ‘Physical chemical aspects of a coaxial sustained release device based on poly-EVA’. I always had a broad interest in science and computer science. It is challenging to investigate how matter works and to study the physicochemical interactions of drug and excipients within a drug delivery system. Whether or not a drug displays an interaction with its environment is often expressed in terms of solubility, diffusivity, absorbance and/or clearance. Equally challenging is the science of pharmacokinetics and to study the behavior of the drug when it leaves the drug delivery system and enters the human body. While developing drug delivery systems I also had the chance to closely work together with the Department of Pharmacokinetics, setting up animal experimental plans and evaluate their results. In order to interpretate these results and to redesign formulations I have used computational modeling software to simulate the drugs behavior. Infinite element software has proven to be a powerful tool in quality by design and developing a drug delivery system. I believe that development times can significantly be reduced using computational modeling software.
On this website I have classified drug delivery systems into three mayor groups i.e. matrix systems, reservoir systems and suspension depots. I realize that the information provided here is far from complete. Regarding the enormous diversity of materials and designs, it is almost impossible to be complete. However on the other hand an in situ forming depot like the SABER technology can, once it is administered, also be regarded as a matrix formulation. The same can be said for microcapsules based on PLGA biodegradable polymers. Once administered they cluster together thereby forming a matrix type design.
Another reason for creation of this site is that, I wanted to create my own personal homepage and a website about controlled drug delivery did not yet exist. In 2010 Merck merged with Schering Plough/Organon Biosciences and announced in 2011 that it would stop all R&D activities in Oss. As a result of this I will leave Merck by the end of 2016. After that I am ready for a new challenge.
And last but not least it is also fun to create a website. I have used WordPress to create this site. WordPress is a free and open-source content management system and a lot of freeware themes are available. As already mentioned the information presented here is far from complete and I will add more articles in future. As I am still learning the art of webdesign, will probably also change the look of this site. I hope this site can help or stimulate others in the field of controlled drug delivery.
