The researcher in pharmacy, Gordon L. Amidon, is the new Doctor Honoris Causa from the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH). The investiture took place during the celebration of the Feast of St. Thomas Aquino. Also during the ceremony was the commencement for 117 new doctors of philosophy along with 19 awards for outstanding doctoral research. UMH Professor of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology, María del Val Bermejo Sanz, sponsored the new Doctor Honoris Causa. 

The José Lledó y Antón Award for University Liberty and Autonomy was also presented during the ceremony. It went to UMH Associate Professor of Social Anthropology Antonio Miguel Nogués Pedregal for his work, La libertad de cátedra universitaria en el actual orden de palabras y cosas. De la imposible entente entre el que enseña, lo que se debe enseñar y lo que se querría enseñar.

Gordon L. Amidon earned his B.S. in Pharmacy from the State University of New York at Buffalo (USA), and his M.A. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Michigan (USA). His research group has developed approaches for predicting drug absorption in humans prior to human studies. Besides assisting greatly in the design and development of new drugs, this approach provides a basis for setting rational in vitro standards for drug development and approval.

Professor Amidon’s group recently demonstrated that the intestinal mucosal cell peptide transporter can be used to significantly increase the oral absorption of poorly absorbed polar drugs. With this approach, drugs that would otherwise be ineffective by oral administration can be used in the treatment of various human diseases. Additional research areas include oral delivery of peptides and peptide-type drugs, cellular transport and metabolism of peptide-like drugs and prodrugs, drug dissolution and oral drug delivery, viscoelastic properties of polymeric drug delivery systems, modulatable drug delivery systems, and cloning of the intestinal peptide transporter.

Amidon has published more than 170 scientific papers, 250 summaries in journals, and is co-editor of the books The Chemical Stability of Pharmaceuticals, Peptide-Based Drug Design: Controlling Transport and Metabolism, and Pharmacokinetic Analysis: A Practical Approach.