Biotech company, ViAqua Therapeutics, has completed a US$8.25 million funding round to help market its orally-administered vaccine for shrimp.
The company teamed up with S2G Ventures with participation from Rabo Ventures, The Trendlines Group, Agriline Limited, Nutreco, I-Lab Angels and Circle Investments to raise the funds.
“Oral delivery is the holy grail of aquaculture health development due to both the impossibility of vaccinating individual shrimp and its ability to substantially bring down the operational costs of disease management while improving outcomes,” said Shai Ufaz, chief executive officer of ViAqua.
“We are excited to bring this technology to market to address the need for affordable disease solutions in aquaculture.”
The company’s first product is an RNA-particle feed supplement initially targeting the white spot virus which is estimated to cause annual losses of around US$3 billion in global shrimp production.
Production of the capsule products is now being scaled up and launched commercially in partnership with Skretting.
“Aquaculture is critical for the sustainable supply of marine protein,” said Kate Danaher, managing director of S2G Ventures’ Ocean and Seafood fund.
“ViAqua’s platform technology will enable the company to move beyond WSSV to address numerous other diseases in aquaculture while similar technologies are still years away from reaching the market.”
