BioProcessing Journal

Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing at the Crossroads

Contract manufacturing of recombinant protein drugs and vaccines, as well as other biopharmaceuticals, has been the focus of considerable interest during the past decade. Fueled by a strong clinical development pipeline, primary manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals on a contract basis has attracted multinational industrial concerns willing to invest on the promise of potentially higher returns than are experienced in the production of traditional small molecule drugs. Biopharmaceutical contract manufacturers have made significant contributions to the development and subsequent commercialization of a few highly successful products. However, despite strong growth, consistent profitability has been elusive. The market has changed overr the past decade as customer projects progressed from process development through market launch. Now that several preeminent market players have successfully made the difficult transition from clinical to commercial supplier, what has been learned and how is the market expected to evolve over the next five years?…

Biologics Production Manufacturing

commercialization contract manufacturing GMP recombinant proteins vaccines

Bioreactor Process Selection for Large-Scale Manufacture of Monoclonal Antibodies — Tradeoffs and Recommendations

Bioreactor productivities are highly dependent on the process used to cultivate mammalian cells. These productivities directly affect the manufacturing plant capacity, and thereby the economics of production of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). Historically, companies have chosen bioreactor process strategies that emphasize simplicity of scale-up at the expense of productivity, and conducted manufacturing using well-characterized and relatively straightforward batch processes. Such processes have successfully produced small or moderate quantities (ranging from ~100 g to ~ 1 kg per lot) of the desired antibody. Given the anticipated demand for large-scale quantities of MAbs (and the high stakes for the companies investing in these new biological entities), it is worthwhile to revisit these past selection strategies and see if — and under what conditions — they remain optimal today…

Biologics Production Manufacturing

batch processing bioreactor bioreactor process strategy continuous perfusion fed-batch monoclonal antibody scale-up

Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing: An Overview

The revolution in biotechnology has led to 133 biotechnology-derived medicines being approved by 2001 with sales of $22 billion. This is less than 10 percent of today’s total pharmaceutical market, but it is a rapidly growing sector. Biologics are predicted to grow to nearly $50 billion by 2008. Marketed biopharmaceuticals include several blockbuster products with multibillion-dollar sales. In recent years, biotechnology-derived therapies represented 10 percent to 20 percent of all new approved molecular entities and hundreds more are in development, including nearly 200 proteins in late-stage trials. Microbial and mammalian expression systems are typically used to produce biotherapeutic proteins (many companies are also working on transgenic expression systems). Microbial cultures (typically, Escherichia coli or yeast) are used to produce smaller, less-complex proteins or those where specific modifications, especially glycosolation, are not required…

Biologics Production Manufacturing

contract manufacturing outsourcing project management scale-up

Structure Characterization of a Recombinant Monoclonal Antibody with One- and Two- Dimensional High Performance Liquid Chromatography with On-line Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry

Recombinant monoclonal antibodies (rMAbs) are the predominant biotherapeutic protein under development today. FDA requires the structure characterization if rMAbs and other recombinant proteins to grant marketing approval. Characterizing such complex, inherently heterogeneous molecules is a significant analytical challenge that requires a broad array of physico-chemical tests. This article reports the use of reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) with on-line electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) to rapidly determine the glycoform composition and the heavy chain C-terminal lysine heterogeneity of an intact rMAb. In addition, a novel multidimensional chromatographic platform was developed to investigate the two-dimensional, size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) separation of the rMAb followed by RP-HPLC (HPSEC-RP-HPLC) with on-line ESI-MS analysis. Such analyses can characterize, identify, and confirm the structure of an intact rMAb…

Biologics Production

analysis characterization chromatography monoclonal antibody recombinant antibodies therapeutic proteins

Adenovirus Reference Material: Determination of Particle Concentrations Obtained by Orthogonal, Physical-Chemical Methods

With the continued progress of adenoviral vectors in gene therapy studies it is increasingly evident that a more formalized approach to the characterization and analysis of these viral vectors is urgently needed. Today, adenoviral vectors are beginning to be considered “well characterized biologics,” as shown by numerous publications describing sophisticated analytical approaches for recombinant adenovirus product candidates. Because the analytical definitions of adenoviral vectors currently lack comparison to a common standard, the problem for regulatory agencies is how to objectively evaluate safety in relation to the administered dose. This well-recognized need for an adenovirus standard has been addressed by a consortium of representatives from regulatory agencies, industry, and academic organizations — the Adenoviral Reference Material (ARM) Working Group. Its work has come to fruition in the recent public availability of the ARM, a purified wild type 5 adenovirus. Many aspects of the history, production, and characterization of the ARM have been published in detail…

Regulatory Viral Reference Materials Viral Vectors

adenoviral vectors analysis characterization particle concentration safety standards

Viral Gene Vectors

An astonishing range of viruses has provided building blocks for gene delivery systems, from the simple adeno-associated virus with a 5 kb genome to the complex poxviruses with 300 kb. This review focuses on non-replicating viral vectors that infect host cells just once, without producing infections virus. Viral vectors are generally characterized by several criteria, including their ability to integrate into the host genome, coding capacity, titer, toxicity, immunogenicity, host range, duration of gene expression, and transient or stable production systems. These are precisely the features that need to be carefully studied in the context of the application when deciding which vector to use…

Biologics Production Cell & Gene Therapy Viral Vectors

adeno-associated viral vectors adenoviral vectors gene delivery gene therapy non-replicating viral vectors vaccines

The Case for Design-Build Cleanroom Facilities Delivery

In the past, most large construction projects used a system called design-bid-build. Now, pharmaceutical companies planning cleanrooms have begun using an improved system, design-build, which can save millions of dollars and cut months from construction schedules. Design-build also can provide better quality end results than design-bid-build…

Manufacturing

cleanroom design-build facility design project management

Managing Raw Materials in a Contract Manufacturing Facility

Long-term growth of the biopharmaceutical industry is increasingly relying on outsourcing to overcome the current capacity constraints, especially for monoclonal antibody production. Companies are often reluctant to commit to building multimillion dollar manufacturing facilities for potential products with no guarantee of approval. Therefore to offset risks, companies will enter into contract manufacturing arrangements…

Biologics Production Manufacturing Risk Analysis and Management

contract manufacturing outsourcing quality raw materials standards technology transfer

Biomarkers to Detect Molecular Changes in Tissue-Engineered Medical Products

Tissue engineering is an emerging area of biotechnology that will provide replacement tissues for patients, as well as complex, functional biological systems for research and testing in the pharmaceutical industry. A new research area of tissue engineering is the investigation of how living cells interact with and respond to synthetic biomaterial surfaces. The clinical developments that underlie that research include a number of novel tissue-engineered medical products (TEMPs)…

Biologics Production Research

biomarkers safety standards tissue engineering

Replacing Protein A Sorbents for the Large-Scale Manufacturing of Recombinant Antibodies: Hydrophobic Charge Induction Chromatography

Monoclonal antibodies constitute a significant percentage of the protein-based therapeutic molecules currently in clinical trials. The broad applicability and proven commercial success for this class of molecules suggest a larger future market potential. The current biopharmaceutical manufacturing capacity is widely anticipated to be a rate-limiting factor in the growth of the biotech sector. Because antibody therapeutics represent such a large part of this market, and because the therapeutic dosages of antibodies tend to be greater than most biopharmaceuticals, there is an immediate need for novel antibody manufacturing approaches that deliver significantly greater productivity…

Biologics Production Manufacturing

antibody therapeutics chromatography purification recombinant antibodies therapeutic proteins

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