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September 12, 2017
VIA EDGAR
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20549
Attention: Jeffrey Gabor
Re: Jaguar Health, Inc.
Registration Statement on Form S-3
Filed August 29, 2017
File No. 333-220236
Dear Mr. Gabor:
On behalf of our client, Jaguar Health, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the Company), we hereby provide responses to comments (the Comments) of the Staff (the Staff) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) issued in its letter dated September 11, 2017 (the Letter) regarding the Companys above-referenced Registration Statement on Form S-3 (the Registration Statement). Contemporaneous with this filing, the Company is filing on the EDGAR system an Amendment No. 1 to the Registration Statement on Form S-3 (the S-3/A) reflecting the responses of the Company below.
The Companys responses are numbered to correspond to the Comments as numbered in the Letter. For your convenience, the Comments contained in the Letter has been restated in bold below in its entirety, with the Companys corresponding response set forth immediately under such comment. In the responses below, page number references are to the S-3/A. Terms used but not defined herein have the respective meanings assigned thereto in the S-3/A.
Form S-3 Filed August 29, 2017
Selling Shareholders, page 20
1. Please expand the disclosure in this section regarding Invesco. In that regard, please disclose the material terms of the transaction in which selling stockholders acquired securities from you or any predecessor or affiliate in the past three years to disclose the material terms of that transaction, including the date of the transaction and the nature and amount of consideration.
Response: The Company respectfully acknowledges the Staffs Comment, and in response thereto, has expanded the disclosure in the Selling Shareholders section on page 20 of the S-3/A regarding Invesco to disclose the material terms of the transaction in which Invesco acquired securities from the Company or any predecessor or affiliate in the past three years.
NEW YORK ¨ LONDON ¨ HONG KONG ¨ CHICAGO ¨ WASHINGTON, D.C. ¨ BEIJING ¨ PARIS ¨ LOS ANGELES ¨ SAN FRANCISCO ¨ PHILADELPHIA ¨ SHANGHAI ¨ PITTSBURGH ¨ HOUSTON SINGAPORE ¨ MUNICH ¨ ABU DHABI ¨ PRINCETON ¨ NORTHERN VIRGINIA ¨ WILMINGTON ¨ SILICON VALLEY ¨ DUBAI ¨ CENTURY CITY ¨ RICHMOND ¨ GREECE ¨KAZAKHSTAN
Jeffrey Gabor |
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Securities and Exchange Commission | |
Division of Corporation Finance | |
September 12, 2017 | |
Page 2 |
General
2. Please disclose how you calculated the public float, including how you determined the number of shares held by officers and directors of the company, 10% or greater shareholders, and the selling shareholders.
Response: In response to the Staffs comment, the Company has included on Exhibit A attached hereto its calculation of the public float. For purposes of this calculation, the Company does not currently consider any of its shareholders who are not directors or executive officers of the Company, including any such shareholders owning 10% or more of the Companys common stock, to be affiliates of the Company.
The term affiliate is defined in Rule 405 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), as a person that directly, or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with, an issuer. The term control is defined in Rule 405 under the Act as the possession, direct or indirect, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a person, whether through the ownership of voting securities, by contract, or otherwise.
The Staff has consistently taken the position that the determination of control status is dependent in large part on the facts and circumstances involved and, therefore, has declined to state definitively what circumstances will result in a person being deemed to be in control of an issuer. While the Company recognizes that, as a rule of thumb, more than 10% ownership has become an informal benchmark at which control should be evaluated, such ownership, standing alone, is not dispositive.
Based on the most recent information available to the Company from NASDAQ, the only 10% or greater shareholder of the Company is Nantucket Investments Limited (Nantucket), which owns approximately 35.0% of the Companys outstanding common stock as of July 31, 2017. Nantucket acquired all of its shares in the Company pursuant to a settlement and discounted payoff agreement, dated March 31, 2017 (the Settlement Agreement), by among Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Napo), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, Nantucket and lenders who were party to Napos existing financing agreement, dated October 10, 2014 (the Financing Agreement), pursuant to which Napo agreed, simultaneously with the consummation of the merger with the Company on July 31, 2017 (the Merger), (a) to make a cash payment to the Nantucket of no less than $8 million, which reduced the outstanding principal obligations under the Financing Agreement, and (b) in satisfaction as a compromise for the remaining outstanding obligations under the Financing Agreement and the release of any lien or security interest in respect of such outstanding obligations, (x) to transfer to Nantucket 2,666,666 shares of the Companys voting common stock (the Initial Tranche C Shares) owned by Napo and (y) pursuant to the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated March 31, 2017, by and among the Company, Napo, Napo Acquisition Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, and Napos representative (the Merger Agreement), to cause the Company to issue to Nantucket (i) 2,217,579 shares of the Companys voting common stock (the Remaining Tranche C Shares and, together with the Initial Tranche C Shares, the Tranche C Shares), (ii) 18,479,826 shares of the Companys non-voting common stock (the Tranche A Shares) and (iii) 19,700,625 shares of the Companys non-voting common stock (the Tranche B Shares and, collectively with the Tranche A Shares and the Tranche C Shares, the Debt Exchange Shares).
