Compassionate Care Center of New York Names Prof. Raphael Mechoulam Chairman of R&D

CARLE PLACE, N.Y., July 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Compassionate Care Center of New York™ (CCCNY™), a privately held New York-based biopharmaceutical company, has announced the formation of its Clinical Research & Development Committee and its Medical Advisory Board, consisting of an unprecedented collection of the top medical cannabis clinical researchers in the State of Israel and America.

Prof. Raphael Mechoulam, an award-winning professor of Medicinal Chemistry at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who has devoted his life to investigating the chemical constituents of the cannabis plant, and is recognized globally as the 'Father' of Medical Cannabis Research, has agreed to oversee a committee of the top researchers in the field of medical cannabis anywhere in the world. To date, Prof. Mechoulam has been nominated for and received over 25 academic awards, including the Rothschild Prize in Chemical Sciences and Physical Sciences in 2012. When Prof. Mechoulam isolated THC in 1964, the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH), recognizing this groundbreaking discovery, and began funding Prof. Mechoulam's medical cannabis research in Israel and has continued to do so ever since.

After Prof. Mechoulam identified CBD and THC in the early 1960s, and discovered their medicinal benefits, especially with his breakthroughs with Cannabidiol, cannabis cultivators and researchers in Israel and North America have stood on his shoulders to custom design the highest known naturally-occurring CBD, low THC strains of medical cannabis in the world, which are CCCNY exclusives Avidekel®, Rafael® (named after Mechoulam), Midnight® (all from Tikun Olam in Israel) and Haleigh's Hope™ (from The Flowering Hope Foundation in Colorado Springs) to treat epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, cancer, glaucoma and dozens of other diseases.

As a condition of Prof. Mechoulam's role with the company, CCCNY has implemented a strict Company Policy committing to only cultivate and distribute pharmaceutical-grade medical cannabis extracts, with primarily high CBD ratios, and exclusively serve qualifying New York State medical patients under New York's Medical Marijuana Program, regardless of whether New York State ever legalizes recreational use of marijuana.  CCCNY remains the only applicant in New York State to publicly make such a commitment.

Joining Prof. Mechoulam in a leadership position at CCCNY, is the number one-rated medical cannabis researcher in the U.S., Dr. Donald Abrams, M.D., Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California in San Francisco, who was the Featured medical cannabis researching physician in 2015 on WEED 3: The Marijuana Revolution with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. In addition to Dr. Abrams, members of CCCNY's Medical Research Advisory Board, who are the top candidates for Prof. Mechoulam Research Committee for CCCNY, include: Dr. Zvi Bentwich, M.D., the first doctor to recommend and receive a medical cannabis license for AIDS patients in Israel; Prof. Ruth Gallily, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who discovered the anti-inflammatory aspects of Cannabidiol; Dr. Timna Naftali, M.D., Specialist in Gasterenteoloy at Meir Hospital in Israel, who conducted the only randomized double blind placebo human clinical trial for Crohn's Disease and Colitis; Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Suzanne Sisley, M.D., also featured on CNN's WEED 3 with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who has received approved of the only Phase II FDA trial in the U.S. for the treatment of P.T.S.D. using medical cannabis; Dr. Margaret Gedde, M.D., an award-winning Stanford-trained medical cannabis researcher; Dr. Daniel H. Cohen M.D., who isolated and sequenced the first amyloid protein ever extracted from a human brain; Dr. Carl V. Crawford, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine and Attending Physician at the New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center in Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology; Dr. Moshe Rubin, M.D., Director of the Gastroenterology at New York Hospital Queens; and Dr. Shahriyour Andaz, M.D., F.A.C.S., a specialist in thoracic surgery and thoracic oncology.

"Having the leading medical cannabis researcher in the world Prof. Mechoulam imparting on CCCNY 60 years worth of knowledge based on legitimate science, as well as over 200 years of collective knowledge from CCCNY's Medical Research Advisory Board, CCCNY will set the standard in New York State and ensure New York continues to be the world's leader in all aspects of healthcare, including medical cannabis," said CCCNY's Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Larry Good, M.D., F.A.C.G.

To provide New York State patients with a consistent high quality, pharmaceutical-grade product which has a measured dose, and provides a controlled research environment, CCCNY has obtained an exclusive license in New York State to the only metered-dosage inhaler on the market which uses cannabis extracts to deliver a precise amount of medication to the lungs in the form of a short burst of aerosolized cannabinoids. The product's inventor, former Novartis Senior Scientist and Inhalation Expert, Michael Hartman, will serve as CCCNY's Senior Scientist and Head of Product Research & Development, and will advise CCCNY's team of physicians and clinical researchers on the proper use of his product, which will be exclusively available at CCCNY's dispensaries.

"Unlike any other applicant in New York State, CCCNY and its partners already have numerous clinical and research trials underway in Israel, the results of which will be exclusively available to CCCNY for the benefit of all New York State residents," said CCCNY's Chairman, Neil Closner. "New York patients will benefit from the world's largest database of cannabis patient usage anywhere in the world and from Israel's many years of trial and error."

Compassionate Care Center of New York 
Compassionate Care Center of New York™ (CCCNY™) is a leading biopharmaceutical company applying for one of five medical cannabis registrations in New York State. CCCNY holds the exclusive license in perpetuity for New York State for the world's leading high CBD, low TCH, strains of medical cannabis for the treatment of intractable epilepsy, Israel's first leading high CBD strains, Avidekel®, Rafael® and Midnight®, and America's first high CBD, low TCH, cannabis oil, Haleigh's Hope™ from the Flowering Hope Foundation, which was for sale in Colorado Springs in 2009 before any other company, including several years before Charlotte's Web®. CCCNY will be in an unmatched position to provide the most consistent and effective medical cannabis-derived products, with the most years of research and clinical human trials to back it up, to qualifying patients throughout New York State suffering from severe debilitating or life-threatening conditions.

SOURCE Compassionate Care Center of New York