Laboratories

Discount Laboratories?

Published on March 8, 2015

There has been discussion on Facebook about the “discount” laboratories for DNA testing. Optigen opened legal action against Pawprints for marketing the prcd-PRA test without proper license from Optigen. None of the labs are authorized to market the prcd-PRA tests except Optigen and it’s licensees. As mentioned in a previous post Laboklin is authorized in Europe; and there is also a licensee in Australia. The GR-PRA1 test is not patented, so it is fair game for any lab. The GR-PRA2 (Animal Health Trust in UK) and ICT (Antagene in France) tests are in the process of patenting.

The problem with giving our money to the unlicensed labs is that these are not the people who spent the money to develop these tests. If there are no teeth in patent laws, how can the research continue?

From one of the discussions, I computed the cost of all 4 tests we are commonly doing in Goldens with Optigen discount days; and with the amount one poster mentioned for the same 4 tests with another lab. The difference may be around $125. The total cost from Optigen is about $327 … works out to about $82 per test. I just can’t convince myself I should support theft of intellectual property for that amount of money? No, I don’t own stock in Optigen, and I always try to help people figure out how to minimize the number of tests they have to order. I’m very budget conscious!

I like the idea that if anything were in error about the testing, I’d be dealing with the people who are most interested in figuring out what’s wrong with the results. It is their test & their reputation on the line.

No question that this DNA testing is making breeding more expensive. I pay $525 for hips & elbows. Physical eye exams each year now run $37-$38 at a clinic. God willing I get to do that for at least 10 years for each dog. One weekend of showing or trialing costs ??? Just one weekend …

Licensing of DNA Testing

Published on April 23, 2014

Here is the information GoldenDNA has received regarding the Golden Retriever DNA tests and laboratories that are licensed to perform them.

prcd-PRA

OptiGen owns an exclusive worldwide license from the patent owner (Cornell University, Ithaca NY) to run this test. OptiGen has cross licensed only one laboratory, GTG/Animal Network in Australia to perform prcd testing. OptiGen has established “agency” relationships with multiple laboratories in Europe to facilitate sending of samples to OptiGen for prcd testing here. In all cases, OptiGen sends reports to the owners—some of the agent laboratories also generate their own reports in addition to the OptiGen prcd report. The current agent laboratories include:

  • VHL (Netherlands)
  • Antagene (France)
  • Laboklin (Germany)
  • Vetogene (Italy)
  • Generatio (Germany)
  • Vetgenomics (Spain)
  • Animal DNA Diagnositcs (UK)

GR-PRA1

GR_PRA1 is not patented and no license is needed to run it—any laboratory is free to do this.

GR-PRA2

OptiGen has a non-exclusive license from the Animal Health Trust in the UK for this test. I have contacted The Animal Health Trust to inquire about which other laboratories have licensed this test but I have not heard back from them.

Ichthyosis

Antagene in France owns exclusive rights for this test and OptiGen is the exclusive agent for Antagene in North America—reciprocal to the service they provide to OptiGen for prcd (& other OptiGen tests), we send samples to their lab in France for Ichthyosis testing. I have asked Antagene about the status of the patent for Ichthyosis and they have told me that the patent is near issuance. Prior to its issuance, I believe that other laboratories are able to offer the test legally but I am not sure of this. OptiGen respects Antagene’s investment/IP priority on this test and does not do the test because of this.