Minister of Development and Technology Mike Currie extends congratulations to Aqua Health Ltd., Canada, a subsidiary of Swiss-based Novartis Animal Health, on the approval of their Novel Novartis Vaccine to protect Canadian salmon farms from devastating viral disease. Aqua Health Ltd. has two facilities in Prince Edward Island located in Victoria and West Royalty. The company recently announced an expansion of their PEI operation.
Apex®-IHN, the first effective vaccine to prevent Infectious Haemathopoietic Necrosis (IHN) in farm-raised Atlantic Salmon, was recently cleared for marketing by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on July 15, 2005. IHN is a spreading viral disease causing serious economic losses for the salmon industry in British Columbia, Canada. Apex-IHN, developed by Aqua Health Ltd., is also the first approved vaccine, using the DNA-technology licensed from Vical Inc. (Nasdaq:VICL), to induce an effective immune response in fish.
“Research and development in the bio-science industry will play a significantly important role in PEI’s economy in the years to come,” said Minister Currie. “The development of products for human and animal health is a natural fit for a next stage development in a resource-based economy. We are pleased to have Novartis in PEI and are impressed with this significant achievement.”
Director of Aqua Health Ltd., Garth Greenham, points to the new vaccine technology used to develop Apex-IHN and the many advantages this technology affords.
“Apex-IHN is the first approved vaccine of its kind for use in fish. A number of research groups are currently developing such vaccines against diseases out of reach of available vaccine technologies in the animal and human health field,” said Greenham. “Apex-IHN stimulates the fish to produce a pure viral protein, which in turn triggers the desired immune response - a new approach with well documented advantages regarding effectiveness and tolerability.”
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