BC Platforms Announces Partnerships with Three Finnish Biobanks to Advance Novel Diagnostics and Treatments

ZURICH, May 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BC Platforms (BCP), a global leader in healthcare data management and analytics, today announced it has secured a multi-year contract, following a competitive procurement, to work with three Finnish Hospital District owned Biobanks (Clinical Biobanks) on improving access to, and automated management of, phenotypic, genomic, and clinical data. The project underpins Finland's ambition to be a leading country for Real-World Data (RWD) studies, supporting the global development of novel treatments and enhancing the resilience of healthcare systems. Therapeutic areas of focus will include cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Biobanks hold the future of medical research, diagnostic, and treatments in their data, but it is often hard to make good use of the data for global benefit. Overall, BCP's software enables Biobanks around the world to run their daily operations more effectively and efficiently, enhancing the utility of the data contained for use in academic and commercial research.

The biobanks involved are the Biobank Borealis of Northern Finland (which includes Lapland), Finnish Clinical Biobank Tampere (FCBT), and the Central Finland Biobank in Jyväskylä, all of which have been in operation since 2015. Collectively these Biobanks cover health data from around 2 million Finnish citizens, which is approximately 1/3 of the population. Biobanks have also specific collections, for example The Finnish Maternity Cohort (FMC), which covers samples from almost 1 million mothers nationwide. The Biobanks support research in disease prevention including for example cardiovascular disease, cancer, immunology, and type 1 diabetes.

The Biobanks operate to support high quality medical research to understand the factors in disease mechanisms, promote development of new products and services that promote public health. The Biobanks frequently publish their findings from various biobank research ^{(1) (2) (3)}. All these biobanks are members of the FinnGen project and have access to produced genome data. 

The partnership was orchestrated by one of Finland's leading ICMT companies, Istekki, owned by hospital districts and the public sector. The organisation acts as a system integrator and project office for the deployment of new technologies

Tero Silvola, CEO of BCP, said, "We're delighted to announce another partnership with these prestigious Finnish Biobanks, and thank Istekki for making it happen. In Finland, where we have our R&D centre, the genetic heritage of the population has significant value in providing clinical insights into the causation and treatment of many diseases. We see this partnership opening new strategic health data driven high impact opportunities for Biobanks and the science community."

Sanna Siltanen, Director, FCBT, commented, "This is good news for developing the Finnish healthcare system and its research capabilities. Consented sample and patient information enables an integrated and automated operating model under Finnish Biobank Act and GDPR. We believe our good quality longitudinal geno-pheno data samples will attract research interest globally. Our partnership with BC Platforms provides us with unique, sophisticated, software tools that significantly reduce the resource needed to administer the data in our Biobank, enabling more focus on making Finland a leading country for Biobank-studies."

Kirsi Kauhanen, Service Manager, Istekki Oy, commented, "We are pleased to play a part in improving our Biobank customers data management and collaborate in fruitful co-operation with BC Platforms. We're looking forward to the upcoming years ensuring that customer expectations are met and even exceeded. Our key objective is to ensure our customers have safe and reliable environment to work and excel in their core area. We trust that BC Platforms is a competent partner in making this happen with us."    

BCP will be providing several of its proprietary software-based solutions to the partnership, including:

• BC|CORE, for: participant, identifier registry and consent management & data collection system to manage participant, sample and handover register
• BC|SAMPLE for: sample management system for sample registration and management

BC|INSIGHT for: holistic data management application for biobank reporting and for managing user authorisation and data changes.

References:

(1)  https://www.ppshp.fi/Tutkimus-ja-opetus/Biopankki/Biopankkitutkimukset/Sivut/default.aspx

(2)  https://www.tays.fi/en-US/Research_and_development/Finnish_Clinical_Biobank_Tampere/Research_Projects/FCBTs_research_projects_2021(125243)

(3) https://www.finngen.fi/en/publications

About BC Platforms

BC Platforms is a global leader in building data networks for Pharmaceutical industry and technology platform for personalised medicine, accelerating the translation of insights into clinical practice. Our technology drives the infinite loop between personalised care and research discoveries, leveraging latest science, deep technical expertise, strategic partnerships, and harmonised, diverse data collections. Our high performing genomic data discovery and analytics platform enables flexible data integration, secure analysis, and interpretation of molecular and clinical information. Additionally, BC Platforms has developed a Global Data Partner Network BCRQUEST.com, which allows us to access real-world data equivalent to BCP's growing global data partner network now has a footprint across 39 sites including major hospitals networks and across 20 countries in 5 continents, providing standard of care data for over 23+M patients allowing access to highly enriched data (including genomic, imaging, and other) for pharmaceutical and medical research and development.

Founded in 1997 from a MIT Whitehead project spinoff, the Company has a strong scientific heritage underpinned by over 20 years of working in close collaboration with a network of leading researchers, developers, and industry partners. BC Platforms has global operations with its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, research and development in Espoo, Finland, and presence in London, Boston and in Singapore.  For more information, please visit www.bcplatforms.com or follow us on LinkedIn @BC Platforms.    

Contact information:

Tero Silvola
BC Platforms AG
[email protected] 

Katja Stout
Scius Communications
[email protected],

SOURCE BC Platforms