Problems associated with affinity purification in antibody production continue to increase as upstream cell culture expression levels improve. As a result, many vendors and users in the biopharmaceutical industry are working to identify alternative technologies that can replace tried-and-true column chromatography. In the fifth annual report and survey by BioPlan Associates, 434 global respondents pointed to bottlenecks created by downstream processes as one of their most serious manufacturing problems today (1). Amost two-thirds (63.8%) said their facility is experiencing some…
Downstream Processing
Introducing Disposable Systems into Biomanufacturing
Single-use (disposable) systems are being considered and introduced into many biopharmaceutical processes because manufacturers have identified significant benefits they offer over traditional reusable systems. These benefits are often more evident when a new process and product are being developed. Lower capital expenditures, shorter development times for new facilities, and reduced validation costs are some of the reasons single-use technology may be selected. Here, a contract manufacturer’s case study is described in which an existing stainless steel system was completely replaced…
TFF Membranes for High MAb Concentration
In a typical monoclonal antibody (MAb) purification process, immediately after cell culture and supernatant clarification (its objective being to remove whole cells, cell debris, and particulates), the protein product is typically bound to an affinity chromatography resin and then recovered by elution using a buffer solution. Once recovered, the resulting protein solution is further purified through additional chromatography and virus clearance steps before being concentrated until a final solution is ready for filling and finishing operations. PRODUCT FOCUS: MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIESPROCESS…
How to Improve Your Implementation of Two-Dimensional Preparative HPLC
The biologics and natural product industries rely heavily on separation technology. Sample analyses are undertaken on the analytical scale, and isolation and purification are undertaken at the preparative scale. Key target components are often isolated to provide standard reference materials for future product quality assurance testing. These products are often very complex mixtures, requiring separation systems to have a high peak capacity for both analytical and preparative scale separations. A technique gaining popularity among companies that require the isolation of…
Statistical Approach to IgG Binding on a Strong Cation Exchanger
Modeling Flow Distribution in Large-Scale Chromatographic Columns with Computational Fluid Dynamics
Column chromatography remains a key unit operation in downstream processing of biopharmaceuticals. For most commercial processes, two to three chromatography steps are used to remove process-and product-related proteins, DNA and adventitious agents. As the biopharmaceutical industry has increased its product offerings and related demands, downstream processes have fast become a bottleneck (1, 2). Many commercial and clinical processes include a number of cycles on one or more chromatography steps to process the harvest from a single production batch. PRODUCT FOCUS:…
The Emerging Generation of Chromatography Tools for Virus Purification
Chromatography media and methods have evolved continuously since their introduction a half century ago. Traditional methods use columns packed with porous particles. They still dominate chromatography applications in the field of virus purification, but the past 20 years have witnessed the ascendance of alternative supports, namely membranes and monoliths. These newer media exploit the familiar surface chemistries — ion exchange, hydrophobic interaction, and affinity — but they use unique architectures that offer compelling performance features. The Architecture of Chromatography Media…
Multicolumn Chromatography
Downstream processing is a sequence of unit process operations that purify biopharmaceuticals and prepare them primarily for bulk formulation (Figure 1). Typically, a large volume (hundreds to thousands of liters containing kilograms of therapeutic protein) is delivered from an upstream fermentation or cell culture process — and this ends up as a small volume (a few liters) of purified concentrate product after processing. Figure 1: () For many years, biopharmaceutical manufacturers have been working to increase capacity, address upstream production…
Proactive Debottlenecking
It wasn’t so long ago that people in the biotherapeutics industry talked about a “capacity bottleneck” to describe the difficulty faced by bioprocessors as their many products moved forth through development to require production at larger and larger scales (1). Expression technologies at the time were making proteins at levels suggesting that huge amounts of manufacturing capacity would be needed soon. Just after the turn of the century, product titers (in terms of protein present per liter of culture broth/supernatant)…
Reducing Microbial Contamination Risk in Biotherapeutic Manufacturing
The risk of contamination (especially microbiological) is always an area for special attention in biopharmaceutical processes. No matter the process stage, whether upstream of a bioreactor or in the final filling of a sterile product, effective contamination control continues to be a critical requirement, so any opportunities for improvement may justify further investigation. Even with established validated processes, demands for higher purity and increased sterility assurance may require manufacturers to reassess their procedures and technologies. New processes present an even…