EmpowerPharm Inc., the first wholly Canadian-owned and operated pharmaceutical company established in recent years, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Murray B Stein as Senior Medical Consultant. A pioneer in psychiatry and the treatment of anxiety, Dr. Stein joins an already impressive list of physicians who are advising the early-stage pharmaceutical company as it develops the world’s first prescription CBD tablet.
“We are working to develop a first-line therapy that will help treat anxiety, so we are thrilled to have Dr. Stein, as part of our team. His expertise and deep commitment to the treatment of anxiety and other mental health issues will guide us and help ensure we produce the most efficacious products possible,” says Aubrey Dan, Executive Chairman & Co-Founder of EmpowerPharm, Inc.
EmpowerPharm is led by the former executives of Canada’s most recognized domestic pharmaceutical companies, who have united to develop a first-of-its-kind prescription drug containing synthetic CBD as the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) manufactured as tablets to treat anxiety. Dr. Stein joins several other world-renowned physicians who are advising the EmpowerPharm team as part of the medical and clinical advisory boards.
“We have heard from our medical advisory board that the current treatments for anxiety are simply not adequate. They either do not work for a large number of the population or they come with serious risks and side effects. Dr. Stein’s decades of research experience will give us additional perspective so that we can manufacture products that can serve as an effective and safe treatment for anxiety patients,” says Dan.
About Dr, Stein
Murray B Stein MD, MPH, FRCPC is Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine & Public Health, Vice Chair for Clinical Research in Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), and a Staff Psychiatrist at the VA San Diego Healthcare System.
Dr. Stein graduated from the University of Manitoba and completed his residency and fellowship training at the University of Toronto and the NIMH in Bethesda, Maryland. He subsequently completed a Master of Public Health degree at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Dr. Stein’s research interests include the epidemiology, neurobiology, and treatment of anxiety and trauma-related disorders including social anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and mild traumatic brain injury. He has written or co-written over 600 peer-reviewed scientific articles on these topics, including in journals such as JAMA and New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Stein is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is a past member of the APA DSM-5 Anxiety, OCD, and Trauma-Related Disorders Working Group (2009-2013), and of the FDA Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee (2011-2016).
Dr. Stein is also Editor-in-Chief for the journal Depression and Anxiety, Co-Editor-in-Chief for UpToDate in Psychiatry, and Deputy Editor for the journal Biological Psychiatry.