PROSPECTUS SUMMARY
The following is a summary of what we believe to be the most important aspects of our business and the offering of our securities under this prospectus. We urge you to read this entire prospectus, including the more detailed financial statements, notes to the financial statements and other information incorporated by reference from our other filings with the SEC. Each of the risk factors could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition, as well as adversely affect the value of an investment in our securities.
Overview
Jaguar is a commercial stage pharmaceuticals company focused on developing novel, plant-based, non-opioid, and sustainably derived prescription medicines for people and animals with GI distress, specifically chronic, debilitating diarrhea. Our wholly-owned subsidiary, Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Napo”), focuses on developing and commercializing proprietary plant-based human gastrointestinal pharmaceuticals from plants used traditionally in rainforest areas. Our Mytesi (“crofelemer”) product is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the symptomatic relief of noninfectious diarrhea in adults with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral therapy and is the only oral plant-based prescription medicine approved under FDA Botanical Guidance. In the animal health space, we focus on developing and commercializing first-in-class gastrointestinal products for companion and production animals, foals, and high value horses.
Jaguar was founded in San Francisco, California as a Delaware corporation on June 6, 2013. Napo formed Jaguar to develop and commercialize animal health products. Effective as of December 31, 2013, Jaguar was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Napo, and Jaguar was a majority-owned subsidiary of Napo until the close of the Company’s initial public offering on May 18, 2015. On July 31, 2017, the merger of Jaguar Animal Health, Inc. and Napo became effective, at which point Jaguar Animal Health’s name changed to Jaguar Health, Inc. and Napo began operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jaguar focused on human health and the ongoing commercialization of, and development of follow-on indications for, Mytesi. Most of the activities of the Company are now focused on the commercialization of Mytesi and development of follow-on indications for crofelemer and a second-generation anti-secretory product, lechlemer. In the field of animal health, we have limited activities which are focused on developing and commercializing first-in-class gastrointestinal products for dogs, dairy calves, foals, and high value horses.
We believe Jaguar is poised to realize a number of synergistic, value adding benefits — an expanded pipeline of potential blockbuster human follow-on indications, a second-generation anti-secretory agent, as well as a pipeline of important animal indications for crofelemer — upon which to build global partnerships. As previously announced, Jaguar, through Napo, now holds extensive global rights for Mytesi, and crofelemer manufacturing is being conducted at a multimillion-dollar commercial manufacturing facility that has been FDA-inspected and approved. Additionally, several of the drug product candidates in Jaguar’s Mytesi pipeline are backed by what we believe are strong Phase 2 and proof of concept evidence from completed human clinical trials.
Mytesi is a novel, first-in-class anti-secretory agent which has a basic normalizing effect locally on the gut, and this mechanism of action has the potential to benefit multiple disorders. Mytesi is in development for multiple possible follow-on indications, including cancer therapy-related diarrhea; orphan-drug indications for infants and children with congenital diarrheal disorders and short bowel syndrome (SBS); supportive care for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); irritable bowel syndrome (IBS); and for idiopathic/functional diarrhea. In addition, a second-generation anti-secretory agent, lechlemer, is in development for cholera. Mytesi previously received orphan-drug designation for SBS.
In September 2020, Jaguar launched the Entheogen Therapeutics initiative to support the discovery and development of novel, natural medicines derived from psychoactive plant compounds for treatment of mood disorders, neuro-degenerative diseases, addiction, and other mental health disorders. The initiative will initially focus on plants with the potential to treat depression and will leverage Napo’s proprietary library of approximately 2,300 plants with medicinal properties. According to statistics available from the National Institute of Mental Health Disorders, part of the National Institutes of Health, approximately 9.5% of American adults ages 18 and over will suffer from a depressive illness (major depression, bipolar disorder, or dysthymia) each year.