News
MAY 2010 NEWS
Dear InGen Customers:
We are still here. In Business. And getting samples processed and posted. That seems to be the answer to the typical question we receive. Oh, and “where are my results?” These make up 95% of the emails we receive on any given day. And we are doing our best to respond to as many emails as we possibly can. However, it is difficult given our meager customer service budget. But we are making huge strides (by our standards, anyway). Please give me a couple of minutes while I bring you up to speed on where InGen is and where we are going.
PROCESSING
We believe we have fixed all of our nagging problems. Our internal DNA extraction lab is working well and producing DNA with more than sufficient genetic concentrations. Our undetermined rate has dropped to less than 3%. With extractions now completely under InGen’s control, not only is this shaving a huge amount of time off our turn around time but it has eliminated an area where our competition can intimidate our vendors due to the ongoing lawsuit. Also some hardware issues in Freeport have also been resolved. For the last month, everything seems to be working as well as possible. This has probably been the best stretch of time InGen has had since Texas A&M terminated our processing contract due to the OptiGen lawsuit.
Click Here to see a list of test processed since April 1, 2010 where you can see our progress.
THE LAWSUIT
Speaking of the lawsuit, the OptiGen v. InGen litigation is entering a critical phase. The discovery phase is, for the most part, over. For those of you that have been unfortunate enough to have been sued, this is probably one of the most time consuming and dangerous segments of a lawsuit. Dangerous because the defendant must produce a huge amount of information like emails, letters, contracts, etc. There are literally 1000’s of pages of documents. And although InGen has absolutely nothing to hide, we must still go over every page to make sure we are not disclosing a password or account number that could be disastrous if not redacted and ending up in the wrong hands. So this is mostly over. Now we are waiting on the judge’s decision on InGen’s motion for a Summary Judgment. Although one never knows what can happen in any type of lawsuit, we are very confident that we have made a strong case that this lawsuit has no merit and should be dismissed. This decision could be made anytime within the next 4 -8 weeks. Once done, this will free up much capital which will be used to make InGen as efficient as possible.
THE FUTURE
First, we are processing our backlog as fast as possible and hopefully will be completely caught up in a few weeks. I will admit it. We got over whelmed and over our heads from a processing perspective. If everything had fallen together as planned, I think we would have been caught up months ago. But sometimes life throws curve balls. And we certainly have had our share. But we are standing firm and will not only fulfill all of our obligations, but will be here for the long term giving breeders a cost effective genetic testing alternative that is so desperately needed. I know many of you are VERY disappointed (to say the least) in InGen. All I can ask right now is to please keep an open mind looking into the future. Once we can show that we have finally developed a track record of On-Time testing, please give us another chance.
For those of you that may not have read the History of InGen yet, please click this link:
Again, thank you for your time, patience and any future business!!!
Rick Dobbins, GM
InGen
IT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE SO HARD
A history of International Genetics, Inc and PinPoint DNA Technologies
My name is Rick Dobbins and I am the CEO of International Genetics, Inc (InGen) and PinPoint DNA Technologies. I am writing this historical record of my involvement in both companies to try to answer questions and accusations that have been leveled at both me personally and my companies. Although I am sure this will not sooth all of our customer’s complaints and problems with InGen and myself, I hope to convey to all who read this that my intentions have been, are presently and will continue to be honorable.
I hope the following will give readers an insight on the history of InGen, the issues we have and are facing and where we hope to go in the future. I will give as many details as I think are relevant to this discussion. However, given the tone of some of the emails & phone calls we receive; there will be some details that I will omit due to privacy concerns.
PART 1 Who is Rick Dobbins?
I was born in 1959 in Atlanta, GA where I live today with my wife Jill, son Mac and Golden Retriever, Elle. I have been involved with several businesses over the years including some real estate development and a consulting business that works for banks and commercial finance companies handling commercial foreclosure & bankruptcy issues. Given the downturn in the economy, this is an area where I am very busy at the moment.
My sister-in-law, Lisa Bowman, is a breeder of champion Australian Cattle Dogs. It was from learning about her breeding operation and the issues breeders face in trying to make a profit (a very hard thing to do) where I came up with my initial business idea for PinPoint and then, InGen. That was in 2005.
Although I am not a PhD and have no real training in genetics other than some biology classes in high school & college, I have always had a fascination with DNA. I am also a huge dog lover; having had Labrador & Golden Retrievers my entire life.
I was very fortunate to meet several PhD’s that helped mold the business plan into what it is today. It was through these contacts that our initial involvement with Texas A&M developed all the way to our present partnership with Chela Tech Labs in The Bahamas.
