PHARMAQ marks milestone in Scotland

And, given it is now 10 years since the company was founded, it has proved a good opportunity to showcase both PHARMAQ’s achievements and the general improvements in the health of farmed fish.

Managing director, Dr Ben North, opened the two-day event by looking back at what the company has achieved in the decade since its inception. And, despite its relatively inauspicious beginnings – at a time when vaccines had had several setbacks and the company was struggling for funds – it has since gone from strength to strength.

Indeed, since 2004, PHARMAQ has launched some 22 vaccines, grown from 70 to 190 employees, achieved a global market share of almost 70% for global salmonid vaccines, expanded into new species and markets and established a dedicated therapeutics team.

What’s more, he added, it is thanks to this vaccine development, that the use of antibiotics in aquaculture has dropped so dramatically, despite aquaculture production growing equally dramatically in the same period.

“Although it’s an old story, it’s a story that we as a company, and as an industry as a whole, should be proud of,” he concluded.