Filtration

Virus-Filtration Process Development Optimization: The Key to a More Efficient and Cost-Effective Step

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Size-exclusion–based parvovirus filtration is an important step toward drug product safety in biopharmaceutical production. However, once a virus filter is in place, and the required virus safety is ensured, less attention typically is paid to its optimization within the process. That might seem odd given that virus filtration can be one of the more expensive downstream processing steps ($/g protein processed). Most likely, the lack of attention can be attributed to aggressive timelines, limited process development resources, and the virus…

April 12, 2016

Factors Affecting Sterile Filtration of Sodium-Carboxymethylcellulose–Based Solutions

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Carboxymethylcellulose sodium (CMC), is widely used as an excipient in oral, topical, and parenteral pharmaceutical formulations. It increases viscosity (1–3), serves as a suspension aid (4), and stabilizes emulsions (5). More recently, applications for CMC in formulations that facilitate improved delivery of cytotoxic drugs and biologics have been evaluated (6, 7). CMC is manufactured in a broad range of viscosities, with grades typically classified as low, medium, or high viscosity. CMC grades can be divided further based on their degree…

March 11, 2016

Characterization of Postcapture Impurity Removal Across an Adsorptive Depth Filter

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In the manufacture of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), the first purification step following harvest clarification is normally protein A affinity chromatography because of its high selectivity for IgG and high process yield (1, 2). At this stage, a MAb is eluted from a protein A ligand at low pH and then held or adjusted to a low pH (pH ≤ 3.8) for a given amount of time before pH adjustment, usually ≥30 minutes, in a virus inactivation (VI) step targeted at…

March 10, 2015

Evaluating Adsorptive Filtration As a Unit Operation for Virus Removal

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To date, the majority of recombinant monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) have been produced by mammalian cells. During such production processes, the potential risk of entrained viruses must be critically considered (1). Contamination can arise from animal cell lines or from adventitious viruses introduced during manufacturing. To ensure the viral safety of biotechnology products, companies can take four complementary approaches (2, 3): Using animal-component–free raw materials wherever possible Virus testing of master cell banks Virus testing of unprocessed harvest Performing downscale virus…

February 6, 2015

Evolving Clarification Strategies to Meet New Challenges

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Increasingly efficient bioreactors allow biopharmaceutical manufacturers to achieve higher cell densities. That improved upstream efficiency has led to new purification challenges resulting from high product and contaminant concentrations as well as complex components. Therefore, harvest and clarification techniques are evolving to incorporate feed pretreatment, flocculation, and different filtration technologies such as normal-flow, tangential-flow, and depth filtration. The objective is to increase process capacities and filtrate quality, ultimately reducing biomanufacturing costs. New strategies for clarification of recombinant proteins (in particular, monoclonal…

October 16, 2014

Preuse, Poststerilization Filter Integrity Testing for Single-Use and Stainless-Steel Installations

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According to current European Union good manufacturing practice (EU GMP), integrity testing of sterilizing-grade product filters should be performed preuse poststerilization (PUPSIT) and immediately after use. In addition, PDA’s Technical Report 26 states that preuse integrity tests are preferably performed after filter sterilization. Performing an integrity test of an already sterilized product filter in-line requires wetting the filter while maintaining the downstream side sterile. The test gas must also be evacuted on the downstream side throughout testing maintaining sterility. The…

October 16, 2014

Diatomaceous Earth Filtration: Innovative Single-Use Concepts for Clarification of High-Density Mammalian Cell Cultures

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In the past decade, biopharmaceutical manufacturers have demonstrated major improvements in monoclonal antibody (MAb) production, exhibiting product titers frequently in the range of 5–10 g/L using standard fed-batch mammalian cell cultures (1, 2). Increased product yields allow for smaller-scale production vessels. With 2,000-L single-use bioreactors already commercially available, single-use manufacturing of biomolecules becomes more and more an option. Other recent developments in the biopharmaceutical industry — e.g., drugs for smaller indications and more potent drugs allowing for lower dosages —…

September 23, 2014

Nucleic Acid Impurity Reduction in Viral Vaccine Manufacturing

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Commercial-scale viral vaccine manufacturing requires production of large quantities of virus as an antigenic source. To deliver those quantities, a number of systems are used for viral replication based on mammalian, avian, or insect cells. To overcome the inherent limitations in production outputs with serial propagation of cells, mammalian cells can be immortalized, which increases the number of times they can divide in culture. Modifications that immortalize cells are typically accomplished through mechanisms similar to those converting normal cells to…

February 1, 2014

Accounting for the Donnan Effect in Diafiltration Optimization for High-Concentration UFDF Applications

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The biopharmaceutical industry is targeting high-concentration protein formulations to enable subcutaneous administrations. Such administration can provide better patient convenience than intravenous administration. One challenge associated with high-concentration formulations is increased electrostatic interaction between proteins and excipients. That is a result of increased protein-charge density at high protein concentrations. Such interactions can create an offset between excipient levels in final products and diafiltration buffers in ultrafiltration processes. The effect of such electrostatic interactions in a membrane process is known as the…

January 1, 2014

Effects of Pressure Sensor Calibration Offset on Filter Integrity Test Values

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Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European good manufacturing practices (GMPs) require integrity testing of sterilizing-grade filters for producing injectables and other biologics. The diffusion test (also called the forward-flow test) and bubble-point test (also called the disk test) of a sterilizing-grade filter are both filter-integrity tests. The accuracy of both relies on calibration of a pressure sensor in the respective integrity test unit. Calibration of the pressure sensor of a filter-integrity testing device is an essential part of quality…

November 1, 2013