Single Use

Bridging Polymer Science to Biotechnology Applications: A Single-Use Technology Conference Report

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Single-use (SU) technology is used more every year throughout the biotechnology industry. As applications now span from cell banking to drug product, that in turn is raising interest in the interaction of extractables with proteins and cells. The second “Single-Use Technologies” conference organized through Engineering Conference International (ECI) was subtitled “Bridging Polymer Science to Biotechnology Applications” and delved into the science of plastics in bioprocessing applications. On 7–10 May 2017 at the Hotel dos Templários in Tomar, Portugal, people from…

October 15, 2018

eBook: Scalable Cell-Based Immunotherapy Manufacture: A Comparison of Single-Use Agitated and Static Expansion Technologies

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Early clinical results indicate that personalized autologous immunotherapies could revolutionize cancer treatment (1). However, challenges lie in the realization of cost-driven, scalable cell therapy (CT) manufacturing strategies (2) for generating sufficient therapies to treat a populace, thereby limiting their translation to public health (3). Primary challenges involve complex needle-to-needle logistics, complexities in closed processing, and high variability in starting cell materials that define the autologous nature of such therapies. Despite barriers in industrial-scale manufacture, public health management already has engaged…

September 18, 2018

Accelerated Development, Manufacturing and Monitoring of Viral Vectors

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The goals of process intensification are to enhance production while shortening timelines, lessening contamination and environmental risks to products and operators, and reducing operating footprints. Previous publications from Sartorius Stedim Biotech (SSB) have highlighted key elements of such activities. In this report, the authors extend the scope of this discussion to tools and technologies that enable intensification of viral vector manufacturing processes. The first article summarizes presentations from a 2018 seminar for viral vaccine manufacturers. Three guest presentations highlighted the…

August 29, 2018

Thinking Outside the Bag: Single-Use Technology Can Drive Innovation at the Benchtop Scale

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Cristy Botens, product manager in bioprocessing, Distek Innovation is important, Botens began, and the focus should be on patients. Every innovation means that medicine gets to patients faster or has fewer side-effects. Recent pharmaceutical innovations include the first new Lupus treatment approved in 50 years, a gene therapy cure for inherited blindness, gene therapies for rare diseases, new chimeric antigen receptors on T cells (CAR-T) clinical trials (over 180 trials now), personalized cell therapy, and a vaccine that prevents cervical…

August 23, 2018

Capacity Strategies: The Strategies Behind Choosing Between Large-Scale and Single-Use Investments

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Moderator Dan Stanton, with Weichang Zhou, Jenifer Wheat, Roger Lias, and Jim Vogel Single-use technologies (SUTs) are now prevalent within bioprocessing, but does this spell the end of industry’s historic reliance on stainless steel and fixed facilities? This roundtable was formed to discuss the wealth of investment in single-use (SU) equipment and flexible manufacturing solutions by contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) over the past few years, pitting that against what looks like a resurgence in fixed-cost stainless steel plants…

August 21, 2018

CMO Fusion: Where Stainless Steel Meets Disposable Technology

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Molly McGlaughlin, director of strategy and business development, BioVectra  Jim Stout, director of process science, BioVectra   McGlaughlin introduced BioVectra. The company has been in business for 45 years and is based in Canada. Its a well-established contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and fine-chemical manufacturer, and is a subsidiary of Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. BioVectra started out as diagnostic reagent company and now has a complementary set of niche capabilities. From 10 years of fermentation experience, it was a logical progression to…

August 21, 2018

Oxygen Mass Transfer Correlation for a Rocking-Motion Bioreactor System

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Disposable bioreactor systems are technologies commonly used in bioprocessing. They provide cost-effective contamination control and allow more flexible facility layouts than do stainless steel alternatives. One of the most popular types of single-use bioreactors uses a rocking platform in place of a traditional shaft and agitator assembly to aerate and mix cell culture material within a presterilized, single-use plastic bag (1). The system studied here is the ReadyToProcess WAVE 25 bioreactor (GE Healthcare Life Sciences). In contrast to conventional stirred…

June 23, 2018

Single-Use Bioreactors: Performance and Usability Considerations Part 1: Performance for Process Control

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There is ever increasing pressure for the biopharmaceutical industry to drive toward higher efficiency and lower costs. Compared to the past, target markets for many drugs typically are becoming smaller, and so-called blockbuster drugs are becoming more the exception than the rule. Regulatory agencies have continued to increase the pressure on drug makers to meet increasing quality standards and accept higher levels of responsibility. Furthermore, customer pricing, healthcare markets, and recent biopharmaceutical pricing scandals all add incentives toward more efficient…

June 23, 2018

eBook: SUStainability — Concerning Single-Use Systems and the Environment

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Disposable materials have been used in many aspects of biomanufacturing since muromonab was first launched in 1986. Single-use stirred-tank bioreactors first became commercially available from HyClone in 2004 (1). Despite their demonstrated value to bioprocessing, disposable materials remain the subject of wide-ranging differences of opinion. Discussions of any technology are healthy and important for identifying areas for improvement, but some hearsay and bold propositions made regarding single-use components and the environment are not always helpful. Sustainability is an important and…

June 7, 2018

Ensuring the Integrity of Single-Use Containers: Providing Robustness, Science, and Helium-Based Technology with a Detection Limit of 2 μm

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Identifying the greatest defect size, both for liquid leaks and microbial ingress, is a fundamental step toward protecting the integrity of single-use systems (SUS) under real process conditions. Integrity testing of such systems may become a prerequisite in the future because they are used in the most critical process steps, with detection limits correlating to liquid leaks and microbial ingress. Such testing guarantees the sterility of drug substances and drug products packaged in single-use systems and, therefore, enhance patient safety.…

April 19, 2018