Benzinga | Sep 16, 2020 08:34AM EDT

Jaguar Health Establishes Scientific Strategy Team To 'Support Newly Launched Mental Health Entheogen Therapeutics Initiative'

Team of advisors will guide strategic research to discover and develop potential novel, natural psychoactive prescription medicines derived from Jaguar's library of 2,300 plants

SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / September 16, 2020 / Jaguar Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAGX) announced today the formation of a scientific strategy team (SST) to support the company's recently launched mental health Entheogen Therapeutics Initiative (ETI), which aims to discover and develop groundbreaking, novel, natural medicines derived from psychoactive plants for treatment of mood disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, addiction, and other mental health disorders. The newly appointed scientific strategy team consists of leading and globally renowned ethnobotanists, physicians, and pharmacologists as well as experts in the fields of natural product chemistry and neuropharmacology.

"We believe the wealth of expertise, experience, and commitment of our ETI scientific strategy team - comprised of multiple members of the original scientific strategy team that contributed to development of Jaguar's proprietary library of approximately 2,300 plants - will play an instrumental role in advancing our shared initial goal of identifying plants in our library that may have the potential to treat mood disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic sclerosis," said Steven King, Ph.D., Jaguar's chief sustainable supply, ethnobotanical research and IP officer. Mood disorders and neurodegenerative diseases affect hundreds of millions of people around the globe and represent classic unmet medical needs.

The scientific strategy team for Jaguar's Entheogen Therapeutics Initiative is comprised of the following members:

* Michael J. Balick, Ph.D.: Considered one of the world's leading ethnobotanists and economic botanists; specialist in healing plants and toxic plants and their use by Indigenous peoples; research associate of the Brain Chemistry Labs of the Institute of EthnoMedicine; member of original scientific strategy team that contributed to development of Jaguar's plant library.

* Thomas Carlson, M.D., M.S.: Ethnobotanist, botanist, physician; teaching professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley; member of original scientific strategy team that contributed to development of Jaguar's plant library; key architect of ethnomedical field research process conducted by ethnobotanist/physician teams of Jaguar predecessor company Shaman Pharmaceuticals.

* Pravin Chaturvedi, Ph.D.: Pharmacologist with specialty in neuropharmacology; chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Napo Pharmaceuticals (Napo), Jaguar's wholly owned subsidiary, and the acting chief scientific officer of Jaguar; Over 25+ year career, led discovery and/or development activities for several new chemical entities including development of Napo's FDA-approved drug product, Mytesi(r) (crofelemer), the only oral plant-based prescription medicine approved under FDA Botanical Guidance.

* Stephen Dahmer, M.D.: Ethnomedical researcher and practicing integrative physician; expert on endocannabinoids who has conducted ethnomedical field research in tropical regions.

* Wade Davis, Ph.D.: Ethnobotanist, anthropologist, writer, and professor of anthropology at University of British Columbia; extensive international ethnobotanical field research.

* Elaine Elisabetsky, Ph.D.: Among world's leading ethnopharmacologists; professor in the pharmacology and biochemistry departments of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil; member of original scientific strategy team that contributed to development of Jaguar's plant library.

* Maurice Iwu, Ph.D.: President of Bioresources Development Group and founder of International Center for Ethnomedicine and Drug Development (InterCEDD) in Nigeria; member of original scientific strategy team that contributed to development of Jaguar's plant library.

* Steven R. King, Ph.D.: Ethnobotanist; Napo's chief sustainable supply and ethnobotanical research officer; managed Napo's original scientific strategy team and outcomes; research associate of the Brain Chemistry Labs of the Institute of EthnoMedicine.

* Charles Limbach, M.D.: Ethnomedical specialist and family medicine physician; member of original scientific strategy team that contributed to development of Jaguar's plant library.

* David Sesin, Ph.D.: Natural product chemist; Jaguar's chief manufacturing officer; created isolation and manufacturing process for Mytesi (crofelemer).

"Jaguar is thrilled to be leading this effort to potentially uncover a pipeline of novel psychoactive plant-based compounds, engage with recognized leaders in this space, and share our findings with potential corporate partners with the goal of developing plant-based compounds into possible medical breakthroughs," said Lisa Conte, Jaguar's president and CEO. "While we remain steadfastly focused on the commercial success of Mytesi and on the development of crofelemer follow-on indications in the area of GI health, we believe the same competencies and multi-disciplinary scientific strategy that led to the development of crofelemer will support collaborative efforts to discover and develop novel first-in-class prescription medicines derived from psychoactive plants. I am particularly excited to bring back so many members of the original SST that led to the discovery and development of Mytesi, our plant-based, FDA-approved drug product."