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BOULDER -- After selling a successful medical diagnostics business in Louisiana, two entrepreneurs in Boulder have developed a natural pet food supplement to treat dogs for arthritis and joint disorders.
In Clover Inc. hopes to place its new product Connection on retailers' shelves by July, said Rebecca Rose,' a principal with the company.
Rose said she and partner Dr. Gerald Chrisope looked at their area oF expertise -- producing a high-quality technical product and stumbled into the companion animal market.
"We decided to go for a dog market because people have developed more of a bond with their pets than ever before," she said. "We felt pets were very interesting. and that area of dietary supplements hadn't been given that much attention."
Hot industry
The pet industry is growing at 15 percent annually, making it one of the fastest-growing segments of the economy. In fact, Americans spend more than $20 billion on their pets each year.
Rose was instrumental in helping Chrisope build up Chrisope Technologies, a medical diagnostics company in Lake Charles, La., that did about $10 million in annual sales.
Chrisope Technologies provides about 13,000 laboratories with quality control microorganisms that are used to prove the labs' proficiency, Rose said. The company sold more than 400 different microorganisms, using a special preservation technology to keep the microscopic critters intact until they could be used by labs.
Hospital and other laboratories must meet strict testing requirements to receive reimbursements from Medicare and other Federal agencies.
"If...