Whole leaf coca extract under evaluation is Magdalena's drug candidate for post-GLP-1 weight loss management
SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESS Newswire / March 16, 2026 / Jaguar Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAGX) ("Jaguar") today announced that Magdalena Biosciences ("Magdalena"), a US-based joint venture formed by Jaguar and Canada-based Filament Health Corp. (OTC:FLHLF) ("Filament"), has initiated a preclinical study evaluating the effectiveness of a whole leaf coca extract for appetite suppression. The coca leaf extract is Magdalena's drug candidate for post-GLP-1 weight loss management. This one-month study in mice is being conducted in Alberta, Canada.
"We are very pleased to have initiated this study of Magdalena's whole leaf coca extract being developed under FDA botanical drug guidance," said Steven King, Ph.D., Jaguar's Chief Sustainable Supply and Ethnobotanical Research Officer and an Advisor to Magdalena. "Indigenous peoples and healers in the Andean region of Peru have utilized coca for centuries to manage hunger and fatigue. Magdalena is focusing on a number of potential applications for a coca-based therapeutic that can help suppress appetite, including but not limited to appetite suppression in people who have taken GLP-1's and related drugs on a short-term basis and who are eager to not add weight back following treatment. It's common for people to regain weight after stopping GLP-1 drugs because these medications actively change appetite and metabolism while you take them. When the drug is removed, the body's natural weight-regulation system often returns to its previous state."
The coca leaf that is part of this Magdalena research and development program was provided to Magdalena by Empresa Nacional de La Coca (ENACO), a Peruvian state company dedicated to the commercialization of the coca leaf and derivatives, with an Internationally Recognized Certificate of Compliance (IRCC) in compliance with the Nagoya Protocol requirements of Peru.
As announced, Magdalena also plans to evaluate a variety of potential mental health and central nervous system (CNS) indications for coca, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other neuropsychiatric indications.
"We believe the development of FDA-approved drugs from 'whole extract' coca leaf can provide therapeutic benefit, and that the development process will benefit the people of Peru, who have been sustainably producing coca leaves for several thousand years. Plant-derived medicines offer potential new mechanisms of action while being potentially safer than chemically synthesized small molecule drugs that may have 'off target' effects," Dr. King said. "We are grateful to the people of the Andean region who have domesticated the sacred plant, 'mama coca,' which is and has been interwoven in the ritual, spiritual and traditional medicine of indigenous and non-indigenous communities for an estimated 8,000 years."
"The initiation of this study in Alberta is a key step in the important work of exploring coca leaf's therapeutic potential for appetite suppression and weight loss management," said Lisa Conte, Jaguar's founder, president, and CEO and a member of Magdalena's board of directors.
ABOUT MAGDALENA BIOSCIENCES
Jaguar Health, Inc. and Filament Health Corp. formed Magdalena Biosciences, Inc. as a joint venture in 2023 to develop novel, natural prescription medicines derived from plants for mental health and CNS indications. Boulder, Colorado-based One Small Planet, founded by Will Peterffy, has committed to funding of US$1,000,000. 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.
ABOUT FILAMENT HEALTH (OTC:FLHLF)
Filament Health is a clinical-stage natural psychedelic drug development company. We believe that safe, standardized, naturally-derived psychedelic medicines can improve the lives of many, and our mission is 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 psychedelic medicines. We are paving the way with what we believe to be the first-ever natural psychedelic drug candidates.
Learn more at www.filament.health and on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
About the Jaguar Health Family of Companies
Jaguar Health, Inc. ("Jaguar") develops novel proprietary prescription drugs sustainably derived from plants for people with complicated gastrointestinal ("GI") disease states. Jaguar family companies Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Napo Therapeutics S.p.A. focus on the development and commercialization of novel crofelemer powder for oral solution for the treatment of rare and orphan gastrointestinal disorders with intestinal failure, including microvillus inclusion disease and short bowel syndrome. Magdalena Biosciences, a joint venture formed by Jaguar and Filament Health Corp. that emerged from Jaguar's Entheogen Therapeutics Initiative (ETI), is focused on developing novel prescription medicines derived from plants for mental health indications.
For more information about:
Jaguar Health, visit https://jaguar.health
Napo Pharmaceuticals, visit napopharma.com
Napo Therapeutics, visit napotherapeutics.com
Magdalena Biosciences, visit magdalenabiosciences.com
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements." These include statements regarding the expectation that Magdalena will evaluate a variety of potential mental health and CNS indications for coca, including ADHD and other neuropsychiatric indications, the expectation that development of drugs from 'whole extract' coca leaf can provide therapeutic benefit and that the development process will benefit the people of Peru. 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.
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/healthcare-and-pharmaceutical/magdalena-biosciences-a-joint-venture-between-jaguar-health-and-filam-1147953
