Massachusetts Biotech iSpecimen Launches Amazon-Like Marketplace for Scientists
June 22, 2017
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
In 2009, Lexington, Mass.-based iSpecimen launched with a database of biological samples that can be used by researchers. Today the company announced its iSpecimen Marketplace, where researchers can find the specimen they’re interested in and buy it at the same time.
“What Amazon did for bookstores, we’re going to be doing for bio-repositories,” Christopher Ianelli, the company’s founder and chief executive officer, told the Boston Business Journal.
Many researchers, when looking for biospecimens for research and development, have had to do the searching themselves, contacting biobanks, clinical laboratories, and specimen brokers. iSpecimen helped that along with its database, which gave researchers a place to look, but then had to contact the sources themselves.
Now, using the iSpecimen Marketplace, researchers can conduct a search through the database, click “add to cart” and get a quote from the supplier. The purchase orders are submitted to iSpecimen, which then handles the transaction. iSpecimen receives a transaction fee from the researcher; a part of the fee is shared with the supplier.
About one million biospecimens are currently available on the marketplace, ranging from cells to blood to urine. Boston Business Journal’s Max Stendahl writes, “The company says it plans to add millions of additional ‘clinical remnants’—leftovers from completed trials—as well as samples provided by patients specifically for use in research. Most of the users of the new platform are expected to be pharma, biotech and diagnostic firms.”
iSpecimen employs 35 people. In 2012, it raised $2 million. In 2014, it completed a Series B financing round of $8 million. In 2012, iSpecimen took part in MassChallenge, as well as in the startup accelerator program. One of the investors was OneBlood, a not-for-profit that provides blood to hospitals in several southern states.
MassChallenge calls itself “the most startup-friendly accelerator on the planet.” Each year it awards up to $2 million in equity-free cash to help high-impact startups.
“It’s groundbreaking,” Ianelli said of the new platform. It was modeled after airfare aggregator Kayak.com. “Unless you’re looking to book a flight or buy something off Amazon, no one else is doing this in the life sciences.”
iSpecimen notes that according to one National Cancer Institute (NCI) study, four of five researchers indicated that their research had been limited because of inadequate supply of high-quality biospecimens.
iSpecimen states, “Accessing de-identified electronic medical record and laboratory data from across a network of participating partner organizations—including hospitals, labs, biobanks, blood centers and other healthcare institutions—iSpecimen’s technology aggregates a vast amount of information about individual specimens and the patients from whom they came into a single, harmonized view. Researchers can quickly and easily search this data using detailed patient, specimen, and compliance criteria and instantly view the availability and details of specimens that meet their specific needs. Contracting is likewise simplified and accelerated, as researchers and providers alike contract once with iSpecimen and gain access to all other organizations in the network.”
Amer Abouhamze, assistant director of the CTSI Biorepository at the University of Florida, said in a statement, “Providing specimens through the iSpecimen Marketplace generates value for us on multiple levels. It allows us to reach thousands of scientists who are in need of high-quality biospecimens, providing us with an excellent method to more easily fulfill our research mission. It allows us to ensure the utilization of biospecimens as quickly as possible after procurement, in order to accelerate translational research. And finally, it gives us insight into our own inventory as well as the whole iSpecimen partner network to bolster internal research programs within the university.”