The life blood of healthcare & the heart beat of research.
Supporting doctors & medical innovators
Sahara BioMedix is a Cambridge (UK) biopharmaceutical company that provides medical researchers and innovators around the world with access to human biospecimens and consented donor data from Black and minority populations.
We also provide approved healthcare providers in Nigeria with fully screened and properly tested blood and blood components exclusively from voluntary donors.
Specialist
We specialise in sourcing blood products and bio-fluids from diverse ethnic groups, particularly people of Black African / Caribbean descent and mixed heritage.
Pioneering partnerships
We support and work with organisations that also seek to reach underserved populations and tackle diseases and conditions that are often neglected by others.
Ethical
We follow international standards for valid and appropriate informed consent, protecting donor confidentiality and ensuring our partners maintain good ethical practices.
The disproportionate health outcomes and life expectancies…
of Black and minority populations expose health inequities that prevail throughout the system but start with research.
The safety and efficacy of most drugs remain unproven for ethnic minorities because 80 to 90% of patients participating in clinical trials are white. Even new scientific advances like personalised medicine, precision medicine and gene editing, risk becoming the province of the “white and wealthy” because they too are based on genetic material from predominantly white people.
In treatment, Black and ethnic minority populations experience more restricted access to life-saving therapeutics. Availability of safe blood and blood products is key to addressing many health-related challenges. While the need for blood is universal, millions of patients requiring transfusion do not have timely access to safe blood, and there is a major imbalance between developing and industrialised countries in access to safe blood.
Across most of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) there are massive blood supply shortages. This unmet medical demand prevents health care providers from delivering essential services and causes patients to suffer and die unnecessarily.
What the EXPERTS say
A recent study of trials involving some 150,000 patients in 29 countries at five different time points over the past 21 years showed that the ethnic makeup of the trials was about 86 percent white.
It’s unethical and dangerous to approve drugs without making every attempt to certify their safety and efficacy for everybody – and that includes members of racial and ethnic minorities.
Scientific American
“Clinical Trials Need More Diversity” in Scientific American 319, 3, 10 (September 2018)
In implementing blood safety activities in the WHO African Region significant challenges remain, such as: insufficient number of voluntary non remunerated, blood donations; less than 100% testing of transfused blood units for TTIs (and) inadequate quality control of the screening tests, blood grouping and compatibility testing.
Nigeria has the lowest blood donation rate in the region at 0.7 units per 1,000 inhabitants compared with the average of 4.7/1,000.
The World Health Organisation (WHO)
“Current Status on Blood Safety and Availability in the WHO African Region — Report of the 2013 Survey” (2017)
In an increasingly ethnically-diverse world…
governments, pharma and healthcare providers are desperately seeking solutions to address these issues.
More ethnically diverse participants in medical trials are needed to reveal population-specific differences and allow doctors and commissioners to better meet the needs of diverse patients.
Specific programmes and organisations dedicated to involving under-served ethnic groups in health participation activities like blood donation are needed to improve health delivery for minorities.
Sahara BioMedix helps drive the resilience and equality that is so urgently needed in modern health systems and biomedical research practices. Our specialist blood and biospecimen services are underpinned by a deep understanding and respect for the communities our donors come from. By empowering them to participate in health and research activities, we give them the tools to improve their own access to life-saving therapeutics.
Contact us
enquiry@saharabiomedix.com
MILTON HALL,
Ely Road, Milton, Cambridge,
CB24 6WZ, United Kingdom
+44 (0) 7395 721173 – For medical researchers that wish to order human biological samples
By Mega Chicken, after 2nd Toll Gate.
BLOOD TIES DONOR FOUNDATION,
38B ROAD 3, IKOTA VILLA ESTATE, LEKKI,
LAGOS, NIGERIA
+234 (0) 915 526 6217 – For hospitals and other healthcare providers in Nigeria that wish to order blood and blood components.
+234 (0) 909 179 0617 – For voluntary blood donors, Action On Blood members and organisations that wish to host a community blood drive
Looking for blood for medical treatment or biospecimens for research?
Get in touch with us to find out how we can help!