Chile approves Neptune Pharma's sea lice product

Neptune Pharma on Wednesday announced that the generic version of Benchmark Holding's Salmosan sea lice product, which contains Azamethiphos for use on farmed salmon, has been approved by Chile's Servicio Agrìcola y Ganadero.

Azasure will be available in Chile this month.

"The launch of Azasure in Chile signals the end to many years of challenging work within our organization globally; after such a long wait, we're happy to get from the regulatory and planning phase into the commercial phase," Adrian Endacott, CEO of Neptune Pharma, said.

Since Azasure was launched in Norway in Jan. 2014, Azasure has taken a significant market share from Benchmark Holding's Salmosan. In 2014, Azasure's own market share rose to above 60 percent.

Neptune Pharma hopes to replicate the success of their 2014 Norwegian launch in Chile and gain substantial market share from their competitors by working closely with their commercial partner Europharma Chile.

Currently two companies have Azamethiphos based treatments licensed in Chile: Benchmark Holdings Plc's product Salmosan, renamed Bylice for the Chilean market and Recalcine's CalFree.

Neptune seeks to grow its market share in the global animal health industry by adding new products and treatments to its portfolio. The company wants to leverage it's network of contacts and pharmaceutical team to develop new products, form new distribution channels and search for opportunities especially for unmet or underserved market needs