Streamlining process development has been the focus of the biotechnology industry over the past several years. To be financially viable in the current market, a company has to be competitive in all three of the following areas: quality, speed, and price (1). Attaining any two of the three attributes at a time is no longer sufficient. With new tools and technologies along with improved understanding of the cell-culture process, doing high-quality process development while reducing both cycle time…
Upstream Development
Interest in Hollow-Fiber Perfusion Bioreactors Is Growing
People who regularly culture animal cells become so comfortable with standard techniques that novel approaches can seem contrived or even unnatural. However, the typical cycle of seeding cells at very low density in an excess of medium and harvesting (often quite aggressively) just before the point of medium exhaustion is quite an unphysiologic process. Popular culture systems often take cells that originally grew attached to a porous matrix at high densities, with little variability in nutrient and oxygen supply, and…
Promoting Discussion in the Biopharmaceutical Community
The Biopharmaceutical Emerging Best Practices Association (BEBPA) hit the scene in September 2008 with its inaugural Bioassay Conference in Berlin, Germany. A not-for-profit association, BEBPA (www.bebpa.org) is managed by the biopharmaceutical scientific community for the benefit of the biopharmaceutical scientific community: companies, regulators, and clinicians. BEBPA provides an open international forum for the presentation and discussion of scientific issues and problems encountered in the biopharmaceutical community. The purpose of this open discussion is to promote development of innovative approaches and…
Maintaining Product Titer While Replacing Undefined Components in a CHO Culture System
Proteins, hydrolysates, and lysates of plant or yeast origin are commonly used in cell culture media for large-scale manufacturing processes for human biotherapeutics. Lot-to-lot variability in the composition of such constituents is well established and can affect multiple biological performance indicators. Our goal was to replace an undefined, protein-containing medium with a chemically defined medium (meaning the chemical structure and concentration for each component in a formulation is known). Such a formulation should be free of protein and…
Development and Qualification of a Generic IgG Quantification Assay Using Surface Plasmon Resonance
Fast, precise, and accurate quantification technologies are indispensable for efficient process development in applications such as IgG production in a GXP environment. Based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology, the Biacore C system from GE Healthcare (www.biacore.com) is an alternative technology for IgG quantification that has benefits over traditional methods. Assay development is simplified and accelerated due to real-time detection. Assay hands-on time is reduced, and sample throughput can be increased using automation and efficient data evaluation with regulatory-compliant software.…
Real-Time Bioreactor Monitoring of Osmolality and pH Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
Osmolality and pH are important cell culture process parameters, key elements that are often examined and optimized to improve the productivity of cell-culture–based bioprocesses. Osmolality affects cell viability and growth by regulating the transport of water and nutrients through cell membranes and pH maintains the isotonicity of a culture. To monitor these parameters in cell culture, samples are typically withdrawn and passed through a multifunction analyzer as the BioProfile 400 instrument from NOVA Biomedical (www.novabiomedical.com). Withdrawing samples during a bioreactor…
Novel Excipients Prevent Aggregation in Manufacturing and Formulation of Protein and Peptide Therapeutics
Protein and peptide therapeutics may undergo numerous physical and chemical changes during manufacturing, shipping, storage, and administration that can adversely alter drug potency and safety. Earlier concerns focused upon denaturation (unfolding), oxidation, and deamidation of certain key aminoacyl residues. Recently, aggregation has emerged as a key issue underlying multiple deleterious effects for peptide- or protein-based therapeutics, including loss of efficacy, altered pharmacokinetics, reduced stability and product shelf life, and induction of unwanted immunogenicity. As a result, the US FDA and…
The Genesis of New Production Tools for Biotechnology Manufacturers
The biotechnology industry has from the start been characterized by its dependence on innovation. New therapeutics, new indications, new technologies — and the continual drive toward new approaches for optimizing processes — all contribute to getting novel products to the market (and to patients) efficiently and cost-effectively. Most of the technical literature reports on development processes for the therapeutic products themselves. But one element largely ignored forms an essential foundation to the work of the biotechnology industry: How are products…
The Next Generation of Biologicals and Their Production Systems
Combined advances in molecular biology, cell biology, and genomics have led to a wealth of new information about cellular processes. A growing understanding of the fundamentals of cell biology is now being translated into products that use an approach to exert a biological effect that is different from that of most biologicals currently on the market. To date, most biological products consist of highly purified proteins with a specific activity that alleviates or stops the symptoms of a certain condition.…
Cellular Therapy Success Through Integrated Automation
Cell therapies are being developed for a rapidly expanding range of indications. Genzyme Corporation has a treatment of cartilage in joints in long-term follow-up stage (Genzyme Corporation, www.genzyme.com). Cell Therapies are being investigated successfully in applications to treat infectious diseases such as AIDS, repair spinal cord injuries, strengthen immune systems, and treat neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and epilepsy. Positive results have been reported in treating arteriosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases, congenital defects, breast reconstruction, and liver…