“Pet Cloning Multiplies Profits for Chinese Startup Sinogene”, 2023-10-07 ():
…One section of the room stores the cells of more than 4,000 dogs and cats in liquid nitrogen. Many Sinogene clients harvest skin samples from their pets while they alive and place orders for clones after their pets die, the employee said.
…Newborn pets are raised in a room on the first floor of the building. When we visited, more than 10 puppies barked at us in welcome. The cloned pets are delivered to customers some 3 months after birth, the employee said…Many customers buy two clones of their beloved pet. Sinogene raises poodles, Alaskan malamutes and other breeds in pairs. In terms of genetics, a dog and its clone are more than 99.9% identical. “If they are raised by the same owner and in the same environment, they also come to resemble one another in character”, said Mi Jidong, chairman of Sinogene.
…Mi rented a small room at a Chinese Agricultural University and produced his first cloned dog in 2017. He opened his business the following year and expanded into cloning cats in 2019…Sinogene has a staff of around 300, roughly half of whom are bioengineers specializing in R&D and other areas. Mi said his only rivals are in the US [Viagen] and South Korea [Sooam]. The company hopes to raise its share of overseas revenue to more than 50% from less than 20% at present.
…Cloning starts at $50,000 for dogs and $40,000 for cats. Sinogene has already produced nearly 500 cloned pets, more than 2⁄3rds of which are dogs. While orders from overseas account for less than 20% of the total, a considerable number of Sinogene’s overseas clients are on a waiting list.
“Nearly 100% of our customers are satisfied”, said Mi. Sinogene raised capital from investment funds and other sources. In addition to bases in China, it has set up an office in the U.S.
The company is conducting studies to clone horses, cows and other animals, in addition to dogs and cats. Last year It succeeded in cloning an arctic wolf.