How to Choose a Company for Human Biospecimen Collection?

Science is moving forward, and the world is in need of human biospecimens (HBS). Scientists are looking for biospecimen collection services, which are crucial for their scientific research. Procurement managers from R&D, diagnostic, and biotech companies scan the web to satisfy the demand for biospecimens. Is that an easy task? Which service should you choose: global biospecimen vendors or biobanks, marketplaces, or private biospecimen companies?

Together, we will try to find the answers to these questions.

Firstly, you need to choose which type of collection to use. There are two main ways to collect biospecimens: retrospective and prospective.

Retrospective collection may be fast, as you receive already banked samples, but you need to consider that you cannot influence or change the processing protocol and will receive a limited range of clinical data.

Prospective collection allows the highest level of flexibility and study customization but requires more time than retrospective collection. If you have a complicated study design or require unique sample processing, only prospective collection may satisfy your needs.

Now that you know the difference between collection types, let us look at all the players in the biospecimen collection field and try to distinguish their advantages and disadvantages.

While searching the web, you may find the following biospecimen providers:

• Biobanks
• Academies
• Hospitals
• Bio vendors
• Marketplaces
• Specialized biospecimen companies

So, who are they, and whom should you approach to achieve your specific goals?

Biobanks and academies usually collect thousands of human samples, process them in line with their own SOPs, and keep them in stock. They have their own scientific goals and collect samples accordingly. They usually rely on grants for funding and operate as non-profit organizations, so they are not primarily focused on providing services or conducting business. They are also typically focused on a single disease area or patient cohort.

• Pros: They may be highly useful when you need banked samples and have no time to run a prospective study. They have almost unlimited biobank capacities and can be excellent partners for retrospective studies or provide archived tissue blocks, tissues, or blood derivatives.
• Cons: Processing details or clinical data might not be sufficient. As providing services is not their primary business model, you may experience communication challenges.
• Budget: $$

Hospitals. Depending on their size, hospitals may be a good source of human biospecimens. Clearly, their core business is patient treatment, and they enter the biospecimen market to improve profitability, usually considering this part of their business as complementary. Physicians involved in studies (also called Principal Investigators) are overloaded with their daily responsibilities. They usually do not welcome this additional burden imposed by hospital administration and tend to minimize their participation in the study.

• Pros: You have direct access to principal investigators.
• Cons: Physicians are often not sufficiently motivated to contribute to your study, which may result in slow collection rates and an insufficient level of clinical detail in the supporting documentation. Due to limited experience, sample processing and quality may also suffer.
• Budget: $$

Bio vendors are specialized companies responsible for biospecimen procurement. This is their core business, so you may usually expect a good level of expertise and appropriate support from the company’s project managers. They might collect samples from their own sources but mainly resell samples purchased from other biospecimen companies, which increases the price and makes biospecimen traceability impossible. As biospecimen collection is usually multicentric, you benefit from higher collection rates but may encounter heterogeneous sample quality. Bio vendors often have to reprocess samples in-house to ensure an appropriate quality level.

• Pros: High collection rates and good customer service. They may be the best option if you need patients from a specific region or a particular country (for example, exclusively from the USA or China).
• Cons: Usually, the sample source is unknown. As another company performs the collection, you do not have direct access to the principal investigators. Communication is slower because all your questions and comments are redirected to another company. Short-notice changes to the collection protocol or modifications to the inclusion and exclusion criteria are generally not possible for the same reason.
• Budget: $$$$

Marketplaces are e-commerce platforms for biospecimen procurement. Usually, you submit a request and receive a price proposal. Some marketplaces disclose the final service provider, while others do not. Accordingly, the first type of marketplace benefits from transaction commissions and additional services, whereas the second applies its own mark-up, which may increase the price significantly. In some cases, samples are shipped directly from the final service provider to the customer, with the marketplace acting only as an intermediary. Sometimes, the marketplace serves as a transit point in the biospecimen shipping route to conceal the sample origin. Quality assurance remains the responsibility of the service provider and depends entirely on its quality system.

• Pros: No need to sign numerous contracts with different companies—it is enough to contract with one marketplace using a single billing address. Some marketplaces provide ratings for their service providers, reflecting successful project completion rates and overall company reliability.
• Cons: Additional marketplace fees. No additional quality assurance (QA).
• Budget: $$$$

Specialized biospecimen companies specialize in pre-clinical trials and human biospecimen collection. They usually operate in one or a few neighboring countries, providing access to a common patient population (for example, the Caucasian population). They are highly skilled in the biospecimen business due to their precise specialization. Their main difference from bio vendors is that they operate their own biospecimen collection sites with direct access to physicians (PIs). If needed, you can easily speak directly with the physicians involved in your study and be sure that everything runs smoothly in line with your requirements. These companies are highly client-oriented and able to tailor their processes to your specific study needs.

• Pros: Sample traceability and direct access to physicians involved in the study. Flexibility and strong focus on clients’ needs. No extra fees.
• Cons: Limited archive sample capacity, with the primary focus on prospective studies. Collection rates may be lower than those offered by bio vendors.
• Budget: $$

BIOMEDICA CRO belongs to the group of specialized biospecimen companies and has been operating successfully since 2017. We collect human biospecimens through a broad network of partnered hospitals in Ukraine and supply them globally. Our company provides pre-clinical trial services in line with Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and Good Clinical Practice (GCP).

We conduct biospecimen procurement ourselves, which is one of our key competitive advantages. By collecting biospecimens directly, we guarantee sample traceability and a high level of quality through a multistep quality control process. The BIOMEDICA CRO team is in constant contact with clinical sites as well as principal investigators and is always ready to provide you with the latest collection updates. Direct communication with physicians ensures their proper understanding of collection requirements and processing protocols.

Ethics is not just a buzzword for us. Clinical sites are included in our partner network only after obtaining IRB (Independent Review Board) approval, and patients provide mandatory informed consent. Therefore, we operate in full compliance with international and local ethical guidelines.

If you are a scientist or a procurement manager, you may be overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork involved. At BIOMEDICA CRO, we can provide our standard agreements or work with your corporate templates to make your life easier. Cooperation with BIOMEDICA CRO allows you to focus on your research while keeping paperwork to a minimum.

BIOMEDICA CRO is ready to supply the following main types of human biospecimens:

• TISSUE SAMPLES – Diseased and normal adjacent: viable frozen tissue, fresh frozen tissue, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) blocks, histological slides.
• BLOOD SAMPLES – Various medical conditions and healthy donors: whole blood, plasma, double-spun plasma, serum, red blood cells, buffy coat, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).
• OTHER BIOFLUIDS – Various medical conditions and healthy donors: sputum, saliva, aspirate, swabs, urine, stool, synovial fluid (SF), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and others.

If you need a reliable partner to source human biospecimens, BIOMEDICA CRO is here to help.