Patient-Centric Quality Standards.

To ensure the quality, safety and efficacy of medicinal products, it is necessary to develop and execute appropriate manufacturing process and product control strategies. Traditionally, product control strategies have focused on testing known quality attributes with limits derived from levels administered in preclinical and clinical studies with an associated statistical analysis to account for variability. However, not all quality attributes have impact to the patient and those with the potential to impact safety and efficacy may not be significant when dosed at patient-centric levels.

Creating a Holistic Extractables and Leachables (E&L) Program for Biotechnology Products.

Unlabelled: The risk mitigation of extractables and leachables presents significant challenges to regulators and drug manufacturers with respect to the development, as well as the lifecycle management, of drug products. A holistic program is proposed, using a science- and risk-based strategy for testing extractables and leachables from primary containers, drug delivery devices, and single-use systems for the manufacture of biotechnology products. The strategy adopts the principles and concepts from ICH Q9 and ICH Q8(R2).

Taking immunogenicity assessment of therapeutic proteins to the next level.

Therapeutic proