New vaccine process designs – and all the kinks that go with them – are typically hammered out in a small scale capacity, for example, prior to manufacturing for early phase human clinical trials. They are then upsized and further defined for industrial scale to supply the vast market. Single-use technologies (SUTs) have been a hot topic for several years now and their advantages well-known: easy product changeover, processing in lower classification areas, reduced CAPEX, elimination of glass, sterility assurance, to name a few. In vaccine manufacturing, SUTs are used throughout the processing stages, from cell culture all the way to filling. SUTs are quickly and conveniently designed, purchased and implemented for short-term manufacturing of clinical trial phase materials. Here a large percentage of new vaccines in Research and Development do not even make it to market.
As the final production stages are critical as they are the last stages before patient injection, the scope of thisarticle covers SU applications involving drug substance formulations, adjuvant processing, final bulk formulation and filling. The actual process itself may include some or all of the following: filtration, pumping, ingredient addition, mixing, adsorption, filling, labelling, sampling and and storage.
In this presentation only liquid formulations (“presentations”) will be discussed.