Sanguine BioSciences, a Valencia-based biotechnology company enabling personalized medicine research, today announced a distribution partnership with AMS Biotechnology to make its products and services available to researchers in Europe.

Sanguine collects and de-identifies biospecimen, medical history and other data from patients diagnosed with severe and chronic diseases for use in biomarker research. Researchers traditionally obtain biospecimen through hospitals, but this process often proves inefficient as the focus for physicians and staff is on diagnosis and treatment, not facilitating research efforts. By connecting directly with patients, Sanguine can meet the needs of researchers and offer timely turnaround of biospecimen and medical data with diverse ranges for age, race, disease state, gender and treatments underway.  The patient engagement tactics used by the company have led to a 95 percent retention rate, which also allow for follow-up draws for longitudinal studies.

“There is no denying that personalized medicine has become a significant area of interest for drug discovery, but there exists a gap between researchers who require biospecimen respective medical data, and patients who want to be a part of research efforts,” said Brian Neman, founder and chief executive officer of Sanguine. “We have engaged hundreds of patient subjects, and built a library of specimen and data that can effectively bridge this gap. We look forward to partnering with AMSBIO to make this service accessible to researchers around the world working in different therapeutic areas.”

Added Phillip Pridham-Field of AMSBIO, “Sanguine’s patient retention efforts allow researchers to collect the data they need with better turnaround time and with the potential for longitudinal studies. We believe they will be an excellent addition to our current product offerings for researchers in life sciences.”

Sanguine is able to meet, review disclosures and collect blood samples in a patient’s home with its own phlebotomists in multiple major U.S. cities. Patients are also able to track how their de-identified biospecimen and data are used through the donor web-portal. The company is able to collect and process blood from patients with any disease and has already built large libraries in multiple chronic and severe conditions, including Huntington’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and others.

In order to maintain appropriate confidentiality, all samples are de-identified immediately upon collection. Sanguine maintains and reviews internal ethical guidelines for the procedures under high scrutiny from an independent review board.

About Sanguine

Sanguine BioSciences (http://sanguinebio.com) is a biotechnology company bridging the gap between patients and researchers developing personalized medicine. The company engages patients in biomedical research by delivering transparency throughout the research process. Sanguine collects and de-identifies patient-derived data in the form of biospecimen, and physician and self-reported information. These data are generated and then made available to researchers involved in drug and biomarker research and discovery with leading academic laboratories and companies, such as Vertex.

About AMS Biotechnology

Founded in 1987, AMS Biotechnology (AMSBIO) is recognized today as a leading company contributing to the acceleration of discovery through the provision of cutting-edge life science technology products and services for research and development in the medical, nutrition, cosmetics and energy industries. With a range of molecular detection reagents and a significant Biorepository AMSBIO offers tissues, DNA, RNA, protein and tissue microarray products. Key research areas for AMSBIO include: Oncology, Regenerative Medicine, Environmental Analysis, Cytotoxicity Screening, Glycomics and Stem Cell Biology.