Patented new substance against salmon lice
Norway's Vestland Pharma has patented a new substance against salmon lice that it hopes can become a medicine. Now the venture company Sarsia and seafood exporter Coast Seafood are joining the ownership side to finance testing.
Vestland Pharma calls the salmon lice treatment environmentally friendly, natural, and effective in a press release.
It also writes that the motivation of Sarsia and Coast Seafood is to ensure that it can come to market as quickly as possible as a medicine.
Vestland says that over the past ten years, the use of medicines against salmon lice has fallen from 95% of all treatments to well below 10%, due mainly to environmental considerations and resistance problems.
"The aquaculture industry is facing an urgent need for new methods that can reduce the harmful effects of salmon lice in a sustainable way. The transition to non-medicinal methods has not been unproblematic for the fish, which underscores the need for new and more gentle solutions," said Vestland Pharma chief executive Jan Rune Nordhagen.
Environmentally friendly
The company said that this is the first time a substance has been developed that has high effectiveness against salmon lice and is completely natural and environmentally friendly. It can therefore be safely released into nature without harming other animal species and there is no need for mechanical or thermal treatment, it is claimed.
“Vestland Pharma's drug has shown very promising results in initial tests. Sarsia has expertise in fish diseases, microbiology and drug development, and has experience in financing the development and approval of drugs as well as with the development and scaling of start-up companies. We are proud to contribute to the development of a drug that is both effective against salmon lice and safeguards fish welfare and the marine environment," said Henrik Solberg-Johansen, a partner in Sarsia.
NOK 12m commitment
Sverre Søraa, chief executive of Coast Seafood, said the company works closely with fish farmers all over Norway. "Salmon lice affect not only fish farmers, but the entire value chain. We know how critical the situation has become and will through the investment in Vestland Pharma contribute to finding good, environmentally friendly and efficient solutions."
Sarsia and Coast are fully financing the first part of the project by injecting NOK 12 million (£856,000) into Vestland Pharma. The company has also received NOK 10.6m from Innovation Norway's Environmental Technology Scheme to conduct studies on fish welfare, efficiency, and ecotoxicology, which are needed to approve the new drug.
