Paediatric Pearls Conference

Dr. Merchant has over 18 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and development both from industry and academia. His expertise includes novel formulation design, biopharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, bioavailability and bioequivalence. He’s also contributed significantly to the evidence synthesis in COVID-19 to help safe use of medicine.

His clinical knowledge and expertise in pharmaceutical formulation helps in understanding the clinical and therapeutic principles underpinning the science of dosage form design and develop innovative solutions to improve the delivery and efficacy of medicines.

He has also proposed an early therapeutic intervention strategy to help prevent the disease progression and hospitalisation. Before joining Huddersfield, Dr. Merchant has been associated with the University College London (UCL), where he investigated various technologies for drug delivery into the gastrointestinal tract and offered technical support and expert advice to collaborators and clients from academia and industry on various formulation and drug delivery aspects. One of his postdoc assignments at UCL was to develop a novel formulation for colonic delivery of statins. During his time at UCL, he has also developed novel in-vitro solutions for the assessment of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products in physiologically relevant conditions of the gut that helped a number of companies in formulation optimisation and candidate selection for clinical trials.

Dr. Merchant was associated with Abbott Laboratories Ltd from December 2002 to November 2007 and served in various capacities such as quality, formulation, new product development, continuous improvement and project management. He is part of the editorial board for various scientific journals and is also a Deputy Editor-in-Chief for the British Journal of Pharmacy. He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA UK), a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB), American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), Controlled Release Society (CRS) and the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Great Britain (APS).

Dr. Merchant has a Pharmacy degree (BPharm) with a Masters (MPharm) from the University of Karachi and a PhD in Clinical Pharmaceutics from the University College London (UCL). He also has a PGD in Quality Management from the NED and a PGCert in Higher Education from the Huddersfield.

I am humbled by your interest in what I have learnt, and do to help the many families and children that I meet in my day-to-day work. This work is not easy and although there are countless people trying to support families with children who have special needs, we need more people and organization to help out. We need a village to raise a child with special needs! Therefore, it is important to build connections and nurture our relationships so that we can make a real difference in a family’s life and make this world a different and better place for those lovely children who deserve no less than any typical child.

My interest in this field started when I was pursuing my DNB in Paediatrics at Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai. I had the opportunity to attend developmental clinics and feel so fortunate about this. After successfully completing my degree, I pursued a one year Diploma in Child Development from Trivandrum, Kerela.

In 2009, I moved to Canada with my husband and was offered a 2-year training position (Fellowship) in Developmental Paediatrics at the Hospital for Sick Children. I not only pursued clinical training in this specialty but also completed 3 years of post-doctorate in Autism and contributed to multiple clinical drug

trials. During my research tenure, I was part of 14 publications and authored a book chapter in the field of Autism.

In 2015, I was appointed as Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and joined Scarborough Health Network as a Developmental Paediatrician. I am privileged to be the Chief Developmental Paediatrician who had the opportunity to work with the multidisciplinary team and establish the under 6 years assessment program first, as well as the school age assessment clinic.

My interest turned into a passion as I worked with more and more families who appreciated my work and reached out for more support. I recognized not just their needs but also my potential to help them. It gives me immense pleasure to help families in a holistic manner and I hope I can extend my support and skills

to those who need the help and guidance.

Dr. Ruben Gagarin is a comprehensive child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Scarborough Health Network. As a psychiatry inpatient and consult liaison, he manages both children and adolescents with a full range of mental health and developmental conditions including Autism Spectrum Disorder, Mood and Anxiety disorders and psychotic disorders as part of a multidisciplinary First Episode Psychosis program.

Dr. Gagarin received his medical degree from Bashkir State Medical University in Russia, completed his Psychiatry Residency and Child Psychiatry fellowship at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Dr. Gagarin is also the Head of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Program at the Scarborough Health Network, where he leads a team of seven physicians working in multidisciplinary environment with social workers, child and youth worker and registered nurses.

Dr. Ruben Gagarin is a comprehensive child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Scarborough Health Network. As a psychiatry inpatient and consult liaison, he manages both children and adolescents with a full range of mental health and developmental conditions including Autism Spectrum Disorder, Mood and Anxiety disorders and psychotic disorders as part of a multidisciplinary First Episode Psychosis program.

Dr. Gagarin received his medical degree from Bashkir State Medical University in Russia, completed his Psychiatry Residency and Child Psychiatry fellowship at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Dr. Gagarin is also the Head of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Program at the Scarborough Health Network, where he leads a team of seven physicians working in multidisciplinary environment with social workers, child and youth worker and registered nurses.