AquaBounty Reports Q2 Losses
Aerial view of AquaBounty's facility in Albany
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowMassachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: AQB) has released its second quarter financial report, the first such update since the company started commercial production of its genetically engineered salmon in Albany.
The land-based aquaculture company reported a net loss of $4.0 million, an increase from its $2.8 million loss in the same period last year.
The company started production of its AquAdvantage-brand salmon in June after waiting two years for regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The company received FDA approval in April 2018 to raise fish at the Albany facility, but had to wait until FDA’s Import Alert was lifted to produce the salmon for commercial sale.
“This past quarter was a historic one for AquaBounty,” said Sylvia Wulf, chief executive officer AquaBounty. “FDA’s lifting of the Import Alert on AquAdvantage Salmon allowed us to stock our eggs at our Indiana farm site and, for the first time ever, grow our fish in the United States.”
The AquAdvantage Salmon, according to the company, has been bioengineered to grow to market size in about half the time of traditional Atlantic salmon.
The company says around 150,000 bioengineered eggs are inside the facility’s incubator trays. AquaBounty expects the first harvest to occur in the fall of 2020.