Jaguar Health Launches TikTok and Instagram Contest to Raise Awareness About Common Yet Barely Addressed Health Condition: Surprise Diarrhea

Lip-syncing and singing contest on social media features opportunity to duet with Grammy Award-winner Jenn Colella and encourages open dialogue about chronic and surprise diarrhea

Visit the contest social channels @surprisediarrheacontest on TikTok and/or Instagram to enter contest

All entries will support donation to nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting HIV long-term survivors; winners will receive prize money, bidets, and donations to qualified nonprofits

Prestigious judging panel includes queer health expert and gastroenterologist Dr. Carlton Thomas

SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / September 27, 2023 / Napo Pharmaceuticals (Napo), a Jaguar Health (NASDAQ:JAGX) (Jaguar) family company, announced today, on National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, the launch of the Surprise Diarrhea Lip-Syncing and Singing social media contest, which is designed to raise awareness about a common condition among people living with HIV that is rarely talked about - chronic and surprise diarrhea. The contest encourages an online duet with Grammy Award-winner and Tony Award-nominee Jenn Colella, either lip-syncing or singing an original song by Henry Nettleton and Luke Holloway. A donation to the nonprofit organization Let's Kick ASS - AIDS Survivor Syndrome, which is dedicated to empowering HIV long-term survivors, will be made by Napo on behalf of each individual or chorus that posts a song entry to TikTok or Instagram. Winners will receive prize money, bidet toilet attachments, and donations directed to qualified charities of their choice.

Contest judge Dr. Carlton Thomas is a Mayo Clinic-trained gastroenterologist and LGBTQ+ health and sex education influencer. He is a contributor to Men's Health magazine and The Advocate and was featured in the New York Times article "How Gay Men Saved Us from MPOX." His social media work during the MPOX outbreak was recognized by the White House, and he helped formulate rectal pain control regimens that the CDC added as part of their clinical guidance. He has been on dozens of podcasts including Savage Love with Dan Savage and Trust & Believe with Shaun T. Dr. Thomas is a community influencer with more than 340,000 social media followers internationally, and operates a sex-positive social media platform on TikTok and Instagram. He was recently awarded Queerty Pride50 in 2023; San Diego Hero of Pride, 2023; and Out100 from Out magazine, 2022.

Significant advances have been made in the treatment of HIV. An estimated 50% of people living with HIV in the U.S. are now long-term survivors, having lived with HIV for 10 years or more. However, an estimated 87% of HIV long-term survivors have experienced chronic diarrhea, and discussions about HIV-related diarrhea rarely take place.

"Living with diarrhea that can surprise you at any time is no way to live or love! I'm delighted to be working with Napo and Let's Kick ASS to raise awareness about this treatable condition," said Dr. Thomas, "and encourage all performers out there to sing it out and sing it loud and participate in this fabulous contest!"

Dr. Thomas is a member of the panel of judges who will help decide the winners of the contest, which runs from September 27, 2023 to November 1, 2023.

HOW TO ENTER THE CONTEST:

Take your chance to help make a difference to help end the stigma and shame around diarrhea. Your entry can help us raise awareness and support the HIV/AIDS community.

• Create a duet or collab video of you lip-syncing or singing the contest song "Let's Talk About (Surprise) Diarrhea" with Jenn Colella (song lyrics are available at www.surprisediarrhea.com)
• The contest is open to individuals and choruses
• Post your video to TikTok and/or Instagram using the hashtag #SurpriseDiarrhea, and make sure to tag the contest social channels @surprisediarrheacontest on TikTok and/or Instagram
• Finalists will compete in a second round of video submissions featuring a new song!
• The contest grand finale will take place online November 1, 2023!

For every individual or chorus that enters the contest, Napo will make a $100 donation to Let's Kick ASS until Napo reaches its goal of donating $10,000 to this organization.

Cash prizes will be awarded to the first and second place individual winners and the first and second place chorus winners. The first place individual and chorus winners will also receive a bidet attachment for a toilet, and all winners will receive a print of a painting by an indigenous rainforest artist. A donation of $5,000 and a donation of $2,500, by Napo on behalf of the first and second place individual winners, respectively, will be made to a qualifying nonprofit organization chosen by these winners.

To see all contest prizes and rules, click here.

"We are excited to kick off this important gut health awareness contest which allows us to raise our voices about surprise diarrhea, a common, life-altering condition that can happen at any time, anywhere, and under any circumstance, and is rarely talked about let alone sung about," said Tez Anderson, Founder of Let's Kick ASS. "The game is on for choruses and all performers who care about dispelling topics that may elicit stigma and shame in our community. See you online for the contest grand finale on November 1, 2023!"

Jaguar Founder, President, and CEO Lisa Conte said, "We look forward to seeing and hearing individual performers and choruses from around the country raise their voices about surprise diarrhea. It's been a silent condition for far too long for so many reasons, from feelings of embarrassment to exasperation to hopelessness. The time is now to sing it out with humor, with dignity, and help encourage people living with HIV/AIDS to talk to their doctors about how to manage it."

If you are HIV positive and suffering from diarrhea, chat with your doctor. Finding relief from chronic HIV-related diarrhea is possible. To learn more about HIV-related diarrhea, click here to visit the contest website.

About Let's Kick ASS

Let's Kick ASS-AIDS Survivor Syndrome is a grassroots movement of HIV Long-Term Survivors devoted to honoring the unique and profound experience of living through the AIDS epidemic. Established in 2013, we focus on empowering, engaging, unifying, and elevating HLTS to reclaim our lives, end isolation, and envision a future we never dreamed we'd live.

We foster Healthy Aging with HIV through a variety of programs, town halls, exercise classes, and therapist-facilitated support groups focused on building a thriving mindset. We're a 501(c)(3) California non-profit corporation.

About the Jaguar Health Family of Companies

Jaguar Health, Inc. (Jaguar) is a commercial stage pharmaceuticals company focused on developing novel proprietary prescription medicines sustainably derived from plants from rainforest areas for people and animals with gastrointestinal distress, specifically associated with overactive bowel, which includes symptoms such as chronic debilitating diarrhea, urgency, and bowel incontinence. Jaguar family company Napo Pharmaceuticals focuses on developing and commercializing human prescription pharmaceuticals for essential supportive care and management of neglected gastrointestinal symptoms across multiple complicated disease states. Napo Pharmaceuticals' crofelemer drug product candidate is the subject of the OnTarget study, an ongoing pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial for preventive treatment of chemotherapy-induced overactive bowel (CIOB) in adults with cancer on targeted therapy. Jaguar family company Napo Therapeutics is an Italian corporation Jaguar established in Milan, Italy in 2021 focused on expanding crofelemer access in Europe and specifically for orphan and/or rare diseases. Jaguar Animal Health is a Jaguar tradename. 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, please visit https://jaguar.health. For more information about Napo Pharmaceuticals, visit www.napopharma.com. For more information about Napo Therapeutics, visit napotherapeutics.com. For more information about 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 the contest grand finale will take place online November 1, 2023. 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.

Contact:

hello@jaguar.health

SOURCE: Jaguar Health, Inc.