Alchemy - Issue 27 | Page 8

“...internationally recognised thought-leader, scientific innovator and entrepreneur in drug discovery and delivery.” Globally respected pharmaceutical scientist Dr Ian Wilding has been recognised with an honorary doctorate from Monash University. The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa, was conferred on Dr Wilding at a ceremony at the University’s Clayton campus in May. Dr Wilding, a pharmaceutical drug development consultant and entrepreneur, was recognised for his major contributions to international medicine development, regulatory authorities and pharmaceutical science organisations in Europe, Japan and the US. Professor Bill Charman, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director of the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), said Dr Wilding was an internationally recognised thought-leader, scientific innovator and entrepreneur in drug discovery and delivery. “These advances have had a direct and beneficial impact on patients across the world through better design and manufacture of more clinically effective oral and inhaled medicines,” he noted. Dr Wilding has published over 250 research papers, abstracts and patents and shared his thoughts on the future for pharmaceutical scientists as guest speaker at the 2015 Emeritus Professor Barry L. Reed Distinguished Lecture, attracting a record attendance of over 300 guests. In 1997 he was appointed as an expert scientist for the FDA in the area of food effects on drug bioavailability. He has also served on several UK and European Innovation and Enterprise Advisory Boards including the UK CBI Technology and Innovation Committee and the European Commission FP7 Advisory Committee for SMEs. 6 In 2005 Dr Wilding received the Controlled Release Society career achievement award in oral drug delivery and in 2013 became an Eminent Fellow of the UK Academy of Pharmaceutical Scientists. Dr Wilding is also the inventor of the Enterion capsule, a remote controlled device for site-specific delivery within the human intestines to evaluate drug absorption properties that has now been dosed to several thousand subjects. In a long career commercialising science, Dr Wilding was the cofounder of R5 Pharmaceuticals, Zysis, Modern BioSciences and BioCity Nottingham. In addition to several Board roles, he currently consults for over 30 pharmaceutical and biotech companies on a wide range of strategic and technical drug development issues. He has published over 250 research papers, abstracts and patents. Dr Wilding’s honorary doctorate comes just months after Professor Brian Kobilka MD, a Nobel Prize winner for chemistry, was similarly recognised for his research into the pharmacology and biology of G-Protein-coupled receptors.