R&D Team

Dr. Rakshit Kodekalra, Ph.D.
Director, Drug Discovery

Rax is responsible for identifying new and innovative drug discovery candidates, the maturation of active projects, and Medipure’s relationships with current and future drug discovery partners. He is a key resource in evaluating early-stage projects and is responsible for the medicinal chemistry and pre-clinical strategies and projects. In addition to his current role in Drug Discovery R&D, he is also leading Medipure’s QA/QC and Regulatory Affairs departments to ensure that developed pharmaceutical products comply with all applicable regulatory standards.

Rax brings 15 years of R&D experience to the Medipure team in the areas of drug discovery, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology and overall project risk assessment. He has held several R&D positions in the industry and successfully managed multiple projects in lead generation and lead optimization resulting in the advancement of proprietary drugs into clinical trials. He received his Ph.D. from University of Hohenheim in Germany with specializations in Biochemistry and Toxicology. He has co-authored 25 peer-reviewed scientific publications and is listed as a co-inventor on 3 filed patents.

Dr. Rashmi Tiwari-Pandey
Director, Clinical Studies and Preclinical Development

Dr. Tiwari-Pandey is the Director of Clinical Research and Preclinical Development at Medipure. She received her PhD degree in Endocrinology from Central Drug Research Institute, India and held several years of postdoctoral experience from Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM) and University of Ottawa Heart Institute. She acquires expertise in clinical and regulatory affairs (CCRP), and has extensive R&D and Pharma experience. Her therapeutic area of expertise includes Cancer Research, Menopause-related disorders, Hormone Replacement Therapy, Reproductive Sciences, Osteoporotic Bone Loss, Stem Cells & Cardiac Regeneration, and Biomaterials & Drug delivery. She is the Founder and President of CliniCan Health Research, Canada where she is responsible for promoting our business concept as a CRO for cutting edge R&D services, including collaborative and interdisciplinary research between our clients. At Medipure, she leads the clinical studies and pre-clinical development of pharmaceuticals worldwide. This role works to develop networking between Medipure and industry researchers in the public and private sectors locally, nationally, and internationally. She acts as a nexus between Medipure and the physician community, ensuring mutually beneficial relationships between research and clinical initiatives.

Dr. Kaiji Hu
Research Scientist – Cell and Molecular Biology

Kaiji Hu obtained his PhD in Biology from Simon Fraser University. He then joined the R&D team at a biotech company, focusing on novel drug discovery for antibiotic, anticancer and anti-inflammatory applications. From there he became a specialist in high-content screening (HCS) in the Oncology Program at the University of British Columbia and Child and Family Research Institute. He coordinated the HCS facility core and provided technical services, including drug library screening and therapeutic target identification based on the HCS platform, to biomedical research groups from both academia and biopharma industry. He continued his research on leukemia and drug compound screening at the Terry Fox Laboratory in the BC Cancer Research Center before joining the R&D team at Medipure Pharmaceuticals. He is the co-inventor of two US patents and co-author of over 20 research publications.