Biobanks and Business planning

Many Biobanks are under pressure to adopt more sustainable, business-like mentalities in the future. At the 2016 ISBER meeting a survey was conducted to gauge awareness of business planning in the Biobanking community. The results are summarised here:

• 17 out of the 32 Biobanks who took part had a business plan, with 10 having one in progress.
• 23 out of 28 had a utilisation target of 40%+ and 22 of these estimated they were up to 40% utilisation.
• 30 out of 32 Biobanks performed some form of marketing or advertising.
• 22 out of 32 had a strategy on how to approach potential customers to create new business for the Biobank.

Other key points raised by the authors were the discrepancy between estimates and targets of utilisation. These are important in business planning the authors claim; ‘It takes clear documentation of purpose, market analysis, stakeholder identification, marketing strategies, organizational and governance models, costs, revenues, and funding sources.’

The authors highlight the small and potentially bias sample surveyed, but intend to follow up with another survey shortly. Keep checking our website for more information.

What are your thoughts on these issues? What is your utilisation target? Let us know what we can be doing to help.

Results taken from:

Trends in Biobanking Business Planning: Initial Results of a Survey of Biobankers.