Choices of capture chromatography technology in antibody manufacturing processes

The capture process employed in monoclonal antibody downstream purification is not only the most critically impacted process by increased antibody titer resulting from optimized mammalian cell culture expression systems, but also the most important purification step in determining overall process throughput, product quality, and economics. Advances in separation technology for capturing antibodies from complex feedstocks have been one focus of downstream purification process innovation for past 10 years. In this study, we evaluated new generation chromatography resins used in the antibody capture process including Protein A, cation exchange, and mixed mode chromatography to address the benefits and unique challenges posed by each chromatography approach. Our results demonstrate the benefit of improved binding capacity of new generation Protein A resins, address the concern of high concentration surge caused aggregation when using new generation cation exchange resins with over 100 mg/mL binding capacity, and highlight the potential of multimodal cation exchange resins for capture process design. The new landscape of capture chromatography technologies provides options to achieve overall downstream purification outcome with high product quality and process efficiency.