News
February 2, 2010
DEAR FACEBOOK FOLLOWERS:
I am very sorry for the lack of communication, both here and on our website. All the vents here are well founded and legitimate. Maybe not entirely accurate (I have not flown to The Bahamas with a bag of money :-) but I have not been responsive to this Facebook page and I have no excuses other than being overwhelmed with responding to other InGen business. Which is a lousy excuse, I know. Again, I am very sorry.
Many of you have been waiting months for test results. However, many have not. We are getting results out. We are still in business and have every intention of being in business for the long term. We have just been experiencing growing pains and fighting a protracted and expensive patent infringement lawsuit. Our lab problems we experienced last fall, while fixed, are still causing us delays. We had hoped that the older samples could still be used and we would be able to process successfully. In some cases, they worked. But in others, we did not have enough remaining genetic material to get a satisfactory result. We have gone back and, where available, used the second buccal swab and tried to re-extract DNA. That too has worked in a few cases. But mostly, the swabs are now too old.
What does this mean?
We are in the process of sending re-test kits to all customers who have pending results that pre-date November 1, 2009. We are also sending each of these customers a free promo kit for each outstanding test. These packages are going out this week. I know this is a very small token in most instances. But this is the best we can do at the moment.
I have read several comments asking if we are still in business. Given the lack of communication here on my part, I certainly understand that question. But we are still in business, we are trying to respond to our very long list of emails and we are getting results out, albeit slowly. We are working as fast as we possibly can. And we are trying to do the right thing with our customers who are understandably frustrated and have been waiting a very long time. I would be ticked off too! But please be patient with us a little while longer. What we are trying to accomplish is to offer dog breeders an alternative to the high cost of genetic testing. There are a lot of moving parts to this endeavor. But once we get our act together, we will be the source of cost effective and time effective genetic testing. And we will force our competition to lower their prices and make DNA testing not only affordable but common place. And all breeds of dogs will be better because of this. This is one of my driving motivations. Believe me, it’s not the money.
It is obvious that this Facebook page is being used as a place to comment on our products and services and we welcome this. And the comments have not been that flattering, which is fine given my lack of communication. But I think it is fair to say that a company whose objective is to rip their customer's off would not allow a page like this to remain up for any length of time. I can assure you; this page is not going anywhere.
I am stretched rather thin at the moment but I will make communication on this Facebook page and other mediums a priority from now on. Thank you!!!
Rick Dobbins, GM
InGen
Dear Customers:
I want to respond to the concerns I have read recently about InGen on various forums. All of the concerns and frustrations are well founded (with the exception of our producing invalid results) and I certainly understand. I’m not here to offer excuses, but rather to be completely up front with all of you who have outstanding tests with us and to give you some insight into what seems to be our never ending. nagging lab problems. First, I know that the bottom line with each of you is to get the product for which you paid. You want the results and you need the results. Now! The reason for the delays is unimportant. Particularly since InGen seems to have unending reasons for delays. And believe me, I want nothing more than to be able to crow about how well our system is working, not offer excuses for our turnaround time delays. But here is our current problem:
When Texas A&M abruptly terminated our DNA extraction processing contract late last summer (an issue related to InGen’s lawsuit with OptiGen), it caused us immediate logistical problems due to:
1) A&M’s refusal to process about 750 samples they had been holding but not processing and
2) Getting good extractions from our new lab.Although we were working on a solution prior to the termination with another extraction lab (DNA Laboratories International in Deerfield Beach, FL), the A&M termination came before we could properly get this lab on-line and test their extractions.
Now the extraction process is not that technical. But it is tedious. This is where the DNA material on the buccal swabs is rendered down to the DNA extraction fluid that is then sent to our lab in Freeport for the actual test processing. The problem here is that DLI uses a different extraction process from the silica bead extraction method used by A&M. Although we were aware of this before hand, we did not have the sufficient time to test this and get the bugs worked out. So it took us about 6 weeks to get the kinks out. None of this caused any processing errors. Anyone who has received a result over the last month or so has received good results that we have triple checked for accuracy. There were many tests we did reject though because they did not process properly. But all released results have been checked for accuracy by our PhD and we are completely confident in these results.
