In-line Phosphoramidite Identification by FTIR to Support Real-Time Oligonucleotide Sequence Confirmation

Raman spectroscopy as an alternative rapid microbial bioburden test method for continuous, automated detection of contamination in biopharmaceutical drug substance manufacturing

AIMS

To investigate an in-line Raman method capable of detecting accidental microbial contamination in pharmaceutical vessels, such as bioreactors producing monoclonal antibodies via cell culture.

METHODS AND RESULTS

The Raman method consists of a multivariate model built from Raman spectra collected in-line during reduced-scale bioreactor batches producing a monoclonal antibody, as well as a reduced-scale process with intentional spiking of representative compendial method microorganisms (n = 4). The orthogonal partial least squares regression discriminant analysis model (OPLS-DA) area under the curve (AUC), specificity and sensitivity were 0.96, 0.99, and 0.95, respectively. Furthermore, the model successfully detected contamination in an accidentally contaminated manufacturing-scale batch. In all cases, the time to detection (TTD) for Raman was superior compared to offline, traditional microbiological culturing.

CONCLUSIONS

The Raman OPLS-DA method met acceptance criteria for equivalent decision making to be considered a viable alternative to the compendial method for in-process bioburden testing. The in-line method is automated, non-destructive, and provides a continuous assessment of bioburden compared to an offline compendial method, which is manual, results in loss of product, and in practice is only collected once daily and requires 3-5 days for enumeration.

Individualized Antisense Oligonucleotide Therapies: How to Approach the Challenge of Manufacturing These Oligos from a Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control-Regulatory Standpoint

With the development of antisense oligonucleotides over more than 30 years and the increasing number of identified unique severely debilitating or life-threatening diseases affecting only 1 person in the world-now referred to as N-of-1 diseases-it is more and more appealing to use antisense technology to treat N-of-1 diseases when they are caused by well-identified mutations in single genes. N-of-1 patients present unique challenges to the health care system because the patient may be, and often is, the single patient in the world with the specific mutation in question, thus requiring an approach particular to that patient. Yet, we now know that there are millions of such patients, requiring scalable solutions. This article offers suggestions on how a specific and very regulated area of the new drug development process, chemistry, manufacturing, and control, could be addressed for N-of-1 oligonucleotides from a regulatory standpoint.