Jaguar Health Inc. announced that it has signed an exclusive 5-year in-license agreement with Venture Life Group PLC for Venture Life's FDA-approved oral mucositis prescription product, Gelclair, for the U.S. market. Oral mucositis, also called "chemo mouth," has emerged as the most significant adverse event in oncology according to a National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) task force. Up to 40% of all patients treated with chemotherapy develop oral mucositis, and this percentage rises to approximately 90% for patients with head and neck cancers treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Of the latter, 19% may end up being hospitalized, experiencing a delay in antineoplastic treatment for high-grade mucositis management, resulting in a reduction of the quality of life, a worse prognosis and an increase in patient management costs. Oral mucositis can negatively affect diet, nutrition, oral hygiene, and quality of life. Its adverse physical, social and psychological impacts on patients are manifest and include the need for total parenteral nutrition, higher risk of systemic infections, increased use of antifungals and opioid analgesics, increased hospitalizations with longer hospital stays, social isolation and depression due to the inability to talk and eat, subsequent dose reductions, treatment interruptions and discontinuations, and as a corollary to dose reductions and treatment interruptions/discontinuations, diminished anti-tumor responses and shorter survival.

The economic consequences are far from trivial, with the incremental cost of oral mucositis exceeding $17,000 for patients with head and neck cancer patients with head and neck cancers. Gelclair is a clinically proven, convenient, and easy to use gel that provides rapid and long-lasting pain relief and improves the ability of oral mucositis patients to eat, drink, swallow, speak and sleep. Gelclair also reduces the need to use parenteral feeding or opiate analgesics.