Biopreservation and Biobanking - Ziath - 3

A WORLDWIDE SURVEY OF BIOBANK BUSINESS OPERATIONS
3
Discussion
The global move toward precision medicine and adFIG.
1. Availability of biobanking business plan.
IP/BP-: 71.0%/78.3%/52.7%) and have a strategy to approach
their customers (66.2%/63.9%/28.6%). About one of
five biobanks surveyed (BP +19.1%; BP-IP 23.0%) are active
on social media. BP- biobanks are less active (one of
eight; 12.1%). There are no obvious differences between
BP+, BP-IP, or BP- biobanks regarding repeated users/
customers (89.9%/88.5%/84.8%) or in terms of a strategy to
proactively collect specimens for specific customers (65.7%/
70.5%/66.3%). Just >69% of BP+ biobanks (69.1%) have a
website, whereas 43.3% of BP-IP biobanks and 53.3% of
BP- biobanks have one.
Seventy-two percent of BP+ biobanks, 67.8% of BP-IP
biobanks, and 44.2% of BP- biobanks report that they have
established performance metrics.
Three of four biobanks that participated in this survey were
established after 2003, and one-quarter of these were established
after 2012. BP+ biobanks are slightly older (about onethird
were established before 2004), and BP-IP biobanks are
more recently formed (62.7% established after 2010). Onethird
of the academic and governmental biobanks were established
before 2004, whereas 11.7% of hospital-based biobanks
were established at this time.
The number of samples stored in the participating biobanks
ranges from 0 to 11 million with a mean of 457,273
and a median of 64,837. The first quartile is from 0 to 5000
samples, and the fourth quartile is ‡200,000 samples. The
median in BP+ biobanks is 90,000, in BP-IP 60,000 samples,
and in BP- 50,000 samples.
vanced methods of molecular interrogation of samples for
disease research has expanded the demand for large numbers
of quality biospecimens and data to support these efforts. Our
business practices survey has a larger reach across biobanking
organizations in the world, especially as we translated
the originally English survey into several languages
(French, Spanish, German, and Chinese). We realize that our
survey reached only a small portion of biobanks that we know
to exist across the world, but the information gleaned from
participants is representative of the more advanced operations.
This is based on our earlier smaller survey, a review of
the literature, and personal communications.8 We are cautious
in speculating all causes of the move toward business
planning, but we discuss several drivers of professionalization
in biobanking.
Over the past two decades, biobanking has progressively
become part of the core services operations of academic,
industrial, government, and philanthropic research organizations.
Inherent in the setup and operations of biobanking
around the world is the understanding that biobanks are very
heterogeneous units, based on the goals of the research organization,
the stakeholders of the biobank, as well as the
size and diversity of collections to support the current customer/user
base.
Business planning is a required component for those biobanks
that are considering their marketability with industrial
partners. The need to harmonize and sustain biobanks within
multicentered networks could also be drivers toward business
planning and professionalization. The lack of networking
information for our respondents is a limitation of our data set,
and it means that we are unable to confirm this correlation.
Quality biobanking is a long-term and expensive institutional
commitment. Thus, sustaining the operations of biobanks financially,
operationally, and socially requires flexible solutions
over time, based on the type of unit established.9-12
Underlying the operations of a modern and professionalized
biobank is the need for strong business practices, with
business planning at its core. Our global survey suggests that
organizations that support biobanks have increasingly recognized
the need to professionalize their management, staffing,
and operations.
FIG. 2. Measure of professional communication practices (% positive responses) in Biobanks with (BP+) or in Preparation
(BP-IP) of a Business Plan.

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