August 19, 2011
Novartis unveils US$2.8-million aquaculture research programme
Novartis Animal Health Inc. has announced Tuesday (Aug 16) an investment to significantly expand its Novartis Centre for Aqua Research & Development in Canada''s Prince Edward Island (PEI).
Construction has already begun on the US$2.8-million expansion, which will add state-of-the-art new laboratory and office space to support the continued rapid growth of the aquaculture research and development (R&D) programmes at the facility. Novartis said this comes on top of recent multimillion dollar investments in the R&D centre.
The PEI facility is a global centre for Novartis'' development of vaccines to prevent viral and bacterial diseases in farmed fish. Novartiswas the first company to develop and license vaccines for infectious salmon anaemia virus and infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus, which are deadly to salmon and financially damaging to fish farmers, the announcement said. Today, Novartis offers a broad range of salmonid vaccines as well as products to control sea lice. The expansion now underway will enhance its potential to maintain its advantage in innovation.
The PEI site is one of six worldwide Novartis Animal Health R&D centres for animal health. The company''s other R&D centres focus on medicines for pets and livestock, and are located in Australia, Switzerland and the US.
Novartis made the announcement at the AquaNor Congress in Trondheim, Norway, where it also celebrated 10 years in the aquaculture industry.