Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | April 15, 2019 | wbjournal.com The Frankenfish lives AquaBounty's genetically modified salmon could hit U.S. shelves next year (Top) The early growout tanks keep the GMO salmon contained to the AquaBounty facility, which avoids any damage to the fish's ecosystem in the wild. (Above) AquaBounty employees harvest eggs from a female salmon. BY ZACHARY COMEAU Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer A quaBounty Technologies has been fighting for regu- latory approval for its main product for 20 years. At long last, the company can begin making money – as long as it finds a market for the controversial product. e Maynard company will soon begin to produce its genetically modified salmon at its facility in Indiana aer the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in March lied an import alert enacted in a 2016 U.S. budget rider banning the product from the U.S., aer initially approving it a year earlier until labeling guidelines on genetically modified ani- mal food products were finalized. e U.S. Department of Agriculture did that in late 2018, and the FDA is now allowing the company's salmon eggs into the U.S. so they can be grown at its facil- ity in Indiana. e company expects U.S. sales to start in the latter half of 2020. e move follows the regulatory ap- proval for production at the firm's Prince Edward Island facility in Canada. With regulatory concerns a thing of the past, sustainable revenues are on the horizon, said CEO Sylvia Wulf. "is is the first bioengineered animal ever approved," Wulf said, citing the concerns of U.S. regulators wanting to ensure the salmon was safe for human consumption, the animals were taken care of and the environment protected. "We had to prove all three of those," she said. Ready for revenue e fish – dubbed Frankenfish by critics, along with other GMO fish – looks and tastes like regular Atlantic salmon, but thanks to a gene from a Pacific Chinook salmon and another from ocean pout, maturation into a fully grown fish takes about 18 to 20 months, whereas their unmodified cousins can take up to 30 months. AquaBounty has had virtually no sales, but operates a small farm in Pana- ma. Limited quantities of the fish grown at that small facility are sold in Canada, leading to very modest revenues of $138,000 over the last two years. e company has endured heavy financial losses since its inception, totaling $119 million as of December. As such, AquaBounty has looked to in- vestors, raising $13.25 million from two different stock offerings this year alone to kickstart production operations and hire sales staff. ose funds are being used to retrofit the Indiana facility the company purchased two years ago and to begin production in Canada. Speed-to-market is the company's main selling point, but Wulf said the PHOTOS/COURTESY

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