A novel approach to Protein A capture chromatography to help decrease cost of clinical manufacturing and reduce supply chain risk

Transcription

1 PRODUCT BULLETIN POROS MabCapture A resins A novel approach to Protein A capture chromatography to help decrease cost of clinical manufacturing and reduce supply chain risk Introduction As cell culture technology improvements continue to result in increases in expression of monoclonal antibodies, the throughput bottleneck for protein manufacturing has shifted to downstream purification. Protein A chromatography, which is used as the primary capture chromatography step in most antibody processing platforms, is generally regarded as the major process bottleneck due to the slow flow rates and long residence times required for the effective operation of conventional Protein A chromatography resins. It can take days to process a single reactor harvest, due to flow rate and capacity limitations of existing recombinant Protein A (rpa) affinity resins. Because the majority of processes are still in early-phase manufacturing, where column use is minimal, Protein A resin costs can be a significant part of the overall processing cost of goods. Furthermore, the supply of Protein A resin is typically considered a significant supply chain risk since most of the Protein A ligand is supplied from a single source. Thermo Scientific POROS Protein A chromatography resins are aimed at widening the downstream bottleneck and providing the capacity, efficiency, and flexibility needed to make improvements to the downstream purification platform, thereby enabling major increases in process productivity and antibody manufacturing with an added benefit of lower cost of goods. The optimized pore structure of POROS resins results in high dynamic binding capacities (DBC) being maintained over a large range of flow rate and bed heights, thereby improving operational throughput and process flexibility. The base bead composition and proprietary coupling chemistries yield resins that have low leaching qualities, that are easy to handle and pack, and that are robust to cleaning and sanitization solutions. Thermo Scientific POROS MabCapture A Select affinity resin is a new, lower-priced high-throughput Protein A chromatography resin combining the high-throughput performance of our existing MabCapture A product with our own self-produced Protein A ligand (Table 1). This enables the same high-throughput purification performance at a significant reduction in price over most Protein A chromatography resins. The MabCapture A Select resin features a recombinant rpa ligand, produced in yeast and manufactured by Thermo Fisher Scientific. Today, the large majority of rpa comes from a single vendor. Thus, having a new and different source of rpa reduces supply risk for customers and allows better control of the resin supply chain. 1

2 With POROS MabCapture A Select chromatography resin you can: Maintain high dynamic binding capacity at flow rates over 1, cm/hr Design processes with greater flexibility (shorter bed heights, faster flow rates, more cycling), due to the improvements made to the antibody-binding efficiency Improve impurity clearance and yield, and collect smaller pool volumes, due to the μm particle size Clean and sanitize with.1 M sodium hydroxide for as long as 3 min per cycle, as utilized for other chromatography products Recognize major increases to process productivity and reduce the downstream bottleneck Reduce unit operation time requirements and cost of goods for early-phase processes Reduce risk with a secondsource, large-scale supply of recombinant Protein A ligand Table 1. POROS MabCapture A and MabCapture A Select Resin product characteristics. Characteristic Support matrix Immobilized ligand Dynamic binding capacity Description Cross-linked poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) Recombinant Protein A sourced from: MabCapture A: outside supplier MabCapture A Select: Thermo Fisher Scientific 37 mg/ml* Shipping solvent Phosphate-buffered 18% ethanol, ph 7 Average particle size 4 µm Shrinkage/swelling <1% from 1 1% solvent Mechanical resistance 1 bar (1,4 psi, 1 MPa) Protein A leaching < ppm * % breakthrough of human IgG in PBS, ph 7., at 3 cm/hr in 4.6 cm ID x 2 cm long column. Materials and methods For tests of dynamic binding capacity, the column format was.46 cm ID x 2 cm long (3.32 ml). All columns were packed within the pressure and flow limitations specified by the resin vendor. Capacity determinations were made using human gamma-globulin (higg) (Cat. No. G-4386, Sigma) at mg/ml in 2 mm sodium phosphate, ph 7., and 1 mm sodium chloride, at 1, 3,, and 7 cm/hr and residence times of 1.7, 2.4, 4., and 12. min. Capacities are expressed as % breakthrough or C. High ph stability and column lifetime were tested with a column format of.46 cm ID x 1 cm long (1.66 ml). Each column was loaded with higg at mg/ml in 2 mm sodium phosphate, ph 7., 1 mm sodium chloride, 2 mm EDTA, and 1 mg/ml Pefabloc SC (Roche). The column was loaded to a capacity of 28 mg higg/ml resin at a linear velocity of cm/hr. The column was eluted with 7 mm acetic acid. The column was then stripped with 1 M acetic acid, cleaned with.1 M sodium hydroxide, and held for 3 minutes for every cycle. For Protein A leachate determination, each column was loaded with higg at mg/ml in 2 mm sodium phosphate, ph 7., 1 mm sodium chloride, 2 mm EDTA, and 1 mg/ml Pefabloc SC. The column was loaded to a capacity of 2 mg higg/ml resin at a linear velocity of cm/hr. The column was eluted with 7 mm acetic acid and stripped with 1 M acetic acid. Leachate levels were measured after the first, fifth, and every subsequent fifth run up to 2 cycles of reuse with a commercially available recombinant Protein A ELISA kit (Cat. No , Repligen). 2

