Dr. Kalyanam Nagabhushanam, President (R&D), Sami-Sabinsa Corporation presented, at the invitation of FDA, a seminar on December 10, 2020 to a group of US FDA scientists as part of the CDER Botanical Drug Seminar Series (BDSS).

The topics covered curcuminoids and other nutritional ingredients. The efficacy data, mechanistic considerations of pharmacological activity, metabolism, effects of nutrients on gut microbiome and vice versa, as well as methods employed to detect and deter intentional contaminations were discussed. The presented safety and efficacy information has not been evaluated by the FDA.

Kalyanam Nagabhushanam obtained a PhD from Baylor, Texas in Organic Chemistry with a full-time Welch Foundation Fellowship followed by a two year postdoctoral research with Prof. David Lightner before returning to India 1979. He worked in India for 20 years: At IPCL (now part of Reliance Petrochemicals), Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis) and later with SPIC Pharma where he was Head of R&D and Bulk Drug Divisions. He moved back to the US in 1999 to work with Sami-Sabinsa Group. His expertise is in organic synthesis, natural products chemistry and screening of botanical extracts for novel pharmacological activities. He is an author/inventor in more than one hundred papers/patents. Prior to the rude COVID-19 intrusion, he drove around Iceland on its Ring Road in three days.