The company announces that it has started trials which are examining the role of a proprietary vaccine adjuvant, designed for use in the KHV vaccine programme, but also with potential utility in other commercially important fish vaccines. It added that the cost of this programme is funded within the current cash burn.
It is said that adjuvants have been used for many years in both human and animal vaccines as these are non-specific stimulators that ‘kick start’ the immune system. According to the company these vaccines are usually given simultaneously with a vaccine, and ideally have no adverse effects. The immune system of fish required high level of stimulation and so the existing adjuvants generally use combinations of mineral oils and other noxious substances.
In existing adjuvants the adverse effects include a slowing of growth rate (important in food fish), surface scarring (significant in ornamental fish), adhesions in the peritoneum, and even death. According to Henderson Morley the adjuvant under development is intended to supersede adjuvants that are currently widely used, as these adverse effects are not anticipated.
It is fact that the market for a successful fish vaccine adjuvant is significant. In addition to salmon and trout, commercial vaccines are available for channel catfish, European seabass and seabream, Japanese amberjack and yellowtail, tilapia and Atlantic cod. Andrew Knight, Executive Chairman, said that the development of a new fish vaccine adjuvant that can be used independently of its KHV programme is another technology that they would expect to license to an aquaculture company.
