Cosponsored by CASSS (an International Separation Science Society) and the US FDA, the 17th CMC Strategy Forum was designed to explore the relationships between higher-order molecular structure and quality of therapeutic proteins and peptides, vaccines, and blood-derived products. Understanding those relationships is important to defining and controlling the critical quality attributes (CQAs) of biopharmaceutical products. The forum program highlighted the current state of the art for analytical tools used to monitor higher-order structure. Case studies demonstrating the effects of changes…
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Special Report on Assays, Test Methods, and Comparability The CMC Strategy Forum Series, Part 4, Demonstrating Comparability for Well-Characterized Biotechnology Products: Early Phase, Late Phase, and Postapproval
Challenges and approaches in demonstrating comparability of a well-characterized biotechnology product after manufacturing changes can be as varied and complex as the products themselves. Participants at the January 2005 CMC Strategy Forum sought to discuss and agree on common implementation strategies for different manufacturing change scenarios (1). Development of flexible, comprehensive approaches in strategy development addressed evaluation of critical product characteristics, appropriate process steps to test, numbers of lots and levels of testing required, and assessment of product comparability. The…
Special Report on Assays, Test Methods, and Comparability The CMC Strategy Forum Series, Part 4, The Roles of Bioactivity Assays in Lot Release and Stability Testing
A January 2007 CMC Strategy Forum on the roles of bioactivity assays in lot release and stability testing was held in Washington, DC (1). Its purpose was to promote an understanding of the design and utility of bioassays throughout product development and to delineate the conditions under which surrogate assays could be used to determine product potency. Topics of discussion included appropriate assay selection at each stage of product development, the potential use of binding assays for potency testing, and…
Effective Management of Contract Organizations: Keeping the Product Pipeline Moving, Compliant, and Available
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…
Management, Notification, and Documentation of Single-Use Systems Change Orders: Challenges and Opportunities
Single-use systems (SUS) consist of numerous plastic components derived from different suppliers. As such, they are prone to changes, including alterations in construction materials or modifications in manufacturing processes. Such changes may originate at the immediate supplier or farther back in the supply chain as a result of product improvements, process improvements, part discontinuation, or even business decisions such as manufacturing site relocation. Whether those changes are major or minor, managing their impact on biopharmaceutial processes and product quality often…
Elucidation on India and China: Powerhouses of Asia 2015 Reports Assess Their Pharmaceutical Markets
In the past year, CPhI Worldwide (a division of UBM EMEA) has released reports on both the Indian and Chinese pharmaceutical markets, findings of which were presented at CPhI India in Mumbai in early December 2014 and shortly after CPhI China in August 2015. India Looking Outward to Innovate The Indian report, CPhI India Pharmaceuticals 2015: Industry Explorations, was developed by CPhI in partnership with Global Business Reports (GBR) to provide a comprehensive analysis of the country’s pharmaceutical market. Overall, Indian companies…
Planning for Commercial Scale of Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine Products, Part 2: Clinical Efficacy, Reimbursement, and Needle-to-Needle Logistics
Cell therapy is an emerging pillar in healthcare with the potential to provide curative solutions to a wide range of indications. The biological complexities through which cell technologies exert their clinical impact (especially those used in immunotherapies for cancer) provide opportunities for novel modes of immune regulation, cell targeting, and payload delivery. Cells also can serve as vehicles for genetic content, which the gene therapy industry is now investigating. Since early 2004, Invetech has worked with organizations dedicated to cell…
Comprehensive Hands-On Training for Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing: BTEC’s Program to Deliver Training to FDA Investigators
Training and continuing education play a vital role in carrying out the US Food and Drug Administration’s mission to protect and promote the public health — not only for consumers, health professionals, and industry, but also for the agency’s own personnel. Since 2008, the Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC) at North Carolina State University has filled a niche in the agency’s internal training program and provided a series of courses to more than 100 FDA investigators. The…
Bioreactor Design for Adherent Cell Culture: The Bolt-On Bioreactor Project, Part 4 — Process Economics
The Bolt-on Bioreactor (BoB) project is an independent initiative developing and commercializing a bioreactor for efficient, automated culture of adherent cells for biopharmaceutical applications (1). After conducting thorough research on available culture systems for adherent cells, the BoB team believes that a successful alternative to existing devices must solve four major challenges: volumetric productivity (2), process automation (3), containment and sterility (4), and process economics. This month concludes a four-part series addressing each of those challenges while describing design features…
Analysis and Characterization: The CMC Strategy Forum Series, Part 3 — Introduction
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…