Viral Clearance

Evaluating Adsorptive Filtration As a Unit Operation for Virus Removal

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Most recombinant monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) are produced by mammalian cells. Because biopharmaceuticals derived from mammalian tissue culture carry the risk of adventitious virus contamination, regulatory agencies expect risk-mitigation strategies to include validation of purification unit operations for their ability to clear viruses (1). Guidelines from the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) describe how to prove viral clearance in downstream purification processes using an orthogonal approach (2). Viral log10 reduction values (LRVs) are…

March 23, 2018

Current Thinking in Viral Safety: Risk Management Protects Patients

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BPI’s editor in chief S. Anne Montgomery recently caught up with long-time editorial advisor Hazel Aranha (purification technologies technology expert for Sartorius Stedim Biotech, North America). They discussed a number of topics related to viral safety. Montgomery: What is the current thinking regarding virus-safety assurance in biopharmaceutical manufacturing? How is the industry preventing viral contamination? Aranha: The “holy grail†of viral safety — absolute freedom from extraneous agents or residual pathogenicity — is a myth. That said, biopharmaceutical products have…

May 18, 2017

Viral Clearance in Antibody Purification Using Tentacle Ion Exchangers

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Manufacturers strive toward cost-effective purification of target molecules and a high level of confidence that their biologics are safe and not compromised by the presence of endogenous retrovirus-like particles or adventitious viruses (1). Reliable reduction of viral particles throughout downstream purification processes must be ensured through different techniques such as chemical treatment, filtration, and chromatography. Common monoclonal antibody (MAb) purification schemes use both cation- and anion-exchange chromatography steps (CEX, AEX). Although CEX (to remove product- and process-related impurities) is not…

October 14, 2016

Virus-Filtration Process Development Optimization: The Key to a More Efficient and Cost-Effective Step

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Size-exclusion–based parvovirus filtration is an important step toward drug product safety in biopharmaceutical production. However, once a virus filter is in place, and the required virus safety is ensured, less attention typically is paid to its optimization within the process. That might seem odd given that virus filtration can be one of the more expensive downstream processing steps ($/g protein processed). Most likely, the lack of attention can be attributed to aggressive timelines, limited process development resources, and the virus…

April 12, 2016

Identification and Quantification of Heat-Shock Protein 70: A Major Host-Cell Protein Contaminant from HEK Host Cells

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Recombinant therapeutic proteins are commonly produced by cell lines such as Chinese hamster ovary (CHO), human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293, murine myeloma (NS0), and Escherichia coli bacterial cells. Host-cell proteins (HCPs) are indigenous proteins produced by those expression hosts and considered to be process-related impurities generated from the cell culture process (1). HCPs are potentially harmful and immunogenic to patients, and they can compromise the stability of protein drugs (2–4). For those reasons, HCPs must be consistently removed or reduced…

October 15, 2015

Fundamental Strategies for Viral Clearance Part 2: Technical Approaches

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Viral safety is required for biologics manufactured to treat human diseases. Although significant improvements in ensuring viral safety have been made over the past few decades, “zero risk†of viral contamination is a myth. Viral contamination risk can be carefully managed by screening raw materials, testing process intermediates, and evaluating how effectively manufacturing processes remove and inactivate viruses. Viral clearance studies verify virus removal or inactivation by a manufacturing process. Although regulatory agencies have expectations for the designs of those…

May 12, 2015

Evaluating Adsorptive Filtration As a Unit Operation for Virus Removal

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To date, the majority of recombinant monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) have been produced by mammalian cells. During such production processes, the potential risk of entrained viruses must be critically considered (1). Contamination can arise from animal cell lines or from adventitious viruses introduced during manufacturing. To ensure the viral safety of biotechnology products, companies can take four complementary approaches (2, 3): Using animal-component–free raw materials wherever possible Virus testing of master cell banks Virus testing of unprocessed harvest Performing downscale virus…

February 6, 2015

Fundamental Strategies for Viral Clearance – Part 1: Exploring the Regulatory Implications

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Over the past several decades, biologics such as monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) and recombinant proteins have provided therapeutic benefits and efficacy for the treatment of human disease. Completion of the human genome project (launched in 1990) produced a draft of the genome in 2001. A full sequence was published on the 50th anniversary (2003) of the initial publication of Watson and Crick’s papers on the double-helical structure of DNA (1). That large volume of genetic information has been translated into usable…

January 13, 2015

IgM Purification with Hydroxyapatite

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Hydroxyapatite (HA) has a long and successful history in the field of antibody purification, and it has worked well for immunoglobulin M (IgM) monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8). Applications range from initial capture to intermediate purification to final polishing. HA is best known for its superior ability to reduce antibody aggregates, but it also supports excellent reduction of DNA, viruses, and endotoxins. As IgM MAbs exhibit increasing potential in the fields of cancer and infectious disease and in stem-cell therapies, HA’s…

February 1, 2014

Impact of Process Interruption on Virus Retention of Small-Virus Filters

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Manufacturers of biopharmaceuticals using mammalian cell culture must have processes in place to minimize the likelihood of virus contamination of their products. Regulatory agencies provide guidelines for testing strategies and best practices to assure raw-material safety and control of the manufacturing process. Safety assurance relies on an interdependent matrix of managed risks, including characterization and control of raw materials, extensive testing of process intermediates, and demonstration of the virus removal capabilities of purification unit operations Figure 1:  () A dedicated…

November 1, 2013