Leadership
Taghogho Agarin, MD, MPH, MBA
Chief Executive Officer, co-Founder
Dr. Agarin is a double board-certified physician in Psychiatry and Pain Medicine. He finished residency training and fellowship at Harlem Hospital, affiliated with Columbia and the University of California San Diego, respectively. In the last decade, he had seen most of his patients do so well when certain combinations of medications were being used. Those combinations have been achieving great success in patient treatment. Recently working with Dr. Van Horn, they co-managed patients with a specific type of dementia and were surprised to see significant improvement in patients' neurocognitive functioning, reversing long-held views that most dementias always lead to progressive deterioration. Together, they founded Zyvran Pharmaceutical Inc. to share these successes with the rest of the world on a global platform by creating combinations that worked well in improving patients' health outcomes.
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Dr. Agarin earned his medical degree from the University of Calabar, Nigeria, an MPH from Boston University, and an MBA from Fitchburg State University.
William A Van Horn, MD
Co-Founder
Dr. Van Horn is a Diplomat of the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry with more than 25 years of experience in providing proper and effective medical treatment for all stages of Alzheimer's Dementia with results that have been unheard of in the medical or scientific community. Real-world experience from running at least two Geriatric units brimming with hundreds to thousands of dementia patients over the last two decades has helped him learn what works and what doesn't. As a result, Dr. Van Horn co-founded Zyvran Pharmaceutical Inc. with Dr. Agarin to share these results with the rest of the scientific community and hopefully engender a discussion on where further research direction should be.
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Dr. Van Horn earned his medical degree from the University of South Alabama. In addition, he received specialty training at West Virginia University. Dr. Van Horn also completed his Fellowship in Geriatric Neuropsychiatry at Emory University, one of the premier institutions in treating Alzheimer's Disease.
Robert Neil McLay, MD, PhD
Vice President, Research & Development
Dr. Robert Neil McLay is a triple board-Certified physician in Psychiatry, Psychosomatic, and Pain Medicine. He was the former Research Director for Mental Health at Naval Medical Center San Diego. He brought all that knowledge and expertise to lead Zyvran’s research team in producing life-changing medicines. As one of the few MD and Ph.D. psychiatrists in the military, he was in charge of programs to advance new technologies to help Service Members deal with the stress of deployment. While deployed in Iraq in 2008, Dr. McLay tested out Virtual Reality treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He interviewed physicians, captains, commanders, and Service Members in the field, trying to learn what allowed one person to thrive and another to break in combat. Dr. McLay is the author of over 50 scientific articles about mental health and neuroscience and several books.
Antonio Laurenza, MD
Chief Medical Officer - Interim
Antonio Laurenza, MD, brings more than 30 years of clinical development leadership in Neurology and Psychiatry, from early discovery to global regulatory approvals. As Interim Chief Medical Officer at Zyvran Pharmaceuticals, he defines and drives the development strategy for therapies in pain, mild cognitive impairment, neurodegeneration, and treatment-resistant mood disorders. Previously a VP, Global Program Leader, at Takeda, Antonio led multidisciplinary teams across antisense oligonucleotides, gene therapy and monoclonal antibodies in rare CNS diseases, in Phase 1 and 2 in Huntington Disease, ALS, multiple system atrophy, and psychotic and mood disorders. Earlier in his career, he was a Fulbright Scholar at US FDA, Sr. Director at GSK, and Executive Director at Eisai. He has experience of 18 NDAs/MAAs and 25+ IND/CTAs in depression, migraine, restless legs disease, Parkinson Disease, obesity, ADHD, and substance use disorders. He holds an MD with honors, and specializations in Neurology and Clinical Biology, from the University of Naples, Italy, and completed executive programs at Harvard Medical School and MIT Sloan. His passion for data-driven innovation and patient-centric design underpins Zyvran’s commitment to life-changing disease treatments.
Michael Callis, PhD, MSCP
Associate, Research & Development
Dr. Callis brings 25 years of experience working as a forensic psychologist in federal and state prisons and holds a Psychology License in California and New York. In addition, Dr. Callis completed an APA-accredited internship at Federal Detention Center in 1995-1996.
Dr. Callis holds a BA in History from the University of California, Los Angeles, a MA from Cal State Northridge, a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Southern California, and a post-doctoral master’s degree in Clinical Psychopharmacology from Alliance University.