Safety risk management for low molecular weight process-related impurities in monoclonal antibody therapeutics: Categorization, risk assessment, testing strategy, and process development with leveraging clearance potential

Recent applications of quantitative mass spectrometry in biopharmaceutical process development and manufacturing

Biopharmaceutical products have seen rapid growth over the past few decades and continue to dominate the global pharmaceutical market. Aligning with the quality by design (QbD) framework and realization, recent advances in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) instrumentation and related techniques have enhanced biopharmaceutical characterization capabilities and have supported an increased development of biopharmaceutical products. Beyond its routine qualitative characterization, the quantitative feature of LC-MS has unique applications in biopharmaceutical process development and manufacturing. This review describes the recent applications and implications of the advancement of quantitative MS methods in biopharmaceutical process development, and characterization of biopharmaceutical product, product-related variants, and process-related impurities. We also provide insights on the emerging applications of quantitative MS in the lifecycle of biopharmaceutical product development including quality control in the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) environment and process analytical technology (PAT) practices during process development and manufacturing. Through collaboration with instrument and software vendors and regulatory agencies, we envision broader adoption of phase-appropriate quantitative MS-based methods for the analysis of biopharmaceutical products, which in turn has the potential to enable manufacture of higher quality products for patients.

Product safety aspects of plant molecular farming

Plant molecular farming (PMF) has been promoted since the 1990s as a rapid, cost-effective and (most of all) safe alternative to the cultivation of bacteria or animal cells for the production of biopharmaceutical proteins. Numerous plant species have been investigated for the production of a broad range of protein-based drug candidates. The inherent safety of these products is frequently highlighted as an advantage of PMF because plant viruses do not replicate in humans and vice versa. However, a more nuanced analysis of this principle is required when considering other pathogens because toxic compounds pose a risk even in the absence of replication. Similarly, it is necessary to assess the risks associated with the host system (e.g., the presence of toxic secondary metabolites) and the production approach (e.g., transient expression based on bacterial infiltration substantially increases the endotoxin load). This review considers the most relevant host systems in terms of their toxicity profile, including the presence of secondary metabolites, and the risks arising from the persistence of these substances after downstream processing and product purification. Similarly, we discuss a range of plant pathogens and disease vectors that can influence product safety, for example, due to the release of toxins. The ability of downstream unit operations to remove contaminants and process-related toxic impurities such as endotoxins is also addressed. This overview of plant-based production, focusing on product safety aspects, provides recommendations that will allow stakeholders to choose the most appropriate strategies for process development.

A reversed-phase-high performance liquid chromatography method for simultaneous determination of paracetamol, caffeine, drotaverine HCl and their related impurities with dissolution profiling of their tablets and greenness profile assessment

A sensitive, specific and eco-friendly reversed-phase-HPLC method was developed and validated for the determination of paracetamol, caffeine and drotaverine HCl along with their related impurities. The separation was accomplished using an X-bridge C₁₈ column (5 μm; 250 mm × 4.6 mm inner diameter) and a green mobile phase consisting of methanol and 0.02 M phosphate buffer at pH 5.0 in the gradient elution mode. The detector used was a diode array detector. The proposed method was validated in accordance with the International Conference on Harmonisation guidelines. Linear regressions were found in the range of 1-100, 1-100, 2-60, 1-20, 0.50-30 and 1-15 μg/mL for paracetamol, caffeine, drotaverine HCl, p-aminophenol, theophylline and 3,4-dimethoxyphenylacetic acid, respectively. The suggested method was successfully applied for the determination of the studied drugs in their tablet dosage form without interference from any excipients. No discernible difference was found between the obtained results and official or reported methods, statistically, in terms of both accuracy and precision. Dissolution profiling of the studied tablet was also performed using the suggested procedure. Moreover, the greenness profile was assessed using three different tools, namely, the National Environmental Methods Index, the Analytical Eco-Scale and the Analytical GREEnness Metric Approach. The acquired results assert the agreement of the assay with green chemistry principles.

Development and validation of LC-MS/MS method for quantification of protease inhibitor Pepstatin A to monitor its robust clearance in vaccine downstream process

Pepstatin A reversibly inhibits aspartic acid proteases and minimizes the impact of protease-induced degradation in recombinant protein manufacturing process. Pepstatin A is considered as a process-related impurity and must be characterized and controlled during manufacturing. Herein we describe the development and validation of an LC-MS/MS method for the quantitation of pepstatin A to monitor its robust clearance in vaccine purification process. Analyte extraction from process intermediates was carried out using 10% acetonitrile/water extraction method. Acetyl-pepstatin was used as internal standard (IS). Pepstatin A and IS were resolved on a C18 column using 10 mM ammonium acetate in water and methanol/acetonitrile mobile phase system. A triple quadrupole mass spectrometer operating in the positive electrospray ionization mode with multiple reaction monitoring was used to detect Pepstatin A and IS transitions of m/z 686.5 to 229.3 and 644.5 to 229.3, respectively. The method was validated for specificity, linearity, accuracy, repeatability (precision), intermediate precision, and assay robustness. The assay was linear over the range of calibration standards 0.5-100 ng/mL. The Lower-limit-of-quantification (LLOQ) of the method was 0.50 ng/mL.