LONDON (Alliance News) - AquaBounty Technologies Inc Wednesday reported a wider loss for the year after costs increased as the company pushed forward with commercial activities and research, but said it does not know when it will receive approval for the company's AquAdvantage Salmon from US authorities.
AquaBounty, a biotechnology company focused on the aquaculture market, reported a net loss of USD7.1 million for the year ended December 31, significantly wider than the USD4.7 million loss recorded in 2013.
The company does not generate any revenue and the wider loss was caused by sales and marketing costs doubling to USD1.4 million from USD678,153 a year earlier, research and development costs rising to USD2.5 million from USD1.9 million and general and administrative costs increasing to USD3.2 million from USD2.3 million.
"The increase [in costs] was in line with the board's directive to push forward with commercial activities, expand research projects under the exclusive channel collaboration agreement with Intrexon and seek the US listing for its shares," said the company.
At the end of the year, AquaBounty reported a cash balance of USD5.2 million.
The company is currently focused on getting the approval of the new animal drug application for the company's AquAdvantage Salmon from the US Food and Drug Administration.
AquAdvantage Salmon is the company's first precision bred fish and includes a gene from the Chinook salmon, which provides the fish with the potential to grow to market size in half the time of conventional salmon.
Approval was expected in 2014 and AquaBounty began making plans for the commercialisation of AquAdvantage Salmon after the environment assessment and preliminary findings by the Food and Drug Administration were released, however the company is still awaiting regulatory approval.
During the year, the company expanded its international commercial efforts with the commencement of the process to gain approval for the importation of AquAdvantage Salmon eggs for local field trials in Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and China.
AquaBounty said it "cannot report any progress" about the approval, but said it believes it will receive it "at any time."
AquaBounty shares were up 8% to 13.50 pence per share on Wednesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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