3 A POROS MabCapture A Select GE B POROS MabCapture A Select GE higg DBC at % breakthrough (mg/ml) resin higg DBC at % breakthrough (mg/ml) resin Linear flow rate (cm/hr) Residence time (min) Figure 1. Performance of POROS MabCapture A Select resin as a function of (A) flow rate and (B) residence time. Results and discussion The high dynamic binding capacity of POROS MabCapture A Select resin is maintained as the linear flow rate increases over a 3-fold range. Only a 6 mg/ml or 12% decay is realized compared to an agarose resin like GE resin, which realizes a 21 mg/ml or 4% decay in dynamic binding capacity over a more limited flow rate range (Figure 1A). POROS MabCapture A Select resin also demonstrates higher dynamic binding capacity that is nearly independent of the residence time (Figure 1B). Operational flow rate and column bed heights do not need to be optimized to allow diffusion of the higg to the rpacoated surface of the chromatography bead. Capture can % Recovery of elution in cycle Cycle number Figure 2. High ph stability and column lifetime of POROS MabCapture A Select resin. be efficient and robust. This allows for faster processing to increase cycles on a smaller column, which will better utilize column lifetime and increase cost savings or reduce process times. The capacity of the resin is only slightly decreased after exposure to a clean-in-place cycle of.1 N sodium hydroxide for 3 minutes, for up to sanitization cycles (Figure 2). These data show that the reuse capability of the resin is quite robust. Since this study used higg, which has protease activity, for each run, it is difficult to determine if the loss of protein recovery is due to base instability of the ligand or to protease activity in the load. These data include both modes of degradation as a worst-case study. This is also considered a conservative study since most processes do not utilize a 3-minute hydroxide step after every cycle. It is important to understand the effect that higher binding capacity may have on rpa leachate levels. The rpa is covalently attached to the POROS base bead. The study summarized in Figure 3 shows that rpa leachate levels are in the low ppm range and decrease to a plateau, as typically seen with rpa resins after multiple cycles of reuse. POROS MabCapture A Select resin results in low ligand leachate levels that plateau after five cycles of reuse at levels 1 ppm (1 ng/mg IgG). 3

