More than 6 million samples are stored in Bexen Bioservices warehouses

Bexen Bioservices is responsible for the management and storage of biological samples and medicines. In this field it is a pioneer in offering comprehensive solutions privately.

Bexen Bioservices is a benchmark in the market for all the experience acquired since 2015. To meet the needs of the sector, it has three headquarters strategically located in the Basque Country, Galicia and Madrid. Each facility has the capacity to store more than 2 million biological samples or more than 30 million doses of medication.

Bexen Bioservices manages different biological samples in which samples from biotechnological research centers or production of studies on gene therapies may have a special mention. In recent years they are also managing several vaccines that must be stored at ultra-cold temperature.

The importance of temperature

Nowadays, Bexen Bioservices’ warehouses store about six and a half million samples at a temperature between 4º and -80º, depending on the needs of the sample. If we take Bexen Bioservices’ Hernani building as an example, there are two -20º temperature walk-in freezers and forty ultra-fridges of -80º with the latest Stirling technology.

Jaione Albistur, head of operations at Bexen Bioservices in Euskadi Irratia, points out in an interview that it is essential to keep the samples in suitable conditions. The control of these conditions starts from the moment of sample collection, where they have vehicles adapted for this purpose. Instant temperature control is carried out and online monitoring systems are available for this data.

In addition, not all samples are stored at the same temperature and under the same conditions,
each sample must have specific conditions. The longer the sample is stored, the lower temperatures are used to maintain the sample.

Maintenance of facilities

Facilities must be properly maintained to keep a sample for 30 years or more. As Jaione Albistur, operations manager at Bexen Bioservices, explains, numerous problems can arise throughout the process. There are areas that need to be certified. On the one hand, temperature control is done through probes, and at the same time there are different types of alarm systems so that if there are incidents, the way to handle the problem is ready. On the other hand, redundant electrical systems, such as electric generators, are installed.

Accident in Sweden

Indeed, a mistake in the freezers at the University of Sweden’s medical school caused the research samples stored there to be completely destroyed. Liquid nitrogen tanks are used to store samples for research, and in December there was a five-day interruption of light in those tanks.

Although accidents are expected in this type of area, only four days of power cuts were planned at the University of Sweden. As a result of this accident, samples used for leukaemia research and other samples over thirty years old have been wasted. They estimate a loss of about forty-five million as a result of the accident.

Sample management

Bexen offers professionalized sample preservation, ensuring that all sample conditions are properly maintained, so that researchers can then use them correctly.

Jaione Albistur assures that the most delicate moment in the sample management or storage process is transportation. In many cases, as the samples spend little time being transported, the importance of this management process is downplayed. Bexen uses specific equipment and vehicles for this process. They then ensure proper temperature maintenance, both by probe and by alarm. This allows customers or researchers to know at all times that the samples are being properly maintained. Then there can always be incidents, like the accident in Sweden. For these emergency cases, they have an electric generator from Bexen Bioservices that provides light for seven or eight days. On the other hand, if the light goes away, they are assured that the generator is working.

In addition to installation problems, they have clear contingency plans for ultra-refrigerators. If a team doesn’t work properly, they always have one of the ten equipment empty. In this way, to have the opportunity to transfer all the products in the equipment that has been in trouble, directly to another equipment.

Bexen Bioservices’ priority is to ensure the safety of samples.