PART 2 PinPoint DNA Technologies, Inc
PinPoint is my Georgia Corporation that was the original business founded to sell and report DNA genetic testing. PinPoint partnered with Dr. Melba Ketchum who owns DNA Diagnostic Labs d/b/a Shelterwood Labs in Timpson, Texas. Dr. Ketchum had a friend who ran the Equine Genetics Lab (now called the Animal Genetics Lab) at Texas A&M University. Gus Cothran, PhD and Dr. Ketchum agreed through written contract to help develop Pinpoint’s initial genetic test product called Pawsitive I.D.™ (PID). Dr. Ketchum had a patent pending testing method called VeriSNP™ that we had an exclusive use of for canine testing. VeriSNP™ is/was a method that enabled the simultaneous processing of many genetic tests at one time. When we rolled PID out, we were able to process 128 different canine genetic tests at one time using SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) technology. It truly was a unique testing platform.
During the development of PID, it was determined that there was a very popular genetic test for the identification of the genetic mutation for Progressive Rod-Cone Degeneration (PRCD). This test had been around for about 10 years at the time and was only offered by a company named OptiGen. The PRCD test had been developed and patented by Cornell University and licensed to OptiGen. OptiGen, with its monopoly on this important genetic eye test, charged as much as $195 or more for each test. After reviewing the patent issued approximately in 1998, Dr. Ketchum, Dr. Cothran and myself determined that the older technology cited in this patent was not anywhere near what we were doing with SNP’s and it was decided that we would offer the PRCD test along with the other 127 tests on the PID platform.
PID was launched in August of 2007 and the PRCD portion became an immediate hit. Along with PRCD, PID had a 60 marker DNA fingerprint, 30+ other genetic disease screening tests and several color tests. This was presented on a nicely printed Certificate of Genotyping that we mailed to all of our customers after processing. PID worked very well until February 2008.
PART 3 OptiGen
Needless to say, OptiGen was not thrilled about our entry into the PRCD market. My first contact with OptiGen occurred in September 2007 when Jeanette Felix of OptiGen called to inform me of their PRCD patent. Although we had a pleasant conversation, I told her we did not believe we were infringing on this patent due to the newer technology we were using. I did receive a letter directly from Dr. Felix a few days later but heard nothing from OptiGen or their attorneys until early February 2008. It was at this time PinPoint received a cease & desist letter from OptiGen’s attorneys informing PinPoint of OptiGen’s most recent patent for PRCD issued on Christmas Day 2007. This patent did address the technology issues not found in the 1998 patent. PinPoint, along with Dr. Ketchum, undertook a patent evaluation by Stern, Kessler, et al of Washington, DC to see where we were legally. Although there was no determination that PinPoint had infringed on either of the patents, it was determined that the patents were very broad and the possibility of a “work around” was not great. The only other avenue would be to either try to invalidate the patent(s) by researching for “prior art” or to continue to sell the test product and face an almost sure patent infringement lawsuit. Due to financial issues, PinPoint could do neither. So it was determined that PinPoint would withdraw the PRCD portion of the PID test as of April 1, 2008. This was done with almost universal disappointment from our customer base. People were actually begging me to come up with a solution. Which I did.
Part 4 InGen
After researching OptiGen’s patents, it was discovered that they had patent rights in the USA, Canada, European Union,and Australia. Of course this is where the lion’s share of the business is located. In order to legally offer this genetic test in any of these jurisdictions, several criteria had to be met. First, one could not practice THE METHOD for testing that was described in the patent(s). Secondly, one could not SELL or OFFER FOR SALE the method described in the patent(s). And thirdly, the business that would be promoting and selling the genetic tests in question needed to be established in a jurisdiction not covered by the patent(s). I had a solution for each of these criteria.
So the question then became – do I want to take the chance? Do I want to take on OptiGen with an almost sure to be filed patent infringement lawsuit? This was all happening around the spring of 2008, before the national/worldwide financial meltdown. After looking at what is most certainly a huge market for affordable canine genetic testing; and being a dog lover; and wanting to make a positive mark on the health of dogs; and after many discussions with Dr. Ketchum, Dr. Cothran and my other consultants; and after establishing a relationship with Chela-Tech Labs in The Bahamas, I rolled the dice and started InGen.
InGen established an International Business Company (IBC) in The Bahamas. We built a laboratory at Chela-Tech’s lab in Freeport for our PCR (Polychromase Chain Reaction) testing (This is the method portion of OptiGen’s patent). The server we have running our website is located in Nassau. When a customer goes to our website, the session is hosted off shore in Nassau. When the customer purchases our test products, they must go through an international credit card processor called Global Collect. The funds are then sent to our bank located in St. Vincent named Loyal Bank. And when our customer receives their finished test results, they must go back into our international website and download the certificate for the individual dog being tested. InGen is international in every facet of its business.
