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Public–private relationships in biobanking: a still underestimated key component of open innovation

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Abstract

Access to human bioresources is essential to the understanding of human diseases and to the discovery of new biomarkers aimed at improving the diagnosis, prognosis, and the predictive response of patients to treatments. The use of biospecimens is strictly controlled by ethical assessment, which complies with the laws of the country. These laws regulate the partnerships between the biobanks and industrial actors. However, private–public partnerships (PPP) can be limiting for several reasons, which can hamper the discovery of new biological tests and new active molecules targeted to human diseases. The bottlenecks and roadblocks in establishing these partnerships include: poor organization of the biobank in setting up PPP, evaluation of the cost of human samples, the absence of experience on the public side in setting up contracts with industry, and the fact that public and private partners may not share the same objectives. However, it is critical, in particular for academic biobanks, to establish strong PPP to accelerate translational research for the benefits of patients, and to allow the sustainability of the biobank. The purpose of this review is to discuss the main bottlenecks and roadblocks that can hamper the establishment of PPP based on solid and trusting relationships.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Infrastructure “Biobanques” (Grant ANR, France).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hospital-Integrated Tumor Biobank, Pasteur Hospital, Nice, France

    Paul Hofman

  2. Inserm, National Biobank Infrastructure, Paris, France

    Paul Hofman, Georges Dagher & Bruno Clément

  3. Institut Pasteur, 25-28 Rue du Docteur Roux, 75015, Paris, France

    Christian Bréchot

  4. Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria

    Kurt Zatloukal

  5. Inserm, Biological Resource Centre, Pontchaillou Hospital, Rennes, France

    Bruno Clément

  6. Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Pathology, Pasteur Hospital, BP 69, 06002, Nice Cedex, France

    Paul Hofman

Authors
  1. Paul Hofman
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  2. Christian Bréchot
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  3. Kurt Zatloukal
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  4. Georges Dagher
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  5. Bruno Clément
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Correspondence to Paul Hofman.

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Hofman, P., Bréchot, C., Zatloukal, K. et al. Public–private relationships in biobanking: a still underestimated key component of open innovation. Virchows Arch 464, 3–9 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-013-1524-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-013-1524-z

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