Jaguar Animal Health ($JAGX), which is developing gastrointestinal products for pets and livestock, has agreed to debt financing for up to $8 million that it plans to use to shore up its efforts to get its lead product, Canalevia, to market.
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| Jaguar CEO Lisa Conte |
The California-based company has had a tough go of it in the past year. Last August, it had hopes of raising $70 million through a public offering. However, by November, market conditions forced Jaguar to trim the number to $51.75 million, and 10 days after making that discouraging announcement the IPO was postponed.
In May, Jaguar pulled the trigger on the offering but was met with a disappointing response from Wall Street. Jaguar's stock opened at $7 and almost immediately fell 3% to $6.80. At the time, the company expected to raise about $20 million before expenses.
When the debt financing was announced last Wednesday along with news the company had submitted to the FDA all required major technical sections for its New Animal Drug Application (NADA) for Canalevia, Jaguar's stock closed at $3.03. By the end of trading Friday, the company's stock fell--along with the major markets on anxiety related to China and fears of a slowing global economy--to $2.68.
Under terms of the debt financing done with Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Jaguar tapped into $6 million immediately. The additional $2 million is available to the company if certain milestones are reached, the company said in a press release.
"This financing extends our cash runway as we remain on track to bring our first prescription product for dogs with chemotherapy-induced diarrhea, Canalevia, to market in early 2016, as well as expand our ongoing commercial opportunities with Neonorm," Lisa Conte, Jaguar's president and CEO, said in a statement.
The company is developing prescription and nonprescription medicines derived from a botanical ingredient called crofelemer. In December, it finished a safety study of Neonorm Foal, an experimental product for treating diarrhea in young horses. Its lead prescription product is Canalevia.
- see the debt financing release
- read the NADA release
- check out Jaguar's latest 10Q filing