CMC Special Report Archives - BioProcess InternationalBioProcess International

Effective Management of Contract Organizations: Keeping the Product Pipeline Moving, Compliant, and Available

by Anthony Mire-Sluis, Julia Edwards, Jeffrey Staecker, Qiao Bobo, Patricia Hughes, Stephen Liewbowitz, Shawn Novick, Siddharth J. Advant and Bernard Huyghe

Both small and large biopharmaceutical companies are increasingly pursuing the outsourcing of manufacturing and testing throughout the product lifecycle. The growing use of contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) and contract testing organizations (CTOs) has led to increasing complexity within the biopharmaceutical industry as more third-party sites are leveraged to support global markets. To address those issues, a CASSS Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) Strategy Forum was held in Washington, DC, 27–28 July 2014. The title was “Effective Management of Contract Organizations: Sponsors, Contract Organizations, Health Authorities and Patients — Keeping the Product Pipeline Moving, Compliant, and Available.” The CMC Strategy Forum is…

Analysis and Characterization: The CMC Strategy Forum Series, Part 3 — Introduction

by Cheryl Scott

The CMC Strategy Forums provide a venue for biopharmaceutical product discussion. They focus on relevant chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) issues throughout the life cycle of a therapeutic and thereby foster collaborative technical and regulatory interaction. Forum chairs share information with regulatory agencies to help them merge good scientific and regulatory practices. Outcomes of the forum meetings are published in BioProcess International and on the CASSS website (www.casss.org). This process is meant to help ensure that biopharmaceutical products manufactured with…

Uniting Small-Molecule and Biologic Drug Perspectives: Analytical Characterization and Regulatory Considerations for Antibody–Drug Conjugates

by Lorna McLeod, Jon Harris, Fred Jacobson, Claudia Jochheim, Godfrey Amphlett and Kathleen Francissen

Cosponsored by CASSS (an international separation science society) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the January 2010 CMC Strategy Forum explored antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs), which are monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) coupled to cytotoxic agents. The ADC platform of products is being used more and more for clinical evaluation in oncology. More than a dozen companies are developing several types, including products conjugated with calicheamicin, auristatins, and maytansinoids. Such products use the specificity of a MAb to deliver a cytotoxic…

Glycosylation of Therapeutic Proteins: Current Understanding of Structure–Function Relationships

by Joseph Siemiatkoski, Stacey Ma, Jun Park, Kurt Brorson, Patrick Swann and Lorna McLeod

A CMC Strategy Forum held in Washington, DC, on Sunday 28 January 2007 focused on two topics related to protein structure and function (1). First, analytical techniques used in the glycan analysis characterization included recent advances and correlations among the various tools. And second, current understanding of glycosylation’s functional relevance to therapeutic proteins was discussed in the context of its effects on biological activity, pharmacokinetics, and Fc effector functions (for monoclonal antibodies, MAbs). Progress has been made in the field…

Analysis and Structure Characterization of Monoclonal Antibodies

by Mark Schenerman, Brooks Sunday, Steve Kozlowski, Keith Webber, Helene Gazzano-Santoro and Anthony Mire-Sluis

On 6 January 2003, 129 attendees participated in the second Well-Characterized Biotechnology Product (WCBP) Chemistry and Manufacturing Controls (CMC) strategy forum, titled “Analysis and Structure Characterization of Monoclonal Antibodies (MAbs),” held in San Francisco to discuss lot release and characterization test issues specific to MAbs (1). The objective of the meeting was twofold: to identify a “core” set of assays most useful for lot-release testing of MAbs and to define a mechanism for selecting appropriate potency tests. Two separate workshops…

Lot Release and Characterization Testing of Live-Virus–Based Vaccines and Gene Therapy Products

by James Gombold, Keith Peden, Denise Gavin, Ziping Wei, Khandan Baradaran, Anthony Mire-Sluis and Mark Schenerman

The January 2005 CMC Strategy Forum was devoted to a discussion of live virus vaccines and viral vectors used for gene therapy. The purpose of the meeting was to determine whether consensus positions could be reached among the delegates regarding lot release, stability, characterization, and comparability testing. Part 1 of this two-part report on that meeting describes factors influencing the choices of lot-release assays for vaccines and gene-therapy products (1). Part 2 presents potency testing, characterization, and comparability studies, including…