Two-stage chromatographic separation of aggregates for monoclonal antibody therapeutics

• Separation of mAb aggregates to 0% using a two-stage chromatography (CEX + HIC).
• Significantly higher recoveries (>95% vs. 85%) without peak cutting.
• Significantly lower bed height for the HIC column (10 cm against 20 cm), thus lowering the cost of goods.
• Significantly higher robustness than traditional processes due to absence of peak cutting and also higher flexibility in picking the pH and the salt concentration required for the separation.

Aggregates of monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapeutics, due to their perceived impact on immunogenicity, are recognized as a critical quality attribute by the regulatory authorities as well as the industry. Hence, removal of aggregates is a key objective of bioprocessing. At present, this is achieved by a combination of two or more orthogonal chromatographic steps with possible modalities of ion exchange, hydrophobic interaction and mixed mode. A two-stage chromatographic purification process consisting of ion-exchange and hydrophobic interaction modes is proposed in this paper for effective and efficient control of aggregates for a mAb therapeutic. The proposed scheme does not require any intermediate processing of the process stream. Further, baseline separation is achieved for monomer and aggregates resulting in robust performance. This was possible because the proposed operational scheme allowed for an addition of selectivities of the two chromatography modes vs. the traditional two column scheme where part of the separation of aggregates achieved by the first column is lost upon pooling. The proposed process scheme yielded improved separation of aggregates (0% vs. 1–2%) at >95% recovery and reduced overall process time (6 h vs. 14 h) for a typical application. Further, clearance of host cell proteins was also shown to have improved with the suggested process scheme. Successful implementation of the proposed scheme has been demonstrated for two different monoclonal antibody therapeutic products.