The UK Biobanking Timebomb: Maintaining Public Trust in Medical Research

On the 25th October BBMRI.uk attended an event in parliament organised by The University of Nottingham. The UK Biobanking Timebomb: Maintaining Public Trust in Medical Research was ran as part of Nottingham in Parliament day. The day saw more than 2,500 guests gather at 45 events across Parliament.

The session began with a brief introduction to Biobanking from Centre Director, Dr Phil Quinlan. Allan Marriott-Smith, CEO of the HTA, Dr Janet Messer of the HRA and Dr Rebecca Lumsden, ABPI went on to introduce their organisations perspectives on Biobanking.

Phil Quinlan then discussed what he sees as the main issues facing Biobanks, this included the reducing contributions from Research grants to Biobanks, cost recovery not being sufficient to recover costs combined with the increasing costs of running resources. Reward mechanisms and access to clinical data were also important issues that needed to be addressed. He summed up with the main needs of the field at present:

We need to respect patient wishes

We need to recognise what is a biobank

We need to reward those that share

BBMRI.uk are keen to pursue these issues to make Biobanking work for all stakeholders. We will be following up with key individuals in the coming weeks; keep checking our website for the latest news. Read more about the day here.