MONTREAL, QC--(Marketwired - February 25, 2015) - Sunshine Biopharma Inc. (OTCQB: SBFM), a pharmaceutical company focused on the research, development and commercialization of drugs for the treatment of various forms of cancer, announced today the appointment of Dr. Abderrazzak Merzouki to the board of directors and to the office of Chief Operating Officer to replace Mr. Michele Di Turi. Effective February 20, 2014 Mr. Di Turi resigned as a Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Company to pursue other interests.
Dr. Merzouki is an accomplished scientist with over 20 years of experience in virology and immunology. He is the first author on our Adva-27a publication (ANTICANCER RESEARCH, Volume 32, Pages 4423-4432, October 2012) and has over 100 other publications and communications in various, highly respected scientific journals in the field of cellular and molecular biology. In addition to his academic expertise, Dr. Merzouki brings a strong network of business and financial relationships to the Company.
Prior to joining Sunshine, Dr. Merzouki worked at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, where he taught and acted as a senior scientist involved in the research and development of plasmid and siRNA-based therapies. He also worked in the area of gene therapy where he performed several preclinical studies for pharmaceutical companies involving the use of adenoviral vectors for cancer therapy and plasmid vectors for the treatment of peripheral arterial occlusions. Dr. Merzouki also has extensive expertise in the design of expression vectors, and production and purification of recombinant proteins. He developed technologies for production of biogeneric therapeutic proteins for the treatment of various diseases including cancer, diabetes, hepatitis and multiple sclerosis. Dr. Merzouki obtained his Ph.D. in Virology and Immunology from Institut Armand-Frappier in Quebec and received his post-doctoral training at the University of British Columbia and the BC Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS research.
“We are very pleased to have Dr. Merzouki join our team,” said Dr. Steve N. Slilaty, President and CEO of Sunshine Biopharma. “His scientific experience and operational expertise will make him a valuable contributor to our Company as we continue to move forward with our anticancer drug development program. We take this opportunity to wish Mr. Di Turi the best in his future endeavours,” Dr. Slilaty added.
About Adva-27a
Adva-27a is Sunshine Biopharma’s lead anticancer compound, a Topoisomerase II inhibitor, small molecule that has recently been shown to be effective at killing Multidrug Resistant Breast Cancer cells, Small-Cell Lung Cancer cells, Uterine Sarcoma cells and Pancreatic Cancer cells (Published in ANTICANCER RESEARCH, Volume 32, Pages 4423-4432, October 2012). Adva-27a is currently in the IND-Enabling stage of development. The original U.S. patent covering Adva-27a was issued on August 7, 2012 under U.S. patent number 8,236,935. The Company is planning a Phase I clinical trial of Adva-27a for Pancreatic Cancer in parallel to the Phase I clinical trial of Adva-27a for multidrug resistant Breast Cancer to be conducted at McGill University’s Jewish General Hospital in Montreal (Canada).
Safe Harbor Forward-Looking Statements
To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, including statements as to revenue projections, business strategy, outlook, objectives, future milestones, plans, intentions, goals, future financial conditions, future collaboration agreements, the success of the Company’s development, events conditioned on stockholder or other approval, or otherwise as to future events, such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made.
For Additional Information:
Sunshine Biopharma Media Contacts:
Renmark Financial Communications Inc.
Robert Thaemlitz: rthaemlitz@renmarkfinancial.com
John Boidman: jboidman@renmarkfinancial.com
Tel.: (416) 644-2020 or (514) 939-3989
www.renmarkfinancial.com
Sunshine Biopharma Inc. Contacts:
Camille Sebaaly
CFO
Tel.: 514-814-0464
Camille.sebaaly@sunshinebiopharma.com
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