A single-use purification process for the production of a monoclonal antibody produced in a PER.C6 human cell line

Advances in single-use technologies can enable greater speed, flexibility, and a smaller footprint for multi-product production facilities, such as at a contract manufacturer. Recent efforts in the area of cell line and media optimization have resulted in bioreactor productivities that exceed 8 g/L in fed-batch processes or 25 g/L in high-density cell culture processes. In combination with the development of single-use stirred tank bioreactors with larger working volumes, these intensified upstream processes can now be fit into a single-use manufacturing setting. Contrary to these upstream advances, downstream single-use technologies have been slower to follow, mostly limited by low capacity, high cost, and poor scalability. In this study we describe a downstream process based solely on single-use technologies that meets the challenges posed by expression of a mAb (IgG(1)) in a high-density suspension culture of PER.C6 cells. The cell culture harvest was clarified by enhanced cell settling (ECS) and depth filtration. Precipitation was used for crude purification of the mAb. A high capacity chromatographic membrane was then used in bind/elute mode, followed by two membranes in flow-through (FT) mode for polishing. A proof of concept of the entire disposable process was completed for two different scales of the purification train.