We seem to have these problems behind us and are processing results this week. Those of you who are waiting on results for tests sent in August and September should be getting an email from us this week alerting you that the results are now available on-line in your customer portal. And barring any other problems, we should be completely caught up in a couple of weeks.
To address a couple of other issues, I do admit that our phone support is not great right now. Please understand that we have a small staff and taking / returning phone calls is very time consuming. We just do not have the personnel resources to answer every call. However, we do work well with emails and will call back within 24 hours if needed. We also try to answer all emails. But some people email us every day with the same question “Where are my results?” A very valid question but one we can only answer in so many ways. Sherrill Williams, our customer service manager, does her best to answer each email as soon as possible. But we literally get 100’s per day. All emails are held in “open” status until they are answered but, due to the quantity, this list is ever growing. Once we get the above mentioned turn around issues finally fixed and our sales volume increases accordingly, we will have the resources to expand our customer service department.
Another issue I have heard about is an allegation that our test results are compromised. At this moment, we are only aware of one complaint where a poodle owner alleges that we tested her dog as Negative for PRCD and that this dog has thrown a Carrier puppy. This allegation was sent to us by a third party from a post on a poodle forum and we are investigating. If anyone has any conflicting results for a dog tested by InGen from another test by a competing lab, please bring it to our attention. We VERY much want to investigate these allegations. But sometimes anonymous forum postings are presented as fact and we have no way of responding. We are very confident in our products, lab and processing procedures. The simple fact is – if you have properly trained technicians, the right equipment and consumable chemicals, and uncontaminated DNA extractions for the species of animal being tested, either you get a successful test or an undetermined result. A computer makes the call and produces a graph for human analysis to back up the result. I am not saying it is impossible for there to be an error but given what I just listed, it is unlikely.
Getting all of our problems ironed out and test results generated again is our primary goal at this time. This would not have been possible without the support of our customers. I know many of you are not happy with us at the moment due to our turn around issues. But without you, we would not have been able to survive the withering attacks by doubters and continue in business. You are the reason we are still here and you are the reason that the costs for genetic testing are coming down.
Please let me know if I can answer any questions about what we are doing and where we are going. Thank you for bearing with me on this long post and for bearing with InGen during the last couple of months. Your support will not be in vain and once we are sailing in smooth waters again, it will be your support that got us over this hump.
Thank you!!!
International Genetics, Inc.
Rick Dobbins
General Manager
rick@ingen.bs
July 17, 2009
Dear InGen Customers:
EXCITING NEWS!!!
International Genetics, Inc (InGen) is proud to announce the introduction of a new line of genetic testing that finally gives breeders a cost effective method of testing dogs for some of the most dangerous inherited genetic diseases. We now offer the following tests:
Progressive Rod-Cone Degeneration (pra-PRCD)
Von Willebrand Disease Type 1 (vWD)
Exercise Induced Collapse (EIC)
Degenerative Myelopathy (DM)
Multi Drug Resistance 1 (MDR1)
Visit www.ingen.bs for more information on our new products.
OUR NEW PRICING STRUCTURE IS AS FOLLOWS:
FIRST PREMIUM TEST PER DOG $60.00 EA
SECOND OR MORE PREMIUM TEST PER DOG $30.00 EA
As an example, go to our website www.ingen.bs and for instance if you have 4 Chesapeake Bay Retrievers you would like to test and want the PRCD & EIC tests, go to the shopping cart, scroll down and click on the photo of the Chessy for either the PRCD or EIC test option. You will then go to a page that gives you the option of selecting the secondary test you want and the quantity of tests to be purchased. Per this example:
PRCD Test ($60) + EIC Test ($30) = $90 X 4 = $360.00 plus S&H
PHASE OUT OF PAWSITIVE ID™
This may come as a shock to some of you, but we are phasing out our original Pawsitive ID™ product. Our new testing procedures represent a major shift in InGen's product mix. Although PID was a popular genetic test product, we are phasing this product out for several reasons. One is that the supplier of the consumable product needed to perform the test has increased the price of this product considerably. This would have necessitated a large price increase on our part. It has been decided to concentrate on the basic test products that our customers have stated they want to purchase and keep the overall cost down as much as possible.