Jeffrey Gabor |
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Securities and Exchange Commission | |
Division of Corporation Finance | |
September 12, 2017 | |
Page 3 |
In connection with the execution of the Merger Agreement and the Settlement Agreement, the Company and Nantucket entered into an Investor Rights Agreement, dated March 31, 2017 (the Investor Rights Agreement), pursuant to which, among other things, the Company agreed to pay Nantuckets up to $250,000 of expenses incurred in connection with the transactions contemplated by the Investor Rights Agreement, Settlement Agreement and Merger Agreement, which, pursuant to the terms of the Investor Rights Agreement, the Company at its option elected to pay such $250,000 of expenses by issuing 270,270 additional shares of the Companys non-voting common stock (the Expense Reimbursement Shares) to Nantucket. The Company also agreed to register on one or more registration statements (1) the resale of the Tranche C Shares and the shares of voting common stock issuable upon conversion of the Expense Reimbursement Shares, (2) the Tranche A Shares and, to the extent certain conditions are met, (3) the Tranche B Shares. The Tranche B Shares are not included in Nantuckets share ownership percentage because they are currently held escrow and shall be released from escrow under specified conditions only upon joint instruction of both the Company and Nantucket in accordance with the terms of the Investor Rights Agreement.
Nantucket is a passive investor and has reported its beneficial ownership on a Schedule 13G thereby disclaiming any control intent. Other factors evidencing that Nantucket is not an affiliate include:
· Neither Nantucket nor any representative of Nantucket has ever served as an officer of the Company.
· Nantucket does not possess the power, directly or indirectly, to elect or designate any member of the Companys Board of Directors.
· Nantucket does not have the ability, by relationship, contract or otherwise, to affect the management or policies of the Company. Moreover, the Companys management has indicated that Nantucket has not sought to consult on management activities of the Company.
· There are no other control indicia with respect to Nantucket. There are no familial relationships and, except as described above, no other business relationships between the Company and Nantucket.
3. Please confirm that at the time of the purchase of the securities to be resold, the seller purchased in the ordinary course of business and did not have any agreements or understandings, directly or indirectly, with any person to distribute the securities. If you cannot make these representations on behalf of the selling shareholder, please identify it in the prospectus as an underwriter. Also, disclose the Item 507 of Regulation S-K information about any persons (entities or natural persons) who have control over the selling entity and who have had a material relationship with the registrant or any of its predecessors or affiliates within the past three years. In such case, please identify each such person and describe the nature of any relationships. For guidance, refer to our Regulation S-K Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations 140.02.
Response: The Company acknowledges the Staffs Comment and respectfully confirms that at the time of the purchase of the securities to be resold, each of the sellers purchased in the ordinary course of business and did not have any agreements or understandings, directly or indirectly, with any person to distribute the securities. In addition, the Company respectfully advises that no person who has control over either of the selling entities has a material relationship with the Company or its predecessors or affiliates within the past three years.
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Jeffrey Gabor |
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Securities and Exchange Commission | |
Division of Corporation Finance | |
September 12, 2017 | |
Page 4 |
Should you have any questions concerning any of the foregoing, please contact me by telephone at (212) 530-5586.
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Sincerely, |
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/s/ Michael S. Lee |
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Michael S. Lee |
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Reed Smith LLP |
Cc: Lisa A. Conte, Jaguar Animal Health, Inc., by e-mail
Karen Wright, Jaguar Animal Health, Inc., by e-mail
Dan Harris, BDO USA, LLP, by e-mail
Donald C. Reinke, Reed Smith LLP, by e-mail
Exhibit A
Public Float Calculations
Calculation Date: July 31, 2017 (29 days before filing date)
Closing Sale Price: $0.56 per share
Outstanding Shares: 67,430,585 shares
Affiliate-Owned Shares (shares owned by directors and officers):
Stockholder |
|
Affiliation |
|
Shares |
James J. Bochnowski |
|
Director |
|
578,576 |
Lisa Conte |
|
Executive Officer and Director |
|
11,297 |
Steven King |
|
Executive Officer |
|
6,636 |
Total Affiliate Shares: 605,509 shares
Total Non-Affiliate Shares: 66,825,076 shares
Market Value of Non-Affiliate Shares: $37,422,042.56