Four Reasons "Smart Outsourcing" Biorepositories Can Work for You

This post was authored by Mike Madarasz of the Institute for International Research.  You can follow him on Twitter at @MikeMadarasz

We are at point where researchers from nearly every medical discipline have come to appreciate the importance of having a centralized biorepository and the technological framework to house the data associated with these samples.  Transitioning from a decentralized model of storing these samples to a more centralized method has proved to be difficult and has led many institutions to begin outsourcing this task.  Kristina Robson of BioStorage Technologies says outsourcing is a smart option for companies that don’t have the internal bandwidth or expertise to manage these assets.   “Outsourcing sample management with an experienced service-provider has both financial and operational benefits” explains Robson.    

The operational benefits of some of the sophisticated sample management systems are fairly obvious as these providers offer a high quality, consistent solution for handling samples.  On the financial side, Robson cited a number of drivers that make “smart outsourcing” approaches an attractive option:

Speed — It could take as long as a year to establish a biorepository that can adequately store physical specimens needed to maximize today’s clinical endeavors. Insourcing alleviates this difficulty, as appropriate infrastructure for data management and storage can be developed in a matter of months. 

Decreased Cost — Sample management “smart outsourcing” models reduce infrastructure cost, thereby decreasing the need for large operations teams to manage/map data, provide governance and build custom query application.

Scalability — Because large quantities of biological materials are generated during drug R&D, thousands of samples need to be properly stored and tracked throughout clinical trials and beyond. Through innovative outsourcing partnership models, companies gain the ability to move samples offsite seamlessly to add capacity.

Quality Assurance — By leveraging SOPs already developed and validated by an outsourced partner, risk of specimen degradation through handling and storage techniques can be mitigated. 

You can check out Kristina Robson’s article in its entirety here.

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