Potency testing is defined in 21 CFR Part 600.3(s) as “the specific ability or capacity of the product, as indicated by appropriate laboratory tests or by adequately controlled clinical data obtained through the administration of the product in the manner intended, to effect a given result†(1). Potency measurement is especially important for complex products such as cellular therapies (CTs). It is considered an essential aspect of the quality-control system for a CT drug substance and drug product. It is…
Manufacturing
Quality Control During Manufacture of a Stem Cell Therapeutic
Development and manufacturing of a therapeutic stem cell product requires extensive quality control (QC) to ensure the identity, quality, and safety of the cells. Here, we describe our QC pipeline to optimize the manufacturing of our MultiStem adherent stem cell product, which is in clinical trial testing for stroke, acute myocardial infarction, inflammatory bowel disease, graft versus host disease, and solid organ transplantation. Screening for growth, marker expression, immunosuppression, and multipotent differentiation — in combination with “-omics†screening for gene…
Top 10 Regenerative Medicine Stories of 2011
Geron Ends Stem Cell Programs in November: Big hope for a spinal cord injury trial, big loss for a field — the most discussed news of the year. Despite the company’s official comment citing a “purely business decision,†many professionals think that a “lack of impressive preliminary results†also played a role. The company is now seeking a partner to take over that trial. The effect on the cell therapy industry remains to be seen — but for…
What’s in a Game?
Not long ago, I was playing the popular board game Snakes and Ladders (also known as Chutes and Ladders) with my son. Based on an ancient Indian board game, it has over the years become a worldwide classic. The game is rather simple to play: Two or more players place their tokens on a game board that has numbered, gridded squares. They take turns rolling a single die to move their tokens by the number indicated by the die, following…
Production of CGMP-Grade Lentiviral Vectors
Lentiviral vectors are important tools for gene transfer because of their ability to transduce a number of cell types without the need for host cells to be dividing (1, 2). As a result, investigators are using them as gene delivery vehicles in clinical applications (3,4,5,6). Although these vectors are used routinely in many research laboratories, large-scale production using current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) methods comes with a set of challenges that must be considered as more clinical trials using lentiviral…
Ensuring Aseptic Processing Through Quality By Design
Assurance of sterility throughout drug manufacturing is paramount to patient safety. Drug products must be free of contamination from microbes, particulates, and chemicals. To that end, we see continued and increased regulatory scrutiny, with adoption of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) standards outside the United States and the European Union. To consistently make microbe-free products, drug manufacturers must implement robust, validated processes that include sterilizing filtration. Sterilizing-grade filtration is used in a number of…
Sustainabilty Is Good for Business
James Cerruti is senior partner of strategy and research for Brandlogic, a full-service brand consultancy that published in June its 2011 Sustainability Leadership Report: Measuring Perception vs. Reality in partnership with CRD Analytics. The report measured actual and perceived performance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors for 100 major corporations. The report is based on a survey of key audiences who are considered to be “highly attentive” to ESG issues: investment professionals, purchasing and supply chain managers, and graduating…
Recommendations for Cell Banks Used in GXP Assays
Cells and cell-derived reagents form the basis of an operationally challenging class of test methods used in execution of product potency testing (stability and lot release), assessments of pharmacokinetic/ pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) profiles, detection of antidrug antibodies (ADAs) or neutralizing antibodies (NAB), and characterization and comparability testing of biopharmaceutical products. Frequently, cell-based assays provide the only measurement of the tertiary/quaternary structure of each batch of product at the time of lot release and during stability testing to assist in determining product…
Transfer of Hepatic Progenitor Stem Cell Culture Process from multiple-tray stacks to the Xpansion Multiplate Bioreactor.
Scale-up a stem cell process may be challenging: small variations in physicochemical parameters (surface characteristics, pH and dissolved oxygen) can heavily impact stem cell growth and behavior. The Integrity® Xpansion™ multiplate bioreactors have been designed to enable an easy transfer from multiple-tray stacks process by offering the same cell growth environment: stacked hydrophylized polystyrene plates in a compact and closed system (from 10 to 200 plates per bioreactor equivalent respectively to 6120cm² and 122400cm²). As there is no headspace between…
Manufacturing Process Automation
When you think of futuristic manufacturing facilities and processes, robots might come to mind in a science fiction setting where humans are absent and production lines are directed by computerized drones that perform tasks we can’t even imagine today. As the pace of technology shuttles us swiftly into the real future, however, life-science manufacturers need to pause to examine the purpose of automation and how we can best steer its course. In bioprocess manufacturing and other industries, technology is growing…