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MASHHAD — A target delivery of conventional drugs increases efficacy and reduces toxicity, Dutch professor Wim E. Hennink says. 

“Well, they (drugs) are all essentially toxic and if you treat patients with drugs, then of course you want to deliver them to the exact site of (damaged) tissue,” Hennink says.

“You want to kill the tumor cells by cytotoxic agents but they distribute all over the body, they also come in tissues you don’t want to have them and in these tissues you encounter the toxic effects,” Hennink tells the Tehran Times.

“So one of the aims of drug targeting is to send them away from the non-target organs and specifically direct them to the sites where you want to have them,” the professor explains. 

Professor Hennink, who had participated in the conference on “controlled release” systems in Mashhad from October 4-6, is head of the Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Utrecht. 

“I did my Ph.D. under the subject of biomaterials to use them in contact with blood to improve blood compatibility,” Wim Hennink says.

On the scientific accomplishments made by Iranians, he said, “In my experience in my department I have many Iranian students who are very well trained, very well educated and dedicated to do good science.” 

He added, “In that sense you see that they make progress and your country can make progress. I think what I’ve seen here, there is a lot of emphasis on new technologies, lots of funding is possible. So some of the students who are now in my lab, have a kind of grants and so they stay in my lab four years of Ph.D. And when they go back (home) I think in the long run Iran and your country will benefit that kind of change.” 

The professor has established a very effective collaboration with Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Medical Pharmacy. 

Hennink obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1985 at the Twente University of Technology on a thesis of biomaterials research topic. From 1985 until 1992 he had different positions in the industry. In 1992 he was appointed as professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Utrecht. 

His main research interests are in the field of polymeric drug delivery systems. He published over 350 papers and book chapters and is the inventor of 20 patents.