FSD Pharma (CSE:HUGE, NASDAQ:HUGE) Inc. announced that it is expanding its management and advisory teams.
In a statement, the life sciences holding company said it named industry leaders Jason Sawyer and Dr Ravinder Kumar to its Advisory Board.
In addition, FSD Pharma said it has been expanding its team aggressively at all levels to synergize its operations.
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Dr Andrzej Chruscinski (associate vice president, Clinical Affairs), Kevin Cassidy (vice president, Quality Systems), and Dr Oksana Akhova (director, Licensing, Partnership, and IP) have been added to its management team.
FSD Pharma provided backgrounds on its new team members:
Sawyer brings 29 years of alternative investment and business experience to FSD's drug development efforts. He currently serves as the General Manager of Access Alternative Group S.A., a Bahamas-based boutique venture investment and advisory firm.
Kumar is an award-winning pharmaceutical industry leader, with over 30 years of global experience developing and commercializing novel drug solutions. Through his advisory role, he will contribute his expertise in discovery, regulatory, preclinical and clinical, product development, manufacturing, compliance and commercialization. Dr Kumar is currently the Director of the Centre for Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Toronto, and Chief Strategy Officer at Dalriada Drug Discovery.
Dr Chruscinski trained as a physician-scientist at Stanford University earning an MD/PhD. As a scientist at University Health Network, he ran a research group investigating mechanisms of transplantation tolerance. He developed antigen microarray technology to profile autoantibodies to monitor allograft function. More recently, he completed two clinical trials of tolerance induction in solid organ transplantation (LITMUS and ASCOTT).
Cassidy brings over 39 years of biotechnology experience to FSD Pharma. He has established and run operations and validated facilities for GMP manufacturing, biotherapeutic development, and quality testing in Canada, Chile, and China. He was lead on the process and business development, resulting in the first approved adenovirus-vectored vaccine --a predecessor to several vaccines deployed in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Akhova has over two decades of experience both in industry and academia in business development, IP management, and the commercialization of innovative technologies. She worked across a range of roles in academia and industry and she has a strong track record in commercial licensing, management of private-public partnerships, technology marketing, and business development. She has solid expertise in the evaluation of companies and technologies in oncology, ophthalmology, inflammation, and neurology, building financial models, and IP management.
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