Large scale demonstration of a process analytical technology application in bioprocessing: use of on-line high performance liquid chromatography for making real time pooling decisions for process chromatography.

Process Analytical Technology (PAT) has been gaining a lot of momentum in the biopharmaceutical community because of the potential for continuous real time quality assurance resulting in improved operational control and compliance. In previous publications, we have demonstrated feasibility of applications involving use of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) for real-time pooling of process chromatography column. In this article we follow a similar approach to perform lab studies and create a model for a chromatography step of a different modality (hydrophobic interaction chromatography). It is seen that the predictions of the model compare well to actual experimental data, demonstrating the usefulness of the approach across the different modes of chromatography. Also, use of online HPLC when the step is scaled up to pilot scale (a 2294 fold scale-up from a 3.4 mL column in the lab to a 7.8 L column in the pilot plant) and eventually to manufacturing scale (a 45930 fold scale-up from a 3.4 mL column in the lab to a 158 L column in the manufacturing plant) is examined. Overall, the results confirm that for the application under consideration, online-HPLC offers a feasible approach for analysis that can facilitate real-time decisions for column pooling based on product quality attributes. The observations demonstrate that the proposed analytical scheme allows us to meet two of the key goals that have been outlined for PAT, i.e., "variability is managed by the process" and "product quality attributes can be accurately and reliably predicted over the design space established for materials used, process parameters, manufacturing, environmental, and other conditions". The application presented here can be extended to other modes of process chromatography and/or HPLC analysis.