Development of industrial cell culture processes for production of recombinant proteins seeks high efficiency, reproducibility, and predictability. Usually the time allowed for process development is short, during which culture conditions and scale-up protocols must be defined so as to maximize cell productivity and yield while minimizing process scope and overall costs (1). Although scientific literature describes various methods that increase productivity of a cell culture by reducing and arresting cell growth or weakening cell physiology (2), the cells must be…
Upstream Processing
Achieving High-Efficiency Production with Microbial Technology in a Single-Use Bioreactor Platform
Major efforts are under way to develop new, high-efficiency, cell-based expression systems and flexible low-cost biomanufacturing platforms for biotherapeutics and vaccines to drastically reduce development and manufacturing times. The industry’s enormous growth is driving many of these efforts. The global market for biotherapeutics now stands at $80 billion. Resurgent interest in vaccines is coupled with recent failures in current vaccine manufacturing technologies and the advent of cell-based vaccine manufacturing. The emerging class of follow-on biologics will create additional demand for…
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…
Assessing Nonparallelism in Bioassays
The classic F-test for nonparallelism is widely used for bioassays with linear log dose-response lines to assess parallelism, or, more correctly, to examine the strength of evidence against a null hypothesis that the two lines are parallel. Alternative methods for assessing parallelism have been proposed, but their suitability for any particular case needs to be carefully considered. Here we examine some advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches. PRODUCT FOCUS: ALL BIOLOGICALSPROCESS FOCUS: QA/QCWHO SHOULD READ: QA/QC, ASSAY DEVELOPMENT, AND…
Comparing Mammalian Expression Systems
Almost every pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company in the world depends on the use of recombinant stable cell lines to enable drug discovery, development, and often manufacturing of biologics. It normally falls on multidisciplinary upstream development teams to attain this goal, requiring a wide variety of technologies and skill sets such as laboratory robotics, optical analyzers, molecular biology, and data processing. The large capital investment required to procure the equipment and expertise necessary to develop biologics can be cost prohibitive, which…
An Inoculum Expansion Process for Fragile Recombinant CHO Cell Lines
Development of robust inoculum expansion procedures from cell banks is crucial to successful upstream manufacturing processes. Typically, vial thaw and cell culture expansion processes follow well-established procedures. Certain recombinant cell lines, however, need extra attention and development efforts to optimize conditions for robust and reproducible vial thaw and further subculturing. Difficulties in thawing frozen cells might be clone specific or could originate from suboptimal conditions during freezing. Such conditions might not be known initially and could need further optimization at…
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…
Carbohydrates and Their Analysis, Part Three
A large proportion of the therapeutic biotechnology products already in the market or under development are glycoproteins. Therapeutic glycoproteins are produced as recombinant products in cell culture systems, which raises the importance of understanding the biosynthetic events described in the previous installments of this three-part article. Lack of control in a bioprocess could easily change glycosylation patterns by distorting the activities taking place in the Golgi apparatus. Disruption of the delicate balance among substrate availability, optimum pH for specific activities,…
Determining the Effect of Raw Materials on Manufacturing-Scale Cell-Culture Performance
Large-scale cell culture production processes routinely involve multicomponent cell culture media formulations including both chemically defined raw materials and complex raw materials such as hydrolysates (1). Even minor variations in the compositions of either can lead to variability in protein productivity or product quality. That often persists despite the use of a raw material lot-blending strategy at large scales to “average out” raw material trends. And a raw material lot-blending strategy can makes it more difficult to identify which single…
Expression of a Fab Fragment in CHO and Pichia pastoris
Mammalian cell expression systems are currently essential for production of glycosylated biopharmaceuticals such as monoclonal antibodies or molecules requiring even more complex glycan structures. Various host cell and vector systems aimed at improving expression levels and quality have been established (1, 2). Development of biopharmaceutical product candidates from genes to clinical trials should be based on technology platforms that will require no major changes in the entire development chain, including manufacturing once a product candidate has successfully progressed through phase…