Completing the biobank network will cost a minimum of €10-15m., over 5 years, depending on personnel numbers and capital expenses. Government funding is essential, but is not yet available.
Biobank Ireland receives funds from diverse funding sources – mostly from industry, business, and philanthropists, and also from fundraising events. Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney authorised a LOTTO grant for the network in Dcember 2009. Grants from a consortium of 9 pharmaceutical companies (Amgen, Merck-Serono, Lilly, Sanofi-Aventis, Astra Zeneca, MSD, Pfizer, Novartis, GSK) are sponsoring salaries of dedicated biobank personnel in 2009-10. The companies – and indeed all stakeholders – realise how essential biobanking is for developing new biomarkers and better treatment for future patients, and for providing opportunities for collaborative research, including academic-industry partnerships that will stimulate the economy. This was the subject of a multistakeholder submission to the Taskforce on Innovation (2009).
Biobank Ireland Trust will not have the resources to complete the Network, which may take several years to be realised. The Expert Group proposed that funding be provided by the HSE National Cancer Control Programme, with additional subventions from other agencies. Government funding is appropriate: the biobank networks of France, Spain, Wales, Norway, Italy, Korea, Japan, Canada, USA, Brazil, Equador, and Australia are mainly funded by government. No national network is privately funded.