Dr. Michael K. Pugsley PhD, FBPhS, DSP, a consultant in safety pharmacology, has joined the advisory board at Beritas Pharma Inc. Dr. Pugsley is a safety pharmacologist and toxicologist specialized in a variety of therapeutic areas in drug development, in particular, central nervous system, anti-inflammatory, oncology, myocardial infarction, and congestive heart failure.

Dr. Pugsley was the former Director of Toxicology at Purdue Pharma LP, a privately held pharmaceutical company with an innovative product portfolio of medications for pain management, including their most notable product OxyContin. He led the PKDM/Toxicology Department in planning and execution of all nonclinical toxicology and safety pharmacology studies in support of drug development and marketed products.

Prior to that, he had developed broad experience from large and specialty pharmaceutical companies, including experience preparing IND and NDA submissions and conducting technical assessments of pharmacology, toxicology and safety pharmacology data in support of licensing candidates.

He was previously at Johnson and Johnson as the Scientific Director and Research Fellow for Toxicology/Pathology and Global Safety Pharmacology in Drug Safety Sciences. He also worked at Forest Pharmaceuticals as a Senior Principal Scientist. Earlier in his career, he was a Senior Scientist with XOMA (US) LLC. He holds a PhD in Cardiac Electrophysiology, an MSc in Eicosanoid Pharmacology and a BSc in Human Pharmacology from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.