The production of biologics will always have the risk of viral contamination. Manufacturers have developed a multitiered approach — tailored to individual processes — to prevent adventitious viruses from entering production processes, detect contamination in raw materials and process intermediates, and remove viruses in downstream purification. This article provides an overview of the global regulatory framework to ensure the viral safety of biologics. Past Contamination Events Past contamination events have resulted in corrective and preventative actions to reduce the risk…
Author Archives: Martin Wisher
Virus Risk Mitigation for Raw Materials
Recombinant protein–based medicinal products and modern cell-based vaccines have a very strong safety history with respect to viral and microbial contamination. However, virus contamination incidents do occur occasionally in manufacturing processes, and they can consume many resources and be expensive to rectify. The root cause of contamination incidents in recent years is most likely the use of contaminated raw materials. These include bovine serum contaminated with reovirus, epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus, Cache valley virus or vesivirus 2117; porcine trypsin contaminated…
Anticipated Regulatory Changes Affecting Biopharmaceutical Testing
It is important to ensure that testing services meet applicable regulatory standards necessary to support investigational new drug (IND) applications, the clinical development life cycle, and commercialization. However, monitoring and — when possible — anticipating the ever-changing regulatory landscape is a challenge. Yet, the failure to do so can negatively affect both the cost and time needed to move a product from development through to commercialization. This article describes BioReliance’s position concerning anticipated regulatory changes over the next three to…