In December of 2008, InGen began selling the PID platform with Premium & Non-Premium tests. The Premium Tests consisted, at the time, of just the pra-PRCD test. The Non-Premium tests consisted of all the other tests previously offered plus a few new tests Dr. Ketchum & Cothran wanted to add.
In January 2009, OptiGen filed the first lawsuit against InGen.
PART 5 The Lawsuits
As expected, OptiGen filed suit against InGen, PinPoint, Genetic Fulfillment (The company that does the shipping in the US) and me personally in January 2009. This was for alleged infringement of OptiGen’s two patents for PRCD. Again, this was expected. We just did not know exactly how they were going to come at us. The suit against InGen, a Bahamian IBC, has very little chance of success to OptiGen. We covered all the bases as mentioned previously. Bringing Genetic Fulfillment into the suit was strictly as a nuisance. GF does nothing that can be described as infringement. PinPoint may have some infringement liability due to its selling the PRCD test up until April 1, 2008. But Dr. Ketchum & Texas A&M did the testing, not PinPoint. And they brought me personally into the suit to try to pierce the corporate veil and make me liable for the actions of PinPoint and InGen.
All of this was expected. What was not expected was the 2nd lawsuit that named, in addition to my parties, Texas A&M and Melba Ketchum. This suit was not for PRCD, but for 3 other tests that Dr. Ketchum & Dr. Cothran insisted that we add to PID as Non-Premium tests. These tests were for Alport Syndrome, Canine Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency in Dogs (CLAD) and Congenital Stationary Night Blindness (CSNB) In Dogs. Whether these tests were actually offered on the PID platform has not been definitively determined. Alport was allegedly done under another name and CSNB was never actually part of the PID platform. CLAD was briefly part of the PID but was taken off immediately after notification of the 2nd lawsuit. Here again, these tests were thought to not have any patent protections. It was Dr. Ketchum’s responsibility to determine this, which obviously was not done properly. Per our written, signed contract, Dr. Ketchum had expressly committed to PinPoint that none of the genetic tests she (or Texas A&M) would process or provide would have any proprietary issues or require license. This apparently was not the case in regard to the 2nd lawsuit.
How are the lawsuits going? Well the one for PRCD is going as planned and we expect a resolution in our favor soon. What has caused us the most problems is the 2nd lawsuit. Up until August 2009, our relationship with Texas A&M had been fruitful and although not completely without problems, the system we had developed was working. A&M was doing all of our extractions and providing science consulting. But a few months after the filing of the 2nd lawsuit, Texas A&M terminated our written contract without adhering to the 90 day notice of cancelation clause. This caused us many problems as I will describe shortly. OptiGen has since settled with Texas A&M and is close to a settlement with Melba Ketchum. OptiGen’s obvious objective here was to divide & conquer. The divide part worked well. The conquer part is yet to be seen.
PART 6 How InGen Works
This is what happens when you purchase an InGen Test:
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The customer goes to www.ingen.bs (bs is the extension for The Bahamas, not what some people think) and buys a genetic test.
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The transaction is handled by Global Collect which processes all credit card transactions.
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Genetic Fulfillment, LLC then fulfills the order by sending sample collection kits via Federal Express.
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The customer receives the collection kit, collects the sample and sends it back to Genetic Fulfillment.
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GF scans samples into our system and batches the sample with others to send to the DNA extraction Lab. (note: this function was originally handled by Dr. Ketchum and then Texas A&M. DNA International Laboratories in Florida did this from September 2009 until February 2010 and is now being done internally by InGen.)
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After extraction, the samples are sent to our facility in Freeport, The Bahamas. InGen partners with Chela-Tech Labs of The Bahamas which supplies lab space & technicians.
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The PCR process is then conducted in Freeport. Once a successful plate of samples is run, an Excel spreadsheet is generated and sent to Sherrill Williams where she does some final Quality Control checks and uploads the data into the customer’s personal portal on the InGen website.
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Customers are alerted by email that their results have been posted and they are then able to go to their page and print out the results. If all tests have been processed, this is the end of the sale/testing process.
PART 7 Problems
As with any start up, there are always problems. And with a Bahamian company that was going to have to deal with all the issues that come with setting up an international corporation AND infringement litigation, we knew going in that there would be more than our share of problems. But I never imagined that we would have the litany of issues we have had to deal with. Here is what PinPoint/InGen has dealt with and how we have handled the situations:
January 2008 Received cease & desist letter from OptiGen for PRCD. We had to terminate testing for PRCD on April 1, 2008.
