FAQs

At Kerafast, we strive to advance life science research by facilitating access to bioreagents developed by laboratories worldwide. Below are answers to some frequently asked questions about our processes and reagents. If you don’t see your question answered below, please contact us at +1-800-546-1760 or CustomerService@kerafast.com.

ORDERING REAGENTS

We sell all products directly worldwide, without other distributors. You may order online by creating an account, adding your reagent(s) to the shopping cart and completing the checkout process. You may also place your order by contacting our customer service team at CustomerService@kerafast.com or +1-800-546-1760. For additional details, please visit our How to Order page.

We accept credit cards, wire transfers, and purchase orders from most research institutions (dependent upon credit history). Purchase order payment must be received within 30 days of your order.

We sell all products directly worldwide, without other distributors. To date, we have shipped reagents to customers in 66 different countries across six continents.

Our reagents come directly from academic laboratories and therefore may be in limited supply. Products are listed as unavailable if the providing laboratory has run out of the material, but plans to produce more. If the material is permanently out of stock, it will be removed from our catalog.

If you are looking for a specific material and cannot find it, or it is listed as currently unavailable, please don’t hesitate to contact our customer service team at +1-800-546-1760 or CustomerService@kerafast.com. We can tell you the product’s latest status, recommend any similar products from our catalog, or take down your information to contact you once the materials is available again.

Some of our reagents are only available for sale to nonprofit organizations. Those working at for-profit companies will need to arrange a separate licensing deal with the providing institution. The Kerafast team can initiate that process, by connecting you with the appropriate contact in the institution’s technology transfer office. To begin, please email CustomerSerivce@kerafast.com with your name, company, contact information and reagent of interest.

We don’t typically have product samples available, as our materials come directly from academic laboratories. In certain cases, we may be able to send you a product sample from our in-house lab; we just ask that you pay the shipping costs. You can find out if samples are available for your product of interest by contacting our customer service team at +1-800-546-1760 or CustomerService@kerafast.com.

We offer a one-time 10% product discount for those who sign up for the Kerafast mailing list. Otherwise, we do not provide discounts for the purchase of individual reagents. We might be able to arrange a discount for a larger bulk purchase of one product, or an order of multiple products at once. For more information, please contact our customer service team at +1-800-546-1760 or CustomerService@kerafast.com.

The research labs from which our reagents originate will ship your materials as soon as possible. In general, reagents are shipped within a week, but on occasion shipments may be delayed. In the event that a product will be delayed, we do our best to notify you and let you know when to expect delivery. To check the status of your order, please contact our customer service team at +1-800-546-1760 or CustomerService@kerafast.com.

• How do I place an order?
• How can I pay for my order?
• Do you have distributors?
• Why is the product I want currently unavailable?
• The product I’m interested in is only available for sale to nonprofit organizations. What if I’m a researcher at a for-profit company?
• Can I get a free product sample?
• Can I get a product discount?
• When will my order ship?
• What is your return policy?
  Authorization for all product returns must be approved by our customer services team prior to the return of goods. Goods will not be received without prior approval. Not all items will be authorized for return, due to temperature and packing requirements. Items authorized for return must arrive at our facilities in a state satisfactory for resale to be eligible for product credit. A restocking charge of 25% or $25 (whichever is greater) shall be charged on returns that are not the result of any error or fault of ours. Hazardous materials authorized for return must be packed, labeled and shipped in accordance with DOT regulations governing transportation of hazardous materials and any other applicable requirements.

  Kerafast will not grant credit for: (i) products which have been discontinued; (ii) products which are personalized or customized; (iii) products that were correctly received but not properly utilized or did not follow protocol information; (iv) products not purchased from Kerafast; (v) refrigerated or temperature-controlled products; (vi) products which are outdated, shelf-worn, used or defaced and therefore unsuitable for return to stock and resale as new; (vii) reagents or chemicals which have been opened; and (viii) products that have been received by the purchasing institution more than 30 days ago.

• What quality can I expect from providing researchers’ materials in the Kerafast catalog?

  Kerafast’s materials are provided by researchers to whom scientific integrity is paramount. Our available reagents are akin to those materials that investigators have been exchanging collegially since the very first inter-laboratory collaboration. You would provide only the highest quality materials from your own lab to your research collaborators; this is the spirit in which investigators’ tools are offered “as is” in our catalog.

  In addition, providing investigators publish peer-reviewed articles using the materials they offer through Kerafast. Our website includes journal citations and performance data, allowing you to make informed decisions about available materials.

• Why aren't these materials free?

  Our program offers a solution to improve the time- and resource-consuming Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) process. It provides quick and easy access to materials that could take months to receive using a traditional MTA. With Kerafast, you can receive the same materials in only a few days. A portion of every sale is then returned to the contributing scientists and their institutions, helping to support further research.

• When are new products offered through your catalog?

  Every week, we continue to add new laboratories and reagents to our global community. Check our online platform often to see what’s new, or preview the materials in our pipeline and request additional information on our Coming Soon page. If you’re seeking a specific material, please let us know via our Suggest a Reagent page.

PROVIDING REAGENTS

• How can I add my research tools to the Kerafast platform?

  We’ve made the process of contributing materials as easy as possible; please visit our How to Contribute page to learn how it works.

• What kind of materials are best suited for the Kerafast catalog?

  Kerafast providers contribute a wide range of laboratory-made reagents. In some cases, these reagents are sitting in a lab freezer, unknown to investigators whose research would benefit from their use. In other cases, the reagents are already being distributed, but through the time-consuming Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) process.

  For our catalog, we recommend contributing materials with existing quantity, enough to supply five to 20 initial users. Existing MTA demand is ideal, but not necessary, and reagents developed with NIH funding are allowed as well. We promote and sell most consumable research reagents, including:

Not sure if your materials might fit in our catalog? Just ask us at community@kerafast.com!

• • Can I provide reagents produced with federal grant dollars?

    Yes, absolutely. The NIH wants research tools developed with its funding to be shared among the scientific community, and our program is a good way of doing so. Moreover, many NIH labs provide and/or procure reagents on our platform; for example, check out reagents available from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

  • What are my intellectual property rights as a provider?

    We work with the technology transfer offices at our providers’ institutions to streamline all required intellectual property documentation into simple, uniform license agreements. Our customers agree to the terms of our “research use only” click license agreement when making a purchase, which disallows any commercial use of your reagents and maintains your intellectual property rights.

  • How much work does it take to provide reagents?

    We make the process as simple as possible for our providing investigators. We ask that you fill out a product disclosure form describing your reagents, which provides the information we need to effectively promote the materials to the scientific community. Our team then works with your institution’s technology transfer office to establish the necessary license agreements, and we create a website landing page for each contributed material. We handle all reagent marketing, selling and shipping logistics, as well as technical and customer support. For more information, please visit our How to Contribute page