What does this mean to customers who have purchased tests that are currently on file in The Customer Portal? Nothing. Nothing will change as far as your older test results are concerned. They are still and will continue to be available in your portal for viewing or download.
What does this mean for customers who have purchased a kit(s) and not returned them yet for processing? If you want the classic Pawsitive ID™ testing procedure done, simply send in your samples as instructed ASAP and we will process them in our normal fashion. However, understand that we will discontinue testing on this platform as of September 1, 2009 or until our current stocks are depleted.
If you have an outstanding test kit that has not been processed yet, you may elect to have two (2) Premium Tests performed for the same price as the original cost of the Pawsitive ID™ test. That amounts to a $15 - $20 savings over the current cost of the two tests.
What if you previously purchased a PID test but now want another Premium Test that was not available at that time for this individual dog? For a limited time only, those customers with previously tested dogs who want an additional Premium test done can purchase this test with a $15 coupon per dog tested.
Click here to go to our Frequently Asked Questions for more information on this program.
What about colors? At present, colors are still available on the original PID platform. However, color tests are not available on the new testing platform. Colors have been the most confusing portion of the PID test. We are re-evaluating and researching colors and may add some color tests for certain breeds in the future. If there is a certain color test that you would like to see added to our new platform, please email us your request and we will look into it.
Customers may still purchase Pawsitive ID™ but only until September 1, 2009 or while supplies last. Please visit http://www.ingen.bs for more information on the phase out.
InGen is committed to providing dog breeders the highest quality genetic testing at the lowest prices possible. Our goal is to improve the health of as many dog breeds as possible through the use of cost effective genetic testing. Please visit our store at www.ingen.bs and take a look around. We want your continued business and will do whatever is needed to satisfy our customers.
Please feel free to give me a call or send an email anytime with any comments, criticisms, complaints or other feedback. I welcome all input from our customers.
Thank you past, present & future business and good luck with your breeding programs!
Click here to find out more about InGen or to purchase genetic tests
International Genetics, Inc
Rick Dobbins
General Manager
January 16, 2009
Dear Customers,
International Genetics, Inc. is currently being sued for patent infringement from its competitor, OptiGen, Inc of Ithaca, NY. I would like to reassure all customers that that this was totally expected and that this suit will not affect the current day-to-day operations or testing facilities connected to InGen. All current and future tests will be processed as promised without delay.
InGen is a corporation operating in the Bahamas and conducting certain genetic tests using a method that is patent protected in the United States, Canada and European Union. Given that the patent in question was never applied for or issued in The Bahamas, InGen is totally within its legal rights to perform this method in a jurisdiction not covered by the patent. A patent is a negative right. In other words, it gives the patent holder or licensee the right to keep someone else from using the patented product or method in the jurisdiction covered by the patent. Given that OptiGen does not have any patent for any method in The Bahamas, InGen is legally able to use this scientific method.
Extensive research went into the decision to open our lab in Freeport. We are certain that we will prevail in this suit. Actually, we welcome this lawsuit. Once we have established that this is indeed not patent infringement, the cost of genetic testing overall by many labs should be reduced. This is a win-win for breeders.
Our case is strong and we are well funded. However, this lawsuit could go on for years. We will keep our customers completely up to date as to the significant events which result from this case. Your continued business and support will be of great help in helping us see this case to its ultimate end. And we are confident that the end result will be in our favor.
Thank you for your past, current and future business!!!
Rick Dobbins, GM
International Genetics, Inc