April thru July 2008 Melba Ketchum became very tardy in extracting PinPoint’s DNA samples. This was the first period of delays that caused severe customer service problems. We then came to an agreement with Texas A&M to handle this process as well as the PID testing.
April 2009 The ABI 7000 RTPCR Instrument in Freeport experienced a sever power surge that burned the circuit board. This required replacement of the instrument which was time consuming and very expensive. This took about two weeks to determine what the problem was and another 4 weeks for a replacement to arrive and to properly set up. This resulted in another processing delay. We have since purchased another ABI 7000 which is located in Nassau for redundancy purposes.
April 2009 The 2nd lawsuit was filed and this was the final straw between Dr. Ketchum and InGen. Due to Dr. Ketchum’s failure to properly research certain tests that are allegedly protected by patent, InGen was drawn into another lawsuit which eventually led to the early termination of the contract between InGen and Texas A&M. InGen severed its relationship with Dr. Ketchum which was the best thing that has come from that suit.
May 2009 We saw the writing on the wall and decided we needed to drastically change our testing platform and focus only on the genetic tests dog breeders actually wanted. We decided to eliminate the PID platform and the VeriSNP™ process and concentrate on only 5 genetic tests – pra-PRCD, vWD, EIC, MDR1 & DM. This took several weeks to put into place but was finally rolled out in mid July 2009.
July 2009 With no warning at all, Texas A&M terminated our written contract in late July 2009. This is spite of the fact we had a 90 day notification of termination period by written contract and that we had verbal commitments from Dr. Cothran that we would continue to work together for at least several months. A&M’s attorneys were to blame for this, not Dr. Cothran. A&M at this time was only providing extraction services and consulting. But this premature termination was not expected and caused us great confusion at a time we were just getting our new platform up & running. We were able to establish a relationship with DNA International Labs in Florida who performed DNA extraction services for us. We also began a relationship with Dr. Ashley Hall, a geneticist, to act as a consultant. However, it took over a month to get the process working smoothly again.
October 2009 Although we had several weeks of good testing after the addition of DNA International labs and Dr. Hall to our team, we suddenly started having processing problems. It took a few weeks to determine that we had had a massive contamination problem in the lab. This was very difficult to fix. We had every square inch of the lab washed down with bleach. We serviced the air conditioning system. We replaced every consumable item we had. We installed an expensive environmental chamber with UV sterilization. We did all of this but it took time to fix. We did not get a good sample run until early December, over two months after we determined we had contamination. This has been the single most time consuming problem we have had and it caused delays from which we still have not fully recovered.
January 2010 Due to the OptiGen lawsuit, OptiGen sent our extraction lab vendor, DNA International Labs, a threatening letter describing DNA Labs potential liabilities. Upon receipt of this letter, the owner of DNA International Labs informed me of his desire to terminate our extraction contract. Due to OptiGen’s harassment of InGen’s extraction vendors, this contract termination resulted in a hindrance of our processing and caused further delays in our testing schedule. It was decided at this time we HAD to do the extractions in house. We began construction of our extraction lab in mid February and by mid March, we were getting good DNA extractions. This should eliminate one of our biggest problems to date and should help us get to the point we can get our samples processed under a month from receipt.
PART 8 InGen’s Current Situation
The purpose for me in putting this chronological order of events together is to let you, our customers, know what has happened, what is happening and what we hope to accomplish in the future. We know we have let many people down and will have a very difficult time getting many, if any of you to give us another chance in the future. I take full responsibility for everything that has happened. I also know that the lack of customer service, which again, I take full responsibility for, has been our biggest issue with many of you. Please take this out on me. But please know, I am not a dishonest person. I want nothing more than to fulfill my obligations. And I know if I can’t, then I will go out of business and lose a very substantial investment. From some of the emails I see and postings on Face Book, many think I am making huge money from these $60 genetic tests. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our business plan was always to make money with volume. InGen has yet to sell enough genetic tests to make any money. But we intend to. We will get through these problems and be able to show our customers very soon that we can get samples processed and posted within 30 days. And when the OptiGen lawsuit is adjudicated in our favor, this will free up substantial funds and time to make InGen as efficient as possible.
We are currently getting tests processed, albeit excruciatingly slow.
Your samples will be processed as soon as possible.
I know many of you have no intention of using InGen ever again. I can understand that. But I’m asking that you try to keep an open mind and if we can prove to you within in the next 6 months that we can actually fulfill our obligations, then maybe you will give us another chance.
Thank you for your time in reading this, for your past business and patience, and for any chance of future business.
Rick Dobbins, GM
International Genetics, Inc.
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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.
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
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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
