Dr. Yingjie Ren, PhD, Pharm D, BCOP, BCPS
Co-founder and President
Dr. Ren earned her PhD degree in Bioorganic Chemistry from Washington University in Saint Louis and worked as research scientist at Pfizer before returning to school and completing her doctorate degree in Pharmacy (summa cum laude). She is a practicing Pharmacist at Saint Louis University Hospital, and is board certified oncology pharmacist (BCOP) and Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS). She is a co-founder and investor in PharmaRen LLC.
Afsaneh Razani, BA, MA
Afsaneh Razani is a member of PharmaRen’s management team as well as one of its partners. She received her BS in Business Administration and her MA in Public Administration and Political Science at Southern Illinois University with a concentration in Urban Planning and Comparative Policy. After relocating from the East Coast in 1997 — where she was administrative director of the Japanese-American Company “CHUESTU METAL USA” for 12 years — she shifted her career to the area of real property investments. For the past 17 years, she has been engaged in managing properties valued at over $3.5 million. She has a broad knowledge of commercial and residential property investment in addition to being in charge of operational and management aspects of the business.
Jacques Darvish, P.E., S.E.
Jacques Darvish has been serving as a member of PharmaRen’s management team since June 2013 and is currently one of its partners. Mr. Darvish, by training, is a Structural Engineer (Washington University in Saint Louis) and has served as a Director and VP of civil/structure of various engineering/architectural firms. Among his responsibilities were new business development and management of a group of 25 professional engineers. He worked with Horner and Schifrin Engineering Firm for 11 years as partner. He retired from the firm in 2005, and since then has founded and developed his own company and has been involved in real estate development. Mr. Darvish brings more than 25 years of management and business development experience to PharmaRen LLC.
Mehrdad Saeed-Vafa, MD
Dr. Vafa, M.D., has served as chief medical officer of PharmaRen since January 2013. He received his M.D. from Tehran University, Diagnostic Radiology Board from Medical College of Virginia Richmond and Internal Medicine Board from Wayne State University, Michigan. Since 1980, Dr. Vafa has been practicing medicine in the St. Louis area. His previous experience includes partnerships with Physician Multispecialty Group, Group Health Plan, and Mercy Medical Center.
Sourena Nadji, PhD
Dr Nadji has been working in the generic pharmaceutical industry for 18 years. He started his career at Reliable Biopharmaceutical Co in 1996 as a Senior Research Scientist and was promoted to the company’s Chief Scientific Officer and Director of Research. During his tenure at Reliable Biopharmaceutical, his group researched and developed a number of generic APIs and successfully helped to file several ANDAs and witnessed their entrance to the market place. Most APIs developed by his group are synthesized through novel and non-infringing chemistries and are protected by patents. His core faculty is the design and synthesis of complex organic molecules suitable for industrial production. He has recently developed novel heparin-like synthetic molecules to probe Heparin-active proteins, and through establishing collaborative efforts with the scientists at various academic centers, he is leading PharmaRen to develop and identify active molecules for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and various cancers. He has a PhD degree from University of East Anglia, UK and with extensive research training at Yale University, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, and Washington University in St. Louis.
(https://uspto.report/patent/app/20040181052)