Last month, a sea lice treatment known as Azasure developed by Neptune Pharma was greenlighted by Chile's Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero (SAG) for use on Chilean farmed salmon. The product, which contains Azamethiphos, will be made available by August 2015.
Neptune Pharma representatives and stakeholders are hoping that the launch of Azasure in Chile will mirror the Norwegian launch of the product that occurred in January 2014. Ever since the introduction of Azasure in Norway, the company has seen a significant rise in its market share, to above 60 percent. This at the market expense of Benchmark Holding’s similar sea lice treatment known as Salmosan – Azasure has been regarded as a "highly successful and much anticipated generic version” of Salmosan, according to Neptune.
"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," said Adrian Endacott, Chief Executive Officer of Neptune Pharma.
As of now, two other companies have licensed, Azamethiphos-based products in Chile – Benchmark Holdings with Salmosan or Bylice, as it is called in Chile; and Recalcine with CalFree. Neptune aims to set itself apart from its competitors by working closely with its commercial partner Europharma Chile.
