The Dish’s Weekly Biotechnology News Wrap Up – June 16, 2017
This week’s headlines include: Supreme Court speeds copycat biologic drugs to market, Korean biotech Orum raises $8M for cell-penetrating antibody tech, JSR to Acquire Selexis and Combine Cell Line Specialist with CDMO KBI Biopharma, Sanofi-Regeneron’s Praluent cuts cholesterol in Odyssey trials, Irvine Scientific says it will build a media R&D lab at its Orange County site, and Lilly Acquires DACRA Pipeline from KeyBioScience, with Diabetes Treatments in Mind.
In Case You Missed It, Recent Articles on Cell Culture Dish and Downstream Column:
Automated Adenovirus Purity Analysis Speeds Viral-based Gene Therapy Process Development
Adenovirus-based vectors are commonly-used gene delivery vehicles, especially in Gene Therapy applications where their efficient nuclear entry mechanism and low pathogenicity for humans are much-valued attributes. In addition, Adenovirus vectors can be produced in high titers and the particles are stable yet easy to modify…
QbD starts with an understanding of the quality target product profile. This allows potential critical quality attributes (CQAs) to be established and a risk assessment performed that links material attributes and process parameters to CQAs. By understanding the impact of process parameters on CQAs a design space can be developed in which CQAs will be met. Bioprocess engineers must then implement a suitable control strategy that ensure the process operates with the design space. Continuous improvement activities can be performed throughout the product lifecycle and enhance product quality still further…
One of the most popular traditional cloning techniques is limiting dilution. The technique is cost-effective and has received regulatory acceptance for several years. In limiting dilution cloning, a mixed population of cells is diluted in liquid media and is dispersed into 96-well plates or other culture vessels. The goal of this method is to isolate individual cells into single wells or vessels. In order to accomplish this, the wells are seeded at an average density of less than one cell per well. While low seeding density increases the chance of isolating single cells into single wells, it also means that there will be more empty wells. Empty wells represent a waste of personnel time, consumables and lab space. Nonetheless, no matter how low the seeding density, some wells will still contain multiple cells or doublets. While the limited dilution method is still very popular, it is time consuming and labor intensive. With advancements in cell line development and successful alternatives available, many groups are looking to replace limiting dilution with more advanced and robust technologies…
The development of organoid culture systems has provided researchers with a highly physiologically relevant system for studying stem cell biology, organ development, tissue homeostasis, and disease pathology. By mimicking the structures found in the organ, as well as maintaining multiple organotypic cell types, organoids have become valuable tools in modeling in vivo biology….
Continuous bioprocessing – moving from theory to reality
Continuous manufacturing has been established in several processing industries for many years, providing many benefits over batch manufacturing. The feasibility of continuous processing has now been shown for monoclonal antibodies (mAb) at both the process development (PD) and the production scales by early adopters…
Subvisible Particle Characterization: Why Simply Counting Shadows Leaves You in the Dark
Significant advances in analytical technology over the past few years have improved the quantification and characterization capabilities for subvisible ( 1 – 100 µm) and submicron particles (≤1 µm). As the technology continues to improve so do the expectations of regulatory agencies for sponsors to characterize particles in these size ranges. However, multiple orthogonal methods are required to span the entire range and accurately characterize the particle profile. Each instrument has its own limitations based on detection method and properties of therapeutic protein products that must be well understood to generate high quality data. KBI Biopharma has extensive experience with particle detection methods, as well as, in-depth particle data analysis. KBI’s Particle Characterization Core team can help choose appropriate orthogonal particle to combine in order to accurately quantify, characterize and identify particles in specific therapeutic protein products for all size ranges based on clients’ needs
Multiple buffers in a wide range of formulations are required to produce a single biopharmaceutical. Because of the large volumes required, buffer preparation can easily become a bottleneck in production. Traditionally, buffers are prepared manually in the volume needed according to specific recipes. Due to the large quantities used, buffer management requires careful planning and considerable floor space is required for the preparation and storage of such large buffer quantities. In addition to high labor and facility space cost, there is a risk of human error and variability associated with such a time-intensive manual activity. Buffer variability can affect both quantity and quality of the final product…
In the development of biopharmaceuticals there are times when an off the shelf affinity chromatography medium is unavailable or isn’t highly selective for the target molecule being purified. It is possible then to design a custom chromatography solution by coupling a specific ligand to a pre-activated resin…
Webinars:
Reviewing Continuous Chromatography Solutions, and the Effect the Number of Process Columns has on Specific Productivity and Binding Capacity
SUMMARY
Continuous multi-column chromatography (MCC) has been gaining increasing interest as an enabling bioprocessing technique that allows for increases in specific productivity (g/L/hr) and operating binding capacity (g mAb/L sorbent) over traditional batch solutions. With recent advances, users have reported an increase in cost savings stemming from reduced resin volumes, lower buffer consumption, and increased resin usage.
Mark Pagkaliwangan presents on July 18th at 1PM EDT, with David Johnson moderating, as they discuss MCC solution advances with processes utilizing two columns or more. They will explore how the total number of columns used in a process can affect performance, and how titer and flowrate can be optimized with more columns for greater efficiency and productivity.
Cell Culture Events:
Cell Culture & Cell Therapy: Bioprocessing Conference – June 26-27, 2017, Philadelphia
MarketsandMarkets put together a unique platform to establish the reproducible and robust manufacturing processes for the production of stable cell culture and therapeutic cells. At the Cell Culture & Cell Therapy: Bioprocessing Conference scheduled to be held in Philadelphia, USA on 26 – 27 June 2017, leading experts in the industry will be gathered to discuss strategies, technologies and innovations in the area of bioprocessing of cell culture and cell-gene therapies.
Headlines:
“Supreme Court speeds copycat biologic drugs to market,” Reuters
“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cut the time it will take for copycat versions of biologic drugs to get to the market in a pivotal ruling about an expensive class of medicines that can yield billions of dollars in sales for drug companies…”
“Korean biotech Orum raises $8M for cell-penetrating antibody tech,” Fierce Biotech
Orum Therapeutics has raised a small series A to help push on with its work on a monoclonal antibody designed to treat undruggable cytosolic targets. The Daejeon, South Korea-based biotech has gained $8 million all told, with the money coming from InterVest, KB Investment/Solidus Investment, and LB Investment.
“JSR to Acquire Selexis and Combine Cell Line Specialist with CDMO KBI Biopharma,” Genetic Engineering News
“JSR Life Sciences is to acquire mammalian cell-line development specialist Selexis, and integrate the Switzerland-based company with KBI Biopharma, the U.S.-based biopharma contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that Japan-based JSR acquired in 2015…”
“Sanofi-Regeneron’s Praluent cuts cholesterol in Odyssey trials,” Reuters
“France’s Sanofi and partner Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said on Sunday their anti-cholesterol drug Praluent recorded positive results in its first dedicated studies involving patients with diabetes and high cholesterol…”
“Irvine Scientific says it will build a media R&D lab at its Orange County site,” BioPharma-reporter
“Irvine Scientific has announced plans for an R&D centre at its site in Irvine, California citing increasing biopharma industry demand for cell culture and media regents…”
“Lilly Acquires DACRA Pipeline from KeyBioScience, with Diabetes Treatments in Mind,” Genetic Engineering News
“Eli Lilly will acquire worldwide rights from KeyBioscience to develop and commercialize its pipeline of dual amylin calcitonin receptor agonists (DACRAs) for type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders, the companies said today…”