AI technology is expected to help make it faster and easier for Mytesi^® patients to start and stay on the drug

SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / March 13, 2023 / Jaguar Health, Inc. (Nasdaq:JAGX) ("Jaguar" or the "Company") today announced that the Company is developing an artificial intelligence-powered web portal for U.S. healthcare professionals to support patient access to Mytesi (crofelemer), the Company's FDA-approved antidiarrheal prescription drug indicated for the symptomatic relief of noninfectious diarrhea in adult patients with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral therapy.

"We remain committed to reducing access and reimbursement barriers for Mytesi patients. One key challenge we often hear from patients and their healthcare providers is that payers and insurance companies frequently require prior authorization to approve medication reimbursement, and it can be time consuming and complicated to provide the needed information," said Ian H. Wendt, Jaguar's Chief Commercial Officer. "Artificial intelligence (AI) technology, like OpenAI's generative AI language model ChatGPT, is an innovative and powerful tool that allows providers to expeditiously communicate their professional judgment by significantly reducing the time and complexity of drafting letters of medical necessity. We are working to create a user-friendly, ChatGPT-enabled interface to help make this otherwise burdensome process easier and faster for healthcare providers to navigate in a compliant way."

According to a December 2021 American Medical Association (AMA) survey of 1,004 practicing U.S. physicians, an overwhelming majority (88%) of participants reported that the prior authorization (PA) process interferes with continuity of care, and 84% reported that the number of PAs required for prescription medications and medical services had increased over the last five years. The AMA survey also found that 93% of participating physicians reported care delays while waiting for insurers to authorize necessary care, 82% said a PA can lead to treatment abandonment because of PA struggles with the patient's insurance company, and almost one in five prescriptions require a PA.

"The AMA survey found that the phone is the most commonly used method for completing PAs, and, moreover, that only 26% of physicians reported that their Electronic Health Record system offers an electronic PA process for prescription medications, indicating that the PA process is currently highly inefficient for the majority of health care providers," added Wendt. "Leveraging AI technology in support of the PA process is expected to help a significant number of Mytesi patients start on their medically appropriate and necessary medication quicker and be able to stay on their prescribed regimen, helping ensure they spend fewer days suffering needlessly from HIV-related diarrhea."

No Protected Health Information (PHI) will be collected by the Company's AI-powered web portal to support patient access to Mytesi.

About Mytesi^®

Mytesi (crofelemer) is an antidiarrheal indicated for the symptomatic relief of noninfectious diarrhea in adult patients with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Mytesi is not indicated for the treatment of infectious diarrhea. Rule out infectious etiologies of diarrhea before starting Mytesi. If infectious etiologies are not considered, there is a risk that patients with infectious etiologies will not receive the appropriate therapy and their disease may worsen. In clinical studies, the most common adverse reactions occurring at a rate greater than placebo were upper respiratory tract infection (5.7%), bronchitis (3.9%), cough (3.5%), flatulence (3.1%), and increased bilirubin (3.1%).

See full Prescribing Information at Mytesi.com. Crofelemer, the active ingredient in Mytesi, is a botanical (plant-based) drug extracted and purified from the red bark sap of the Croton lechleri tree in the Amazon rainforest. Napo Pharmaceuticals, Jaguar Health's wholly owned subsidiary, has established a sustainable harvesting program for crofelemer to ensure a high degree of quality and ecological integrity.

About Jaguar Health, Napo Pharmaceuticals, Napo Therapeutics & Jaguar Animal Health

Jaguar Health, Inc. is a commercial stage pharmaceuticals company focused on developing novel, plant-based, sustainably derived prescription medicines for people and animals with GI distress, including chronic, debilitating diarrhea. 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. Jaguar Animal Health is a tradename of Jaguar Health.

For more information about Jaguar Health, please visit https://jaguar.health. For more information about Napo Pharmaceuticals, visit www.napopharma.com. For more information about Napo Therapeutics, visit napotherapeutics.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements." These include statements regarding Jaguar's expectation that leveraging AI technology in support of the PA process will help a significant number of Mytesi patients start on their medically appropriate and necessary medication quicker and be able to stay on their prescribed regimen, and the Company's expectation that a ChatGPT-enabled interface will help make the PA process easier and faster for healthcare providers to navigate in a compliant way. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as "may," "will," "should," "expect," "plan," "aim," "anticipate," "could," "intend," "target," "project," "contemplate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. The forward-looking statements in this release are only predictions. Jaguar has based these forward-looking statements largely on its current expectations and projections about future events. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified and some of which are beyond Jaguar's control. Except as required by applicable law, Jaguar does not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether as a result of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise.

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SOURCE: Jaguar Health, Inc.