Blog Posts On Biospecimen Procurement For Industry
These blog posts examine the biobanking ecosystem from different points of view. First, the posts look at the needs of different industry users of biospecimens. These include biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Importantly, these are the companies we depend on for new therapies, vaccines and diagnostics. In addition, the posts describe the biospecimen providers. These include professional biobanks, hospitals, doctors and commercial intermediaries or brokers. Finally, the posts look at factors that block biospecimen procurement for the industry sector.
It is essential to realise that industry does not just need more biospecimens. It is also paramount for the biospecimens to be reliable. For companies to be confident of reliability, they must have adequate provenance information on each sample.
Biospecimen Procurement For Industry
01. Why Academic / Hospital Biobanks Should Provide Biosamples to Industry
The Main Reason Academic Biobanks Should Provide Biosamples to Industry The main reason is to improve patient care. Industry plays a vital role in bringing new therapies and diagnostics to the patient. Yet, industry can only achieve this if it can access suitable...
02. Ensuring Public Support For Biobank Cooperation With Industry
Public Attitudes to Biobank Cooperation With Industry In general, industry involvement in research tends to lower public trust. We see this effect whether the industry sector funds or conducts the investigation. Here are a few critical studies on the subject. A...
03. The Main Actors Providing Biosamples To Industry
Most human biosamples originate in the public sector. That is in public hospitals and publicly-funded population biobanks. So we need public-private partnerships for biosamples to reach the private sector. Public-Private Partnerships in Biobanking This section...
04. The Biosample and Human Tissue Procurement Needs of Different Industry Players
This article examines three different industry players that require biospecimen suppliers to meet their human tissue procurement needs. Large pharmaceutical companies Large in vitro diagnostics companies Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in healthcare biotechnology...
05. The Dual Role of Academic Biobanks
Academic biobanks have a dual role: they must support two actors in a production that advances in patient care. The two actors they need to support are (1) researchers in academia and (2) researchers in industry. It is only by the efforts of both these actors that...
06. What is Commodification?
According to one dictionary definition, commodification is: 'The action or process of treating something as a mere commodity'. A commodity is 'a substance or product that can be traded, bought, or sold'. 'Commodification' is often used disapprovingly, especially...
07. Acceptable Transactions in Biobanking
What kind of financial transactions are legitimate for human biological samples? There is some uncertainty about the correct answer to this question. There are also some differences of opinion. The Oviedo Convention The Council of Europe’s Oviedo Convention...
08. Why Biobank Access Policies Should Be Publicly Available
It is not easy for industry researchers to find suitable academic biobanks. For one thing, the biobank needs to have the clinical samples required. For another, it must have policies that allow industry access. Unfortunately, biobank access policies may contain...
09. Biospecimen Provenance: What Researchers Need To Know
Every biosample or tissue sample used for medical research has a different journey. The journey starts when a person donates a biosample and it ends when a researcher analyses the same sample. In between, there are a wide variety of possible routes, events and...
Associated Articles on Biospecimen Procurement For Industry
There are a series of online media articles related to these blog posts on biospecimen procurement for industry. The articles focus on the biosample procurement problems facing biotech companies in particular. Furthermore, they explain that the ideal solution is for academic biobanks to work directly with biotech companies. The Biosample Hub platform is one practical way to make this possible.
There are over 20 online media articles in this series. Examples include:
- Biobanks, Biotechs and the Need to Recognize a Crisis. Technology Networks, September 21, 2021
- Why Hospital Biobanks Should Supply Biotechs. Drug Discovery & Development, September 13, 2021
You can see all the articles listed at the bottom of the Biosample Hub home page.