Author Archives: David Cetlin

Predicting Viral Clearance in Downstream Process Development

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As viruses can arise during the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals, regulatory agencies require viral clearance validation studies for each biopharmaceutical prior to approval. These studies are typically conducted in biosafety level (BSL)-2 facilities and require large capital and human resources. The use of an accurate, economical, and quantifiable noninfectious viral surrogate would enable downstream purification scientists to study viral clearance throughout process development. This report explores the use of a BSL-1 compatible, noninfectious MVM particles to predict viral clearance results over…

May 27, 2021

Viral Clearance in a Downstream AAV Process: Case Study Using a Model Virus Panel and a Noninfectious Surrogate

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Over the past decade, adenoassociated virus (AAV) vectors have become established as leading gene-delivery vehicles. In 2017, the pipeline for gene therapies included 351 drugs in clinical trials and 316 in preclinical development (1–4). As those candidates advance, significant efforts are being made in process development and manufacturing for viral vectors, with the overall goal of reducing process impurities while maintaining the highest possible process yield. To address that goal, industry suppliers have developed innovative AAV-specific separation technologies. Thermo Fisher…

April 16, 2021

Predicting Viral Clearance at Your Benchtop

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Viral contamination is an inherent risk during the manufacture of therapeutic products such as antibodies, vaccines, viral vectors, and plasma derivatives. Whether introduced endogenously from raw materials or exogenously through manufacturing operations, unmitigated viral contaminations can lead to serious health implications and facility shutdowns. Thus, international regulatory agencies require sponsoring companies to validate the “viral clearance efficacy†of their downstream purification process steps before clinical trials or commercial approval. This technology review describes the MockV MVM kit for viral clearance…

August 10, 2020

Monoclonal Antibody Aggregate Polish and Viral Clearance Using Hydrophobic-Interaction Chromatography

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Hydrophobic Interaction chromatography (HIC) is a powerful polishing tool for the downstream purification and manufacture of biotherapeutics. HIC offers orthogonal selectivity for the clearance of difficult process and product-related impurities such as aggregates, host cell proteins and endogenous and adventitious viruses.  In this study, a family of POROS HIC resins with novel ethyl and benzyl chemistries was used to successfully polish two clinical stage monoclonal antibodies harboring very high levels of product aggregation (>10%). In addition to aggregate removal, viral…

December 16, 2019

Modeling Virus Clearance: Use of a Noninfectious Surrogate of Mouse Minute Virus As a Tool for Evaluating an Anion-Exchange Chromatography Method

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Viral safety is a critical focus during biopharmaceutical manufacturing (1–5). Although well-characterized mammalian cells such as the Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) line have been used for decades, both endogenous expression of retroviral-like particles and exogenous contamination events from viruses warrant continued vigilance (6, 7). International regulatory agencies require biomanufacturers to validate the “viral clearance†efficacy of their downstream manufacturing process steps before resulting products can be awarded clinical trial or commercial approval (8–10). Currently, viral clearance testing is based on…

May 17, 2019