SAN FRANCISCO – Jaguar Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAGX) (‘Jaguar’) today announced that Elaine Elisabetsky, PhD, is conducting a talk on Friday, August 2, 2024 from 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM Central covering several decades of research on plant-based medicines used to manage schizophrenia.
Dr. Elisabetsky’s talk is part of the annual Norman R. Farnsworth Lecture series at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Pharmacy. Farnsworth, a world leader in the field of pharmacognosy who focused on plants used in traditional medicines, was a foundational member of the Scientific Strategy Team for Jaguar’s predecessor company, Shaman Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Elisabetsky is a member of the world-class Scientific Strategy Team for Jaguar’s mental health Entheogen Therapeutics Initiative and an advisor to Magdalena Biosciences, the joint venture formed by Jaguar and Filament Health that focuses on advancing plant-based innovation for patients and on identifying the next generation of plant-based first-in-class agents for treatment of mental health conditions.
As announced, Jaguar recently executed an out-license deal with Magdalena Biosciences for a botanical drug candidate for possible schizophrenia and psychoses indications and for development with potential corporate partners. Sourced from a medicinal plant that has a long history of use by traditional healers, the drug candidate demonstrates antipsychotic activity and has a mechanism of action distinct from currently FDA-approved therapies for schizophrenia and other mental conditions that present psychotic symptoms. The drug candidate may have the potential to be the first in a new class of plant-based antipsychotic compounds. Magdalena Biosciences is approximately 40-percent owned by Jaguar.
Schizophrenia, the most serious form of psychosis, is a chronic, disabling mental illness that affects approximately one percent of the U.S. population.1 It is estimated that up to 34 percent of patients with schizophrenia fail to respond to currently available treatments.2 Psychotic symptoms can also be present in other mental illnesses, including depression, bipolar disorder, dementia, and borderline personality disorder. The global schizophrenia industry is projected to grow from $8.29 billion in 2024 to $13.41 billion by 2032, according to a market research report by Market Research Future.3
Dr. Elisabetsky, Ethnopharmacologist and Professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil, researched and taught for ten years in the Brazilian Amazon. Her research focuses include psychoneuropharmacology and ethnopharmacology. Her ethnopharmacology field work was conducted among caboclos (rural peasants), Amerindian (Guajajara and Kayapo), and rubber tapper (extractive reserves) communities, leading to activities on conservation and sustainable development. She has given notice to emic concepts of health/disease contributing to development of plant selection criteria that combines traditional knowledge and working hypotheses for pharmacological scrutiny. The method aims to maximize drug development based on natural products and ethnopharmacological data. She specializes in identifying and characterizing psychopharmacological properties of medicinal plant extracts and/or isolated compounds. A founding member for the International Society of Ethnobiology and the International Society of Ethnopharmacology, she served as president for the latter as well as for the Brazilian Society of Ethnobiology and Ethnoecology. She contributes to the editorial board of several journals in the field, has published over 100 papers in scientific journals and 18 book chapters, supervised numerous PhDs and Master students, and deposited 3 patents.
The collegiate Farnsworth Lectureship in Pharmacognosy is hosted in Farnsworth’s memory. Farnsworth was a member of the UIC College of Pharmacy faculty for more than 41 years (1970-2011), serving as head of the department of pharmacognosy and pharmacology for 12 years, followed by 30 years as director of the Program for Collaborative Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences. His scientific and educational contributions relate to the chemistry, biology, and therapeutic properties of medicinal plants and natural products. Throughout his distinguished career, Farnsworth was the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including appointments as a special delegate and commission member by former Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, respectively.
About Botanicals Drugs
Botanicals drugs are defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as ‘products from plant materials, algae, macroscopic fungi, and combinations thereof.’ Many botanical drugs have a long history of safe use in traditional medicines, which may be documented and reviewed in scientific literature. Existing scientific literature on safety may accelerate the safety review process for a botanical drug, reducing the scope and financial burden for extensive safety studies. The FDA has established guidance on botanical drug development and recognizes the complexity of botanical drugs. Additionally, botanicals drugs, by virtue of their complexity, have the added benefit of being difficult to genericize. Hence there are often multiple opportunities for creating ‘trade-secrets,’ as well as novel patents around a botanical drug substance, its processing, its formulation, and so forth.
About Filament Health (OTCQB:FLHLF) (CBOE CA:FH) (FSE:7QS)
Filament Health is a clinical-stage natural psychedelic drug development company. We believe that safe, standardized, naturally-derived psychedelic medicines can improve the lives of many, and our mission is to see them in the hands of everyone who needs them as soon as possible. Filament’s platform of proprietary intellectual property enables the discovery, development, and delivery of natural psychedelic medicines for clinical development. We are paving the way with the first-ever natural psychedelic drug candidates.
About the Jaguar Health Family of Companies
Jaguar Health, Inc. (Jaguar) is a commercial stage pharmaceuticals company focused on developing novel proprietary prescription medicines sustainably derived from plants from rainforest areas for people and animals with gastrointestinal distress, specifically associated with overactive bowel, which includes symptoms such as chronic debilitating diarrhea, urgency, bowel incontinence, and cramping pain. Jaguar family company Napo Pharmaceuticals (Napo) focuses on developing and commercializing human prescription pharmaceuticals for essential supportive care and management of neglected gastrointestinal symptoms across multiple complicated disease states. Napo’s crofelemer is FDA-approved under the brand name Mytesi for the symptomatic relief of noninfectious diarrhea in adults with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral therapy. Jaguar family company Napo Therapeutics is an Italian corporation Jaguar established in Milan, Italy in 2021 focused on expanding crofelemer access in Europe and specifically for orphan and/or rare diseases. Jaguar Animal Health is a Jaguar tradename. Magdalena Biosciences, a joint venture formed by Jaguar and Filament Health Corp. that emerged from Jaguar’s Entheogen Therapeutics Initiative (ETI), is focused on developing novel prescription medicines derived from plants for mental health indications.