Manufacturing

Automation of a Single-Use Final Bulk Filtration Step: Enhancing Operational Flexibility and Facilitating Compliant, Right–First-Time Manufacturing

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Single-use technologies have been implemented in biomanufacturing facilities all over the world. Inherently more flexible than stainless steel equipment, single-use technology allows for more rapid technology transfer by minimizing the time it takes to design, purchase, and qualify new capital assets. Rapid turnover between batches is facilitated with no need for protracted clean-in-place (CIP) and steam-in-place (SIP) regimes; the risk of product cross contaminations is reduced because single-use fluid-contact surfaces are never previously exposed to a biopharmaceutical product stream. For…

March 10, 2015

Measuring Pressure at Very Low Levels with High Accuracy in Single-Use Systems: Improved Performance and Single-Use System Testing

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Measuring pressure in single-use systems (SUS) has become an integral part of both upstream and downstream bioprocess operations. Articles have been published on filtration applications (1), and integration into other SUS has been widely adopted. Additionally, information is available on low-pressure applications such as how to prevent overpressurization in single-use bioreactors (2). However, as users and applications both become more sophisticated, improved performance is sought for low-pressure applications (<1 psi) such as in single-use bioreactors. The reasons are two-fold: First,…

March 10, 2015

Implementing Flexible, Scalable, and Cost-Efficient Bioprocess Platforms: A Proven Project Management Approach

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Although significant scientific progress has been made in the biotechnology industry, it has lagged behind other sectors — such as aviation and automotive — in developing, scaling up, and industrializing products coming out of R&D. The goal is to implement robust and reliable manufacturing processes for good manufacturing practice (GMP) market supply cost-effectively. But manufacturing methods for biologics have remained unchanged for decades, with large-scale, capital-intensive stainless steel facilities taking three to five years to build and remaining both energy…

March 10, 2015

Modern Technology Transfer Strategies for Biopharmaceutical Companies

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Application of industrial biotechnology has changed dramatically over the past decade. Stainless steel process equipment has largely given way to disposable systems, facilitating easier and quicker process configurations and up-scaling. Suppliers generally made incremental advances in the quality of raw materials and consumables to ensure that those could more readily comply, “off the shelf,†with regulatory expectations. Once out-of-reach analytical equipment such as mass spectrometers and cell analyzers are becoming more common place in development laboratories, which better enables biopharmaceutical…

March 10, 2015

The Importance of the Concentration-Temperature-Viscosity Relationship for the Development of Biologics

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JIM DELILLO (WWW.FREEIMAGES.COM) Patient preference and a competitive landscape in the parenteral market have fueled the need for convenient delivery systems and a desire for less‑frequent dosing injections. Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) often have high dose requirements, so they must be formulated at very high concentrations (1). At low concentrations, an antibody solution’s viscosity increases moderately as a function of protein concentration. But at high concentrations (>100 mg/ mL, depending on the molecule), viscosity increases exponentially (2, 3). Thus, a specification…

March 10, 2015

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Manufacturing Biotherapeutics

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Optimizing antibody manufacturing processes has gone beyond the first-order goal of achieving elevated protein titers and now also focuses on understanding biologic and manufacturing process variables that define cellular machinery and protein quality. A holistic approach to biotherapeutic manufacturing incorporates several applied disciplines such as biology, engineering, process control, signal processing, and modeling to reduce the “black-box†model of cell- based protein production into an operational design space. This is in line with the US Food and Drug Administration’s quality…

March 10, 2015

Simulating Seal Life with Finite-Element Analysis

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Finite-element modeling is an attractive alternative to physical testing for predicting seal life, particularly when aging poses major concerns and seal replacement is expensive. For years, seal manufacturers and users alike have searched for a reliable method for predicting how long seals will last in service. Past methods for evaluating an elastomer’s potential as a static or dynamic seal use American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) or other standard immersion tests. These tests involve submerging a material in a…

February 6, 2015

The Single-Use Watering Hole: Where Innovation Needs Harmonization, Collaboration, and Standardization

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Within the past few years, the single-use technology (SUT) arena of the biopharmaceutical industry has exploded in growth. Leading organizations have predictably and understandably stampeded to the “watering hole†of single-use to drink up the advantages that disposable components offer over traditional multiuse parts and technologies. The initial value and risk-reduction results are being realized — but not without the emergence of other trade-offs. End users continue to call for standardization in emerging areas of the industry while also recognizing…

January 13, 2015

Perfusion’s Role in Maintenance of High-Density T-Cell Cultures

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T-cell therapy is a rapidly growing field of personalized medicine, attracting the interest of venture capitalists and pharmaceutical companies alike. Such therapies exploit T cells’ innate abilities to protect against pathogens as well as to seek and destroy cancerous cells. Although many different forms of T-cell therapies are currently in clinical trials, they all follow a common protocol: T cells are isolated from a patient, modified and expanded in a laboratory setting, and then infused back into the same patient…

January 13, 2015

Bioreactor Design for Adherent Cell Culture — The Bolt-On Bioreactor Project, Part 1: Volumetric Productivity

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The Bolt-on Bioreactor (BoB) project is an independent initiative aimed at developing and commercializing a bioreactor for efficient, automated culture of adherent cells in production of therapeutic cells and other biopharmaceuticals (1). After conducting thorough research on available culture systems for adherent cells, the BoB team believes that a successful alternative to existing devices must solve four major challenges. The first challenge has to do with volumetric productivity, the second with process automation, the third with containment and sterility, and…

January 13, 2015