Comparison of different protein concentration techniques within preformulation development.

Highly concentrated antibody solutions are of increasing importance in the pharmaceutical industry. During production highly concentrated solutions are usually prepared by tangential flow filtration (TFF). Since this technique is often not applicable in the early phase of formulation development, where the available amounts of protein are commonly very small, small scale techniques like dialysis or ultrafiltration with stirred cells or centrifugal filters have to be employed. In this study the small scale techniques were compared to tangential flow filtration, with regard to the quality and stability of the concentrated products. The achievable concentration of a protein, when starting from a model antibody solution with 10mg/ml, was also assessed. Concentrations above 100mg/ml could be obtained with all techniques, however with different product qualities. The stability of the highly concentrated solutions (100 mg/ml) was analyzed by turbidity measurements, size exclusion chromatography (SEC), SDS-PAGE and isoelectric focusing (IEF) after storage at 25 and 40°C for 8 weeks. Solutions prepared by dialysis exhibited the smallest degree of instability, whereas those manufactured by centrifugal filtration revealed the best comparability to products obtained by tangential flow filtration with regard to the results of isoelectric focusing, turbidity measurements (UV-vis) and size exclusion chromatography. Stability differences were observed within all analytical methods, primarily after storage and not directly after the concentration process.

Relevant shaking stress conditions for antibody preformulation development.

In protein formulation development, shaking stress is often employed to assess the physical stability of antibody formulations against aggregation. Since there are currently no guidelines describing suitable test conditions, very different shaking stress designs are used. These different designs may influence the resulting stability data. The aim of this study was to establish a shaking stress design within the protein range of 2-5mg/ml which can rapidly distinguish between antibody formulations of poor stability and those with potential for further development. Small scale shaking stress experiments were performed with different monoclonal IgG antibodies (as buffered solutions or marketed formulations). Variables were the filling degree of the sample containers, the container type and size and the shaking intensity. The stability of the samples was assessed by visual inspection, UV-VIS spectrophotometric turbidity measurements and size exclusion chromatography. All tested parameters had a strong influence on the stability results. The most discriminating conditions were obtained when shaking of the formulations was performed at 200rpm in a 2ml injection vial filled with 1ml protein solution. This experimental setup led to clearly different stability results for buffered solutions and marketed products. Moreover, this setup required only relatively small amounts of protein solution which is advantageous in prefomulation studies.