Wordpress + ACF | REST API Query the Results by the Initial Character

I’m developing a custom data directory using WordPress and Custom Form Fields, and I’m fetching the data through the WordPress REST API to display it in a Next.js web application.

I need to filter the results based on the starting character of a custom field. However, I couldn't find a built-in option to filter results by the starting character when querying the WordPress REST API for Custom Form Fields.

Here’s my server data fetching server action.

export async function fetchDrugs(filter: {  search?: string;  character?: string;  page?: number;}) {  try {    console.log("Character" + filter.character);    const params: any = {      per_page: 8,      page: filter.page || 1,      orderby: "title",      order: "asc",      _fields: "id,title,acf", // Optimize response    };    if (filter.search) {      params.search = filter.search;    }    if (filter.character) {      params.meta_query = JSON.stringify([        {          key: "drug",          value: `${filter.character}%`,           compare: "LIKE",        },      ]);    }    const res = await axios.get(`${backendURL}/wp-json/wp/v2/drugs`, {      params,    });    return {      drugs: res.data,      totalPages: res.headers["x-wp-totalpages"],    };  } catch (error: any) {    console.error("Error fetching drugs:", error);    throw error;  }}

 URL QUERY PARAMS: http://localhost:3000/drug?character=Z

How can I modify my query to filter the custom field data by the starting character of the field value using the WordPress REST API?