From Lab to Ocean: Reducing Risk Before It Reaches the Field

Aquatic health management is an ever-evolving process. Viruses change & adapt; bacteria grow stronger and new threats to animal welfare will always keep our industry on its toes. There is constant need for product innovation, but this innovation comes with a steep price tag. Every new vaccine or therapeutic represents years of research, regulatory preparation, and substantial financial commitment. However, with each new product launch to help our industry, there is a graveyard of innovation that didn’t make the cut, often because their real-world performance didn’t align with early expectations.

That’s where Onda’s preclinical models can make the difference.

When companies invest in aquatic health innovation, the highest costs often arise after the lab during regulatory testing or early market rollout. At those stages, every delay or setback compounds, not only are you repeating work, the loss of that season’s potential revenue is a major opportunity cost that could have major financial impact. Preclinical models bridge this critical gap by identifying strengths and weaknesses before a product reaches the high-cost, high-stakes stages of development.

At Onda, our controlled challenge studies simulate realistic production conditions. We capture how pathogens spread, how fish respond, and how interventions perform in a setting that mirrors the farm environment. By testing early under these conditions, clients can make confident, data-driven decisions so they are focusing investment on candidates most likely to succeed.

The aquaculture industry operates in a complex ecosystem balancing biological unpredictability, market pressures, and regulatory expectations. The companies that thrive are those that manage risk strategically. Onda’s infection models provide the detailed biological and statistical clarity needed to move forward with confidence. Through reproducible conditions that create reliable & comparable datasets, comprehensive endpoints and cohabitation design that reflects real world transmissions, we are providing the insights that help you make investment decisions and external regulatory submissions.

For clients, this level of insight translates directly into reduced financial exposure and accelerating the time-to-market for your new innovations. By pinpointing the most promising formulations, dosing regimens, or delivery methods early, teams can eliminate dead-end candidates before they consume additional time and capital.

From experimental design to data interpretation, Onda’s scientists focus on the same outcome our clients do: clear, defensible evidence that supports confident business decisions. Every study we conduct, whether for bacterial pathogens like Tenacibaculum maritimum or viral targets such as IPNV or CMS, is built to reduce uncertainty. Ultimately, the goal isn’t just to prove efficacy, it’s to de-risk innovation. That means helping you make investment decisions grounded in data, not assumptions.