Nobel Prize Winner Joins Cannabis Company Board
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]B[/dropcap]iologist and Nobel Prize winner Professor Aaron Ciechanover recently joined Israel-based medical cannabis company Panaxia Pharmaceutical Industries as a senior member of its advisory committee.
Ciechanover, 72, won the Nobel Prize in 2004 for discovering ubiquitin?mediated protein degradation, a development that is highly useful in anticancer medicine. Like many other scientists and doctors based in Israel, he believes in the power of medical cannabis.
“Cannabis is a world of mystery,” Nobel Prize winner Ciechanover told Forbes. He recognized cannabis’ place in ancient medicine, saying “I’ve also learned a great deal about traditional Chinese medicine, and it too can be used as a source of many treasures regarding the plant; and let’s not forget that commercial companies are investing heavily in research and development.” He joined the company’s board to fulfill his role in developing the science behind cannabis-based medicines.
Panaxia manufactures over 50,000 cannabis-based products per month for the Israeli market. Reportedly nine out of 10 pharmaceutical cannabis brands in Israel are manufactured by Panaxia. It was also the first company to obtain a permit to manufacture a medication based on pharmaceutical cannabis. Dr. Dadi Segal, CEO and founder of Panaxia, said that adding Ciechanover to the board puts the company in the “Big League,” given his prestige in the scientific community.
Ciechanover’s background in groundbreaking medical science makes him the perfect candidate to take the company to the next level. “This is the only way I know to be free of mysticism, and offer patients suffering from a wide range of medical conditions—some of which we have yet to discover—real therapeutic treatment based on medical cannabis,” he said.
Panaxia is currently developing 15 different types of cannabis-based medicines. The company is seeking out more collaborations with researchers and licensing agreements with the help of Ciechanover. His role in the Panaxia’s advisory board will surely draw attention on a global scale.
