Diverse Responses of the Biobanks in Indo-Pacific Rim Region During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Scenarios from Two Low- and Middle-Income Countries and Two High-Income Countries in the Indo-Pacific Rim Region.

Abstract

Background: Biobankers have been unexpectedly involved in the pandemic of COVID-19 since early 2020. Although specific guidance was not available, the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) Best Practices and the ISO 20387 document have been utilized to deal with the pandemic disaster. The ISO experts and best practice experts in ISBER teamed up to share the available information and learn the experiences of biobanks concerning COVID-19 through organizing webinars, surveys, and town hall meetings. Four ISBER regional ambassadors (RAs) from the Indo-Pacific Rim (IPR) region were also actively involved at one of the town hall meetings. These RAs, who are from Australia, India, Indonesia, and Japan, and the Director-at-Large of the region, have summarized their experiences in this article. Materials and Methods: The ISBER Standards Committee COVID-19 Task Force has kindly provided the survey results. The extracted glossary from the results was categorized into 10 factors: (1) crisis management; (2) sample-related issues; (3) logistics-related issues; (4) equipment-related issues; (5) ethical, legal, and social implication-related issues; (6) operation-related issues; (7) personnel-related issues; (8) management-related issues; (9) infection-related issues; and (10) research-related issues. Each IPR RA has provided a case considering these 10 factors. Results and Discussion: Two key points have emerged from the scenarios, which are as follows: (1) impacts of the biobanks in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are similar to those in high-income countries (HICs) and (2) tolerance of the biobanks in LMICs is not so robust as those in HICs. Furthermore, communication strategies with internal and external stakeholders are critical for a biobank to manage this crisis. This article summarizes the impacts, indicates the opportunities that COVID-19 has brought to the biobank community, and highlights the usefulness of the network beyond biobank services. Lastly, the biobanks need to turn the challenges into opportunities to overcome the crisis.