Jaguar Health and Filament Health, with Funding from One Small Planet, Form Joint Venture Magdalena Biosciences to Develop Botanical Pharmaceutical Drug Candidates for Mental Health Illnesses

 Jaguar Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAGX), Filament Health Corp. (NEO: FH | OTCQB: FLHLF) and One Small Planet, LLC today announced the formation of a U.S.-based joint venture named Magdalena Biosciences, Inc. to develop novel, natural prescription medicines derived from plants for mental health indications including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults. Initial funding of US$1,000,000 will be invested by Boulder, Colorado-based One Small Planet, founded by Will Peterffy. This funding will be payable in quarterly installments in 2023 based on the achievement of defined milestones by Magdalena Biosciences. The goal of the collaboration is to extend the botanical drug development capabilities of Jaguar and Filament in order to develop pharmaceutical-grade, standardized drug candidates for mental health disorders, and to partner with a potential future licensee to develop and commercialize these novel plant-based drugs.

“We are thrilled about the formation of Magdalena Biosciences and look forward to working with Filament and One Small Planet on this exciting initiative,” said Lisa Conte, Jaguar’s president and CEO. “The formation of Magdalena Biosciences allows for the mobilization of a key asset we have generated over 30 years – a library of 2,300 highly characterized medicinal plants and 3,500 plant extracts, all from firsthand ethnobotanical investigation by Jaguar and members of the Scientific Strategy Team for Jaguar’s mental health Entheogen Therapeutics Initiative (ETI), bridging the knowledge of traditional healers and Western medicine. Magdalena Biosciences holds an exclusive license to plants and plant extracts in Jaguar’s library, not including any sources of crofelemer or NP-300, for specific indications and is in the process of identifying plant candidates in the library that may prove beneficial for addressing indications such as ADHD.

Once considered a childhood disorder, ADHD is now acknowledged to persist into adulthood in approximately 50–65% of individuals,^{1, 2, 3} and impacts an estimated 5.2% of U.S. adults aged 18–44.¹ Treatment of ADHD remains challenging, as an estimated 20-50% of adult patients either are non-responders to stimulants or cannot tolerate the adverse effects of current therapeutics.⁴ New therapeutics in development for the global ADHD market, a market projected to reach a value of US$18.69 billion by 2030 according to a report by Grand View Research, show promise but continue to have significant side effects.

“We look forward to developing a potential plant-based alternative drug for adult ADHD that is both safe and efficacious, especially with respect to executive function, the cognitive skill deficit found in almost all pediatric and adult ADHD patients,” remarked Dr. Karen Brunke, Jaguar’s EVP of Corporate and Business Development and Acting CEO of Magdalena Biosciences.

As with Napo Pharmaceuticals, Jaguar’s wholly owned subsidiary, this new company is named after a river that has great cultural significance to Indigenous peoples. The Magdalena is the great arterial river of Colombia, flowing northward from its headwaters in the south of Colombia more than 900 miles to the Caribbean Sea.

Filament Health is a clinical-stage natural psychedelic drug development company. Filament believes that safe, standardized, naturally-derived botanical medicines can improve the lives of many, with a mission 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 medicines, including psychedelic medicines, for clinical development. Filament is paving the way with the first-ever natural psychedelic drug candidates. 

One Small Planet is a vital capital group. We are on a mission to harmonize the wealth of people and planet by working with the intelligence of the natural world to evolve our economic systems. Our founder, Will Peterffy, has spent his life building bridges between the natural and financial worlds. Witnessing how economic wealth was not incentivizing ecological wealth, he started One Small Planet to participate in the creation of new global systems informed by the natural world. We work with capital to contribute to new systems focusing on regenerative technologies that support human systems operating in harmony with nature. 

Jaguar Health, Inc. 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, including chronic, debilitating diarrhea. Jaguar Animal Health is a tradename of Jaguar Health. Jaguar Health’s wholly owned subsidiary, Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., focuses on developing and commercializing proprietary plant-based human pharmaceuticals from plants harvested responsibly from rainforest areas. Our crofelemer drug product candidate is the subject of the OnTarget study, an ongoing pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial for prophylaxis of diarrhea in adult cancer patients receiving targeted therapy. Jaguar Health is the majority shareholder of Napo Therapeutics S.p.A. (f/k/a Napo EU S.p.A.), an Italian corporation established by Jaguar Health in Milan, Italy in 2021 that focuses on expanding crofelemer access in Europe.