Cristelle Santos

Consultant - Toxicology

Cristelle joined Broughton with toxicological risk assessment expertise in cannabis-based and reduced-risk nicotine products.

• Toxicologist with experience in setting up non-clinical safety approaches to support the launch of cannabis, nicotine and other active-containing products
• Passionate about supporting the launch of products with the potential to reduce harm and transforming toxicology into science that is easily understood by everyone

Cristelle is Consultant Toxicologist at Broughton Life Sciences. She has eight years of experience in the field of toxicological risk assessment and forensic/analytical toxicology. Her background includes a BSc in Forensic Sciences from the Egas Moniz School of Health and Science and a MSc in Analytical, Clinical and Forensic Toxicology by the University of Porto, both in Portugal.

Cristelle started her career as a forensic toxicologist at the anti-doping laboratory in Lisbon. There she conducted routine analytical testing to detect drugs in urine and blood samples of athletes. During her time at the anti-doping laboratory, she also validated a method to quantify glycerol in urine using GC-MS, which was occasionally used to mask the presence of other drugs by interfering with the analytical techniques used at that time.

In 2016, Cristelle joined British American Tobacco (BAT) within the consumer and product safety department. Her first role was in the vapour team where she primarily focused on risk assessing ingredient flavourings, e-liquid formulations, device materials and emissions of nicotine containing e-cigarettes. After that, she moved into the ‘beyond nicotine’ space, leading the toxicological programme by setting up robust safety strategies to enable the launch of products containing new active ingredients. After establishing this framework, Cristelle moved to Canada to join the product development collaboration between BAT and Organigram and support both companies from a toxicological standpoint in delivering superior and safer cannabis-based products to various markets.

Cristelle joined Broughton at the beginning of 2023, applying her cannabis expertise to lead the toxicological strategies in line with the regulatory requirements to support entry to the market for a range of cannabis-based products. Her experience with a broad range of next generation nicotine products will also benefit Broughton’s toxicological consultancy services.

Cristelle strongly believes that a variety of reduced risk nicotine containing products should be available to smokers to enable their transition to safer options. She is an advocate of the potential benefits of cannabis, not only in the medical space but also as a wellbeing aid. Consequently, she believes that these products should be accessible to everyone in different formats. However, she recognises that there is still some work to do in this space and that a strong and robust safety framework needs to be established and implemented by various regulatory bodies around the world in order to protect the consumers seeking the benefits of these products.