Lisa Conte
Founder & CEO, Jaguar Health & Napo Pharmaceuticals
Ms. Conte is the founder, president and chief executive officer, and a member of the board of directors, of Jaguar Health, a commercial-stage pharmaceuticals company committed to discovering, developing, and commercializing plant-based prescription medicines for urgent global health needs. Mytesi®, the company’s FDA-approved drug product indicated for the symptomatic relief of noninfectious diarrhea in adults with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral therapy, is a first-in-class, plant-based anti-secretory agent and the first oral drug approved under FDA Botanical Guidance. In July 2017, two companies founded by Ms. Conte—Napo Pharmaceuticals, a human-focused pharmaceuticals company, and Jaguar Animal Health, the veterinary-focused licensor of all of Napo’s technology—merged and now comprise Jaguar Health. In 1989, Ms. Conte also founded Shaman Pharmaceuticals, and has pioneered plant-based prescription medicine investigation and development for more than 30 years, including a recent Entheogen Therapeutics Initiative, looking at psychoactive plants for novel cures for mood disorders and CNS neurodegenerative diseases. Ms. Conte is a member of the board of directors of Healing Forest Conservatory, serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Life Science Leader magazine, and serves on the Leadership Council of Pure Earth. She holds an M.S. in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of California, San Diego, and an M.B.A. and A.B. in Biochemistry from Dartmouth College.