Accessing Accessions: Biobanks and Benefit-Sharing

The ability to access the materials and data in bio banks is vital to many areas of research. This paper reports a survey of a sample of biobanks worldwide to see the types of information that is provided by their sites as to their mode of operation, in terms of intellectual property policies, cost, material transfer agreements and so forth. The types of material held in a sample of bio banks in different jurisdictions is discussed, along with proposals for further research in the area. Following an introduction to some of the issues facing bio banks and their relationship to accessing various materials, an example of the additional work done by one recently visited bio bank site is described. The focus of this research has been on bio banks that have non-human biological resources rather than purely human biobanks.