National THL Biobank Partners with BC Platforms' Global Network of Biobanks

ZURICH and BOSTON, September 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Accelerates sharing of genomic and health data from more than 150,000 subjects 

BC Platforms, a world leader in secure genomic data management and analytics, announces the addition of the THL Biobank, hosted by the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), to its Global Network of Biobanks.

THL Biobank brings to the Global network their extensive datasets from approximately 150,000 donors, that include multiomic cohorts necessary for accelerating drug development, diagnostics, biomarker validation, identification of disease risk factors, and stratification of patients. BC Platforms provides its BCRQUEST.com platform, a streamlined solution for secure data sharing, analytics and governance, enabling greater collaboration for scientific innovation.

This new partnership will link and integrate THL Biobank data sources to one bioanalytics platform in order to facilitate and support scientific research in the public interest. With over 20 years of experience in securely managing genomic and phenotypic data, BC Platforms has developed unique technology capable of providing researchers with tools to browse and analyze summary level information from data providers, such as biobanks, who have subscribed to the service.

Sirpa Soini, THL Biobank Director comments that, "We are delighted to partner with a leader in this space who can safely and securely provide our rich data sets to a broader researcher network. The service will provide academia and industry a window to the existing data and communication tools to prepare research proposals, coordinate collaboration, and request data and samples for research projects."

Tero Silvola, CEO of BC Platforms, commented, "We are pleased that THL Biobank, a highly respected Finnish research biobank, has agreed to provide their diverse and high quality data sets to our global network of biobanks. Using our BCRQUEST.com platform, biobanks can select which data from their collections to showcase in a secure and compliant manner to the world's largest pharmaceutical R&D teams and establish future research projects. The life science industry benefits from this global pool of harmonized biobank data to gain scientific insights with the goal of reducing drug development timelines and bringing benefits to the patients worldwide."

About BC Platforms 

BC Platforms is a world leader in providing powerful genomic data management and analysis solutions. Our high performing genomic data management platform enables flexible data integration, secure analysis and interpretation of molecular and clinical information. The company has launched and opened a global network of biobanks, known as BCRQUEST.com, to provide genomic and clinical cohort data for pharmaceutical and medical research and development. BC Platforms' vision is to build the world's leading analytics platform for healthcare and industry by 2020, providing access to diverse genomic and clinical data and samples from more than 5 million subjects consolidated from a global network of biobanks.

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

About THL 

THL (National Institute for Health and Welfare Terveyden ja Hyyvinvoinnin Laitos) is a Finnish Research and Development institute that aims to address applications of healthcare and scientific research data to help develop solutions to diseases and public health crises. Their overall mission is to promote better population health and help apply scientific knowledge to accomplish this goal.www.thl.fi/biobank

Contact information:  

BC Platforms AG 

Brett Villagrand
Brett.villagrand@bcplatforms.com

Katja Stout
Scius Communications
katja@sciuscommunications.com