AquaBounty is also facing the challenge of shaky finances.
On Jan. 27, it told stockholders it would sell more shares and cut its operating expenses by 30 percent, so it could continue operating into June.
The company said it would reduce operating costs by “restructuring the organization.’’
The company declined to comment on whether the cutbacks include layoffs at its Waltham office or its laboratory on Prince Edward Island, Canada, where it develops genetically engineered salmon eggs. The eggs are then shipped to Panama, where the fish are raised. Raising the fish in the United States, something AquaBounty wants to do, would require a review by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency to determine whether it posed any threat to wild Atlantic salmon, an endangered species.
AquaBounty’s fiscal struggles are not unusual for a biotechnology start-up awaiting federal approval, said H. David Sherman, professor of accounting at Northeastern University. Many young companies have a similar profile, he said.
“Their financial statements often look the same,’’ Sherman said.
As of June 30, AquaBounty had $3.8 million in cash and marketable securities and a net loss of $2.8 million, according to a Sept. 30 interim financial report, the latest available.
More than $60 million has been invested in AquaBounty since it was launched in 1991, and that amount includes support from the United States and Canadian governments. In 2011, it received $494,162 from the USDA’s National institute of Food and Agriculture.
The company’s fish grows twice as fast as an Atlantic salmon. It is the product of combining genes from two other fish, the Chinook salmon and the ocean pout, an eel-like fish. The Chinook salmon gene stimulates the body to make growth hormone, while the ocean pout gene sequence, called a promoter, keeps the growth gene working constantly. The result is a very large salmon in half the time.
