Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
access to materials cannot be guaranteed, such as typically happens
in pharmaceutical drug development (Courtney et al., 2011). It has
been suggested therefore that not only will commercial opportunities
be reduced, but that incentives for researchers outside the UK will be
reduced too (Courtney et al., 2011).
How this will pan out for iPSC research is, at this stage,
hypothetical, but it might be envisioned that biobanking will become
obsolete if iPSCs are so easy to produce. An alternative option,
however, is that private biobanking of adult cells will emerge instead.
The proliferation of private banks for cord blood, menstrual blood
and baby teeth, advertised as a form of insurance against the future,
are evidence of this potential (Nelson, 2008). While some of these
private forms of biobanking are criticized for their lack of evidence
that such banking works, the supporters of private biobanking argue
that storing samples in advance of actual therapeutic developments
is a strategic move that could result in considerable advantages much
further down the track (Nelson, 2008). As mentioned previously,
this principle has very recently been documented with the use of
iPSC technology on specimens collected at San Diego's Frozen Zoo,
a biobank established in the early 1970s (Ben-Nun et al., 2011).
Although a similar application of iPSCs is not yet available for
humans it must surely only be a matter of time given the rapid pace
at which private biobanking of adult stem cells is expanding.
6.2.3 Trainingdelivery
A third commercial opportunity in the iPSC market is to provide
training services in the derivation and culture of iPSCs. The training
delivery model is adopted by StemGent (
http://www.stemgent.com
)
and Cellular Dynamics International (
http://www.cellulardynamics.
com
). The training provider business model enables companies to
offer services to clients at low cost and maximum value. After all, if
they already have the facilities and the skill set among staff to
provide this service, then setting aside a limited period of time for
staff to train others in on-site facilities is a good income-producing
strategy to pursue in the light of the observation above that
