Geneticas, a Los Angeles-based animal cloning-related company, has made some big claims since its founding in 2002. CEO Simon Brodie says the company will produce a hypoallergenic cat based on RNAi by 2007, it will be able to announce in July that it has brought the cost of cloning a cat below $10,000, and it has commitments to a project that would have the company clone 75 horses at more than $1 million apiece. (For more on animal cloning, see
Another division of Geneticas has been set up to clone endangered species, starting with the clouded leopard, and yet another division wants to create glow-in-the-dark transgenic deer, which it hopes cars will less likely hit. The company reports it has taken hundreds of $250 deposits for the hypoallergenic cats, deposits that are "non-refundable whether or not a cat is ever produced or delivered," according to the agreement between ...