PharmaCielo Ltd. Establishes Research Advisory Board

TORONTO, Oct. 18, 2016 /CNW/ - Dr. Patricio Stocker, President and CEO of PharmaCielo Ltd., announced the company has established a Research Advisory Board (RAB) to advance development of the company's research infrastructure and ensure operations achieve the highest global standards of product quality and efficacy.

"With leadership from our Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Pritesh Kumar, I am confident that the members of the Research Advisory Board will provide momentum to our product development by contributing guidance in the establishment of the company's R&D program and supporting development of the ongoing relationships necessary for continued growth," said Dr. Stocker.

Dr. Kumar has assembled an international team of highly experienced researchers who have all been on the front line of the emerging cannabis industry in addition to their respective fields, and bring both an international perspective and the weight of a global scientific network to bear in advancing the company's R&D.

"While there has been a variety of important research studies conducted to date, when contrasted with the global horticultural and bio-medical sectors we have to acknowledge that there remains significant opportunity to investigate the potential therapeutic properties of cannabinoids," noted Dr. Kumar.  "With the support of the Research Advisory Board members' cannabis research experience and scientific expertise in a variety of complementary areas, PharmaCielo will be in a strong position to identify both immediate and long-term commercial opportunities."

Dr. Kumar announced four appointees to the RAB (full biographies are available at www.pharmacielo.com):

Dr. Charlyn Belluzzo, ScMD, PhD, MBA

Dr. Belluzzo is an internationally recognized corporate and non-profit leader with expertise in clinical research, strategic planning, global health and operational management. She is Clinical Director for xRapid, a mobile health technology company, as well as co-owner and Director of Global Health Initiatives for DrInfo, a health information and communication system. Dr. Belluzzo's clinical research has been published extensively, and she has presented at professional meetings, international forums and academic settings around the world.  She also serves on the boards of several international organizations and foundations.

As former Clinical Research and Education Manager for the Research Division of Royal Numico, Dr. Belluzzo led project management of global clinical trials. As an independent consultant, she has been engaged as a Clinical Research Manager for General Nutrition Centers, participating in protocol development, regulatory application processes, research study initiation, clinical monitoring and data management.  Dr. Belluzzo has also consulted with the UN Office of Human Resources Management, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UNHCR's Women Leading for Livelihoods project and the UK's National Health Service. 

Dr. Belluzzo holds doctorate degrees in Health Systems Management from the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane's School of Medicine, and in Preventative Health from La Salle University. While an HIV/AIDS Research Fellow at Georgetown University School of Medicine's Department of Physiology and Biophysics she was Clinical Trials Manager. She completed a MBA at the University of Colorado and her undergraduate degree at Brigham Young University.

Dr. Ajay Gupta, PhD

Dr. Gupta is a professor and laboratory operations director with expertise in plant tissue culture techniques, herbal cultivation and extraction methods. He has developed lab protocols for female cannabis cultivars and other plants and has produced over a million plants of horticultural importance for farmers and organizations. Currently, Dr. Gupta is the Director of Operations at the Dolphin PG College of Science and Agriculture in Punjab, India, where he focuses on the development of agriculture curriculum, tissue culture facility development and hydroponic cultivation infrastructure. He was previously Director of Research at the Institute of Applied Sciences at Mangalayatan University.

Dr. Gupta consults on plant tissue culture to several pharmaceutical companies and has developed SOPs for herbal extraction of several medicinal plants using solvent and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE). He has isolated active principles from herbs using both organic solvents and supercritical CO₂ techniques, including THC and CBD from cannabis, and has optimized both tissue culture-produced and open field-sourced cannabis plants for THC, CBD and CBN.

Dr. Gupta has been the recipient of several awards for his work, has published three books and 18 research papers, is a member of the editorial boards for three research journals and has presented at over 25 conferences. Dr. Gupta earned a PhD and MPhil in Life Sciences from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, and an MSc in Zoology and BSc with Honors in Biological Sciences from Banaras Hindu University Varanasi.

Dr. Darryl Hudson, PhD

Dr. Hudson is a molecular biologist and geneticist utilizing his expertise to optimize cultivation and quality assurance protocols within the cannabis industry and to develop SOPs and QA standards for all aspects of cannabis production including cultivation, extraction, formulation and analytical testing. He was involved in a study pertaining to a large cannabis genome project published in 2015 as "The Genetic Structure of Marijuana and Hemp" and has planted numerous research plots across Canada which will help advance understanding of the plant.

Dr. Hudson currently operates InPlanta Biotechnology, an advanced research laboratory focused on cannabis genetics, cultivation and breeding.  He has worked to develop optimal fertilizer blends and created environmentally healthy alternatives to some of the more commonly used nutrient and pesticide products utilized in the cultivation of cannabis.

Dr. Hudson received his PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Guelph, Canada in 2010. He is widely published in diverse fields including plant biology/genetics, DNA repair, epigenetics, cancer and cannabis. Following a postdoctoral fellowship with Syngenta developing transgenic rice and corn, he has since dedicated his efforts in the cannabis sector.

Dr. Marjorie Robinson, PharmD

Dr. Robinson is a respected pharmaceutical consultant and licensed pharmacist who draws from nearly 30 years of academic and corporate pharmaceutical clinical research experience to develop formulas and novel research designs for cannabinoid products. She was most recently Associate Director of Medical Affairs / Medical Scientist at Gilead Sciences Inc.

Previously, Dr. Robinson was Senior Regional Medical Scientist for GlaxoSmithKline / ViiV Healthcare's HIV Division, Medical Science Associate with Bristol-Myers Squibb Virology's HIV Division and Associate Clinical Research Scientist, HIV Franchise, for Abbott Laboratories. She has collaborated on a significant number of clinical trials and clinical pharmacy research projects, has been published extensively, has contributed numerous book chapters and professional abstracts and is a highly sought-after lecturer. She was an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy at Nova Southeastern University's College of Pharmacy in Fort Lauderdale, FL and has served as a visiting professor and lecturer at a number of other educational institutions, including the South Florida School of Pharmacy.

Dr. Robinson earned a Doctorate in Pharmacy from Nova Southeastern University, a B.S. from Saint John's University in New York and a Diploma of Science in Pharmacology, magna cum laude, from the University of Technology, Jamaica. 

About PharmaCielo Ltd:

PharmaCielo Ltd. (the "Company") is a global company privately held and headquartered in Canada, with a focus on processing and supplying all natural, medicinal-grade cannabis oil extracts and related products to large channel distributors.  The Company's principal (and wholly-owned) subsidiary is PharmaCielo Colombia Holdings S.A.S., headquartered at its Nursery and Propagation Centre located in Rionegro, Colombia.

The boards of directors and executive teams of both PharmaCielo and PharmaCielo Colombia Holdings are comprised of a diversely talented group of international business executives and specialists with relevant and varied expertise.  PharmaCielo recognized the significant role that Colombia's ideal location will play in building a sustainable business in the medical cannabis industry, and the Company, together with its directors and executives, has built a compelling business plan focused on supplying the international marketplace. 

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SOURCE PharmaCielo

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www.PharmaCielo.com; Media Relations: David Gordon, Tel: [phone], [email protected]; (Colombia) Juan Manuel Cuellar, Tel: [phone], [email protected]; Investor Inquiries: Tel: [phone], Toll Free 888 968 8279, [email protected]