4 rpa leachate (ng/mg hlgg) flow rates. POROS Protein A allows for a 7% decrease in processing times over traditional soft gel resin. Manufacturing efficiency can improve severalfold by simple and easy-to-operate process steps with higher productivity. Capacity utilization can be significantly improved to process more lots or different candidate molecules for clinical trials. Cost savings of >3% over GE Medium and % over GE SuRe Medium could be realized using a high-performing Protein A resin like POROS MabCapture A Select affinity resin Cycle number Figure 3. rpa leachate as a function of cycle number for a POROS MabCapture A Select column. The cost model shown in Table 2, which was developed for a L harvest with a titer of g/l, looks at the cost of buffer, labor, and resin, and the total cost to process a batch of antibody through the Protein A step. A 14 L Protein A column would be needed, and it would be cycled 6 times. POROS MabCapture A Select resin allows for flexibility with cycles or faster processing due to conserved dynamic binding capacity over a large flow rate range. POROS resin allows for a significant increase in the amount of antibody that can be processed per hour on a defined resin volume, either by shorter bed heights or increased Conclusions POROS MabCapture A Select chromatography resin offers high IgG dynamic binding capacities at high linear flow rates and short residence times. Operating the resin at high flow rates without compromising dynamic binding capacity provides process development scientists with an alternative to agarose-based materials for efficient capture chromatography of high-volume, high-titer feedstreams at reduced costs. Using POROS Protein A imparts process design flexibility: columns may be operated at higher flow rates, with reduced residence times and with shorter bed heights. POROS resin is mechanically and chemically stable. The mechanical stability results in easy handling and packing and in stable bed heights after packing and with column reuse. The chemical stability provides the capability for aggressive cleaning and therefore robust performance in reuse. When using POROS Protein A, sodium hydroxide can be incorporated into resin cleaning steps. Table 2. Process model of a high-performance Protein A step. Capture resin Flow rate (cm/hr) Capacity (mg/ml) Total protein/ load (g) No. of cycles required Cumulative process time (hr) Buffer cost Process labor costs Resin cost Total cost per batch Time reduction Total cost reduction from Total cost reduction from SuRe GE ,688 4, , 1, ,99 2,9 141, 149,8 43% 1% GE SuRe ,666 4, ,96 26,999 % 38% ,99 2,9 197,96 26,68 43% 37% ,666 4,373 91,91 1,949 % 33% 1% POROS MabCapture A Select ,99 2,9 91,91 1,18 43% 34% 2% ,99 1,674 91,91 99,184 62% 34% 2% ,99 1,27 91,91 98,766 71% 34% 2% 4

5 Thermo Fisher Scientific has proven manufacturing and quality systems capable of producing POROS chromatography resins that enable chromatography operations from development through commercial manufacturing scales. Expanded manufacturing capabilities to produce large volumes of recombinant animal origin free Protein A ligand in yeast enable us to offer a high-throughput resin at a significantly lower price that also helps reduce overall supply chain risk. POROS MabCapture A Select resin outperforms other resins on throughput and price. These benefits are ideal for early-stage clinical manufacturing. With POROS Protein A, the throughput potential is significant, allowing for better productivity and a decrease in cost of goods and resources, with the added benefit of second-source supply of Protein A ligand and supply chain security. Ordering information POROS resin Volume or column size Cat. No. POROS resin Volume or column size Cat. No. 1, ml* bulk 1.2 cm ID x cm long A26464 GoPure MabCapture A Select bulk 1, ml* A2646 MabCapture A, ml* A2649, ml* , ml* A2648 1, ml* ml A ml ml A2646 ml ml A264 1 ml GoPure MabCapture A Select 1.2 cm ID x pre packed columns MabCapture A cm long pre packed 1.2 cm ID x 1 cm long A cm ID x columns 1 cm long 1.2 cm ID x 1 cm long A cm ID 1 cm long 1.2 cm ID x 2 cm long A cm ID 2 cm long 4.6 cm ID 2 mm long 1 cm ID 1 mm long * Pharmaceutical Grade Reagent. For Manufacturing and Laboratory Use Only. Limited Use Label License No. 49. For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. Limited Use Label License No

6 Find out more at thermofisher.com/poros Pharmaceutical Grade Reagent. For Manufacturing and Laboratory Use Only. 216 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of Thermo Fisher Scientific and its subsidiaries unless otherwise specified. and SuRe are trademarks of GE Healthcare. Pefabloc is a trademark of Roche. CO