The research of the human physique is on the heart of drug growth. Diverse, high-quality biospecimens, together with human tissue, biofluids and cells, are important elements in driving analysis by informing molecular insights and medical data to find sure illness drivers, efficient drug targets, and extra. However, an estimated 3 billion medical specimens are discarded yearly, resulting in a scarcity of biospecimens for analysis functions.¹ This waste of invaluable organic data and medical potential has lengthy been missed and holds a key to addressing shortfalls in biospecimen provide that’s crucial to serving to medical investigators advance their work.

What’s extra, the unrelenting strain of precision drugs is driving investigators’ wants for more and more particular biofluids and tissue samples for his or her research. For years, roughly 4 in 5 investigators have restricted their work due to such shortage.^2,3

However, we will remedy this drawback by rethinking how specimens are collected and saved from labs everywhere in the world. By doing so, it might create alternatives for investigators to realize entry to those helpful assets with out compromising affected person care or security.

However, we will remedy this drawback by rethinking how specimens are collected and saved from labs everywhere in the world. Image Credit: © arcyto – inventory.adobe.com

Preserve Valuable Biospecimens

Clinical labs are sitting on a goldmine of potential assets that may very well be used for future medical analysis. In 2023, one answer could also be a web-based market that may permit for quick, protected, and economical interactions between medical labs (who’ve entry to human specimens) and investigators (who want specimens to advance their analysis). Clinical labs might simply supply their biospecimens to investigators and obtain compensation for his or her work to take advantage of out of this helpful useful resource. In flip, using such a market permits investigators easy accessibility to those specimens to carry out doubtlessly lifesaving analysis and growth. With such a market, investigators would come to go looking, choose, and purchase the biospecimens they want. As with any on-line market, the “product” being supplied could be described in in depth element. In this case, descriptions would come with the affected person’s anonymized demographics, diagnoses, way of life (eg, smoking), previous procedures, and presumably even genetic biomarkers. This differentiation is important in our precision drugs age.

Simplifying Biospecimen Procurement Complexity

Biospecimens are sophisticated and require advanced processes for procurement. The time-consuming technique of procuring these specimens usually delays analysis organizations for weeks and even months earlier than they will start their work. This can have a severe impression on the tempo and high quality of medical progress that would in any other case be achieved extra effectively if the processes have been streamlined and automatic.

Timing may be paramount when conducting analysis. An on-line market for human biospecimens would lower weeks or months from the hassle that analysis organizations now put money into gathering required specimen samples, usually with out success. Investigators describe at this time’s biospecimen procurement course of as “challenging” and “inefficient.”³ They usually procure specimens by means of a drawn-out expertise filled with cellphone calls, emails, and ready on standby; these potential pattern suppliers can collectively create a fancy sourcing internet for analysis organizations.

An on-line market would assist to centralize, streamline, and automate the specimen procurement course of. Instead of calling or emailing specimen suppliers one after the other, analysis organizations would merely the search by means of entry to an enormous community of samples on the web market, which might permit them to level and click on to fill their very own carts or have the platform assemble collections for them.Investigators may additionally take pleasure in expedited supply of the biospecimens wanted for his or her work.

Revenue for Biobanks and Clinics

Streamlining biospecimen procurement would additionally present sorely wanted income to medical labs and different organizations. While many of those organizations presently discard helpful biospecimens, others retailer them till they turn into out of date. More than 50% of biobanks acquire extra specimens annually than they launch, in lots of circumstances as a lot as a 10-fold distinction.⁴

Further, biobanks want cash to outlive. Biobank personnel say the financial sustainability of their biorepositories is a serious problem.⁵ An on-line market for human biospecimens would give biobanks a income stream to assist defray the prices of dealing with, storing, and distributing helpful specimens. The platform’s software program would assist suppliers handle orders, decide, and pack specimens and ship the specimens on their approach.

Privacy Assured

Since a web-based market holds an abundance of information about specimens and the sufferers who donate them, all samples would have to be de-identified. Personal figuring out data would by no means be shared, encrypted, or in any other case with {the marketplace} platform. Names would by no means depart the group supplying the samples.

One imaginative and prescient of a web-based market (iSpecimen Marketplace) that unites the world’s certified analysis organizations and biospecimen suppliers is in its early phases, with greater than 200 suppliers representing greater than 80 million specimens interacting with greater than 500 analysis organizations.⁵ The processes are evolving, and the transaction quantity is growing. These traits are serving to to gas medical progress, cut back prices, and speed up analysis and growth timelines, all whereas producing new income streams to assist maintain the numerous, various organizations that offer specimens.

The human physique remains to be central to drug growth. Today, there are ever-evolving methods of connecting individuals and their very important specimen contributions to rising medical discoveries that intention to enhance lives and assist make the world safer and more healthy for all of us.

About the Author

Evan Cox is vice chairman and head of product administration at iSpecimen.

REFERENCES

1. Staff reporter. AACC Calls on Congress to Fund Clinical Lab Training Programs. 360Dx. September 17, 2020. Accessed January 2, 2024. https://www.360dx.com/research-funding/aacc-calls-congress-fund-clinical-lab-training-programs
2. Massett HA, Atkinson NL, Weber D, et al. Assessing the necessity for a standardized most cancers HUman Biobank (caHUB): findings from a nationwide survey with most cancers researchers. J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr. 2011;2011(42):8-15. doi:10.1093/jncimonographs/lgr007
3. iSpecimen Reports Full Year 2022 Results. Lexington, MA: iSpecimen; March 14, 2023. Accessed January 2, 2024. https://investors.ispecimen.com/ispecimen-reports-full-year-2022-results/
4. A Worldwide Study of the Factors Affecting Sustainable Biobanking Operations and Technology-Based Approaches to Increase Utilization Rates. iSpecimen. May 2018. Accessed January 2, 2024. https://pages.ispecimen.com/Worldwide-Biobanking-Survey-Download.html
5. Transforming biospecimen procurement. iSpecimen. 2023. Accessed January 2, 2024.https://investors.ispecimen.com/