The 2013 biennial meeting of the European Society for Animal Cell Technology (ESACT) was in Lille, France this past June. While there, BPI editorial advisor Miriam Monge (vice president of Biopharm Services Ltd.) interviewed ESACT executive committee member Hitto Kaufmann, PhD (vice president of biopharmaceutical process sciences for Boehringer Ingelheim). They talked about some scientific developments being discussed at this year’s ESACT conference as well as Boehringer Ingelheim’s recent announcement about setting up in China and Kaufmann’s own thoughts on…
Upstream Processing
Analysis By Size and Charge
An early BPI Lab article addressed the power of liquid chromatographic separations for biopharmaceutical laboratory use (1). Such techniques separate biomolecules based on a number of different properties: size, solubility, hydrophobicity/-philicity, binding affinity. The next most powerful means of separation — and thus high-resolution identification — of nucleic acids and proteins/peptides is based primarily on electrostatic properties: electrophoresis. Although it doesn’t really work in a process or preparative setting, it is a fundamental technique in modern biopharmaceutical laboratories, where it…
Assay Acceptance Criteria for Multiwell-Plate–Based Biological Potency Assays
For most biopharmaceuticals, potency is assessed in a bioassay by comparing dose–response curves of the test material and a reference standard. As with all analytical techniques, such assays require criteria by which their execution can be judged objectively to be valid, regardless of whether the desired or expected result is obtained for the test sample. PRODUCT FOCUS: BIOLOGICSPROCESSFOCUS: R&D, QCWHO SHOULD READ: PRODUCT AND PROCESS DEVELOPMENT, ANALYTICAL, QCKEYWORDS: IMMUNOASSAYS, POTENCY ASSAYS, PRODUCT RELEASE, REFERENCE STANDARDS, CONTROL SAMPLES, SAMPLE ACCEPTANCELEVEL: ADVANCED…
Mathematical Model for Production of Recombinant Antibody 14D9 By Nicotiana tabacum Cell Suspension Batch Culture
Transgenic plants are increasingly considered a competing system for producing high-value recombinant proteins for biomedical and industrial purposes at affordable costs (1). Researchers have shown that molecular farming (or biopharming) is a secure technology that is capable of rendering valuable recombinant proteins free of toxins and animal pathogens in a relatively short time (2,3,4,5,6). Scientists have also demonstrated that most recombinant antibodies produced in plants maintain their functional properties (substantial bioequivalence) as well as do those produced in mammalian cell…
Accounting for the Donnan Effect in Diafiltration Optimization for High-Concentration UFDF Applications
The biopharmaceutical industry is targeting high-concentration protein formulations to enable subcutaneous administrations. Such administration can provide better patient convenience than intravenous administration. One challenge associated with high-concentration formulations is increased electrostatic interaction between proteins and excipients. That is a result of increased protein-charge density at high protein concentrations. Such interactions can create an offset between excipient levels in final products and diafiltration buffers in ultrafiltration processes. The effect of such electrostatic interactions in a membrane process is known as the…
Design of Experiments for Fed-Batch Process Development in Shaken Cultures
When designing a recombinant protein production process, a high number of parallel cultivations must be carried out. That task is typically performed using batch cultures in shake flasks or microwell plates, in which fermentation conditions are not monitored. To overcome that limitation, we combined the SensorDish Reader and Shake Flask Reader systems (from PreSens) with an enzymatic glucose delivery system (EnBase technology from BioSilta Oy) for Escherichia coli cultivations. Our objective was to determine whether SensorDish reader cultures would yield…
Cost-Effectiveness and Robustness Evaluation for Biomanufacturing
As the biotech sector has matured, it has come under increasing economic and regulatory pressures for continuous improvement in both drug development and manufacturing. As a result, assessing the value potential of alternative strategies has become critical to decision-making in areas such as bioprocess and facility design, capacity sourcing, and portfolio selection. Related decisions typically involve large cash expenditures and thus have a direct bearing on the feasibility of business units and whole companies. Figure 1: () Making such decisions…
A Global Joint Venture Strategy for Biosimilars Development
In April 2013, biopharmaceutical company Pfenex (San Diego, CA) announced a joint venture with biologics manufacturer Stelis Biopharma, Inc. (“Stelis”), earlier known as Agila Biotech, (a wholly owned subsidiary of Strides Arcolab Limited (Bangalore, India) for the commercial development of six biosimilars. The companies will also leverage technology and global development expertise from GE Healthcare Life Sciences (Uppsala, Sweden) and Bio-XCell Malaysia (Nusajaya, Malaysia). Such international, multicompany collaboration strategies have become a growing trend in the highly competitive biosimilars industry.…
Enabling Technologies
We hear a great deal lately about the maturation of the biopharmaceutical industry — and much advancement over the past decade or so has been in business models, financing, and product pipelines. Meanwhile, regulators around the world have become more well versed in the subject matter and have adjusted their approaches to and expectations from the industry. However, the practical side of developing, characterizing, and manufacturing biotherapeutic products cannot be overlooked — nor its importance overstated. Many technological…
Quality Risk Assessment and Management Strategies for Biopharmaceutical Companies
You’ve probably been hearing a lot about risk assessment in recent months. Indeed, some 15 times more articles have been printed referencing the concept over the past year relative to a 12-month period just three years ago. That truly represents a geometric progression. Unfortunately, very few authors have been able to disambiguate the different methods or provide insight into this time-tested, multiple-industry philosophy that at its core uses good science to make better decisions. When we undertake the challenge to…