Table 3.

Benefits and potential beneficiaries

Benefit	Example(s)	Beneficiaries	Articles
Financial	Licensing fees, percentage of profits, annual fees, direct payments	State, pharmaceutical companies, general population, researchers	[24–27, 29, 32–35, 38, 40, 44–48, 50]
Capacity building	Improvement of healthcare infrastructure (databases, physical infrastructure, research infrastructure), research staff training and development, technology transfer, and joint ventures	Public health facilities, research staff, research facilities, communities that utilize improved capacity	[24, 29, 35, 38–50]
Treatment or Healthcare	Free medical service (medication or consultation), provision of vaccines, tests, drugs, and treatments, treatment for non-research-related conditions	Research participants, their families, communities	[24–26, 28, 30, 32, 33, 37, 38, 40, 45–48, 50]
Improved understanding, knowledge or therapies	Improved understanding/new insights of disease processes and a potential for new therapeutic modalities	Whole of mankind, researchers, pharmaceutical industry, individuals, communities, and populations from which they are derived	[25, 32, 35, 38–40, 46–48, 50]
Post study access	Provision of pharmaceutical and diagnostics products that emerge from the research, giving access to new genetic tests, access to interventions identified as beneficial or to other appropriate care or benefits at subsidized cost	Research participants/specimen donors and their communities	[24–26, 29, 33, 37, 40, 45, 47, 50]
Return of results/findings	Provision of individual results (information about own health, incidental findings) or aggregate findings (general research results, study outcome) from the use of their samples	Specimen donors, their families/communities, research community	[26, 28, 33, 40, 45, 46]
Intellectual property/royalties	Publication rights, royalties from intellectual property, recognition	Researchers, pharmaceutical industry	[39, 40, 42, 45, 48]
Humanitarian efforts	Donation of percentage of profits/royalties for humanitarian efforts such as general education or health campaigns, community development projects (schools, clean water, roads), support mechanisms for destitute community members, insurance	Communities participating in biobanking	[24, 38, 40, 42, 50]
Responsiveness to local needs	Diagnostic or therapeutic application of the research that are tailored to local health needs	Communities where samples are collected/research is conducted	[40, 48, 50]
Jobs	Jobs and related economic activities generated by the research industry such as employment within research facilities and/or biobanks. Scientists and other cadre of staff	Local community members, local researchers and professionals	[24, 44]
Compensation for costs	Reimbursement of individual’s time, inconvenience and expenses	Research participants/specimen donors	[38, 39]
Counselling, screening services and testing	Genetic counselling, screening tests, free tests, regular health checks	Specimen donors, their families	[28, 45]
Other benefits	Anything can be shared, as long as it is defined as a benefit by a substantial number of stakeholders. Even recognition of participants contribution and thanking them	Different stakeholders involved in biobanking	[24, 36, 38]