Benzinga | Jul 22, 2020 08:32AM EDT

Jaguar Health Subsidiary Receiving Preclinical Services From The National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases For New Preclinical Study Initiated July 21, 2020 For Lechlemer Plant-based Drug Candidate For Cholera

SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 22, 2020 / Jaguar Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAGX) ("Jaguar" or the "Company") announced today that the 28-day preclinical toxicology and safety study in rats began yesterday to support development of lechlemer, the second generation, plant-based anti-secretory drug candidate of Napo Pharmaceuticals ("Napo"), Jaguar's wholly owned subsidiary, for the symptomatic relief of diarrhea from cholera.

As previously announced, Napo Pharmaceuticals is receiving preclinical services from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ("NIAID") to support lechlemer development. Under NIAID's suite of preclinical services, NIAID-funded contractors are conducting the 28-day rat study. NIAID is part of the National Institutes of Health.

"We are grateful for NIAID's support to conduct this important 28-day toxicity and safety study in rats, which is expected to support the Investigational New Drug (IND) application we plan to file for lechlemer," stated Steven King, PhD, Jaguar's chief of sustainable supply, ethnobotanical research and IP. "As announced in October of 2019, a short-term, 7-day, preclinical toxicology study in rats to support lechlemer development for cholera has been completed. Under NIAID's suite of preclinical services, NIAID-funded contractors conducted the initial 7-day rat toxicology study, and completion of this shorter study allowed for this longer-term, 28-day, IND-enabling toxicity study."

The Company believes that lechlemer, which has the same mechanism of action as crofelemer and is significantly less costly to produce, may support efforts to receive a priority review voucher from the FDA for a cholera indication. Priority review vouchers are granted by the FDA to drug developers as an incentive to develop treatments for neglected diseases and rare pediatric diseases. Additionally, the Company believes lechlemer represents a long-term pipeline opportunity as a second-generation anti-secretory agent, on a global basis, for multiple gastrointestinal diseases - especially in resource-constrained countries where cost of goods is a factor, in part, because requirements often exist in such regions for drug prices to decrease annually.

Cholera is an acute diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, an estimated 35 million cholera cases and more than 100,000 cholera-related deaths occur each year around the world. The infection is often mild or without symptoms, but can sometimes be severe. Approximately one in 10 of infected persons will have severe disease characterized by profuse watery diarrhea, vomiting, and leg cramps. In these people, rapid loss of body fluids leads to dehydration and shock. Without treatment, death can occur within hours. The largest cholera outbreak in recorded history is currently occurring in Yemen. According to Oxfam, the number of cholera cases in Yemen in 2019 was the second largest ever recorded in a country in a single year, surpassed only by the numbers in Yemen in 2017.

Lechlemer is a drug candidate under the botanical guidance of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA"). It is a standardized and proprietary Napo botanical extract that is distinct from Mytesi(r) (crofelemer), the Company's FDA-approved drug product. Lechlemer is sustainably derived from the same source as Mytesi: the Croton lechleri tree.

The Company has previously presented Phase 2 data on crofelemer for the treatment of devastating dehydration in cholera patients from the renowned International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (icddr,b) in Bangladesh. Napo plans to follow the same study design for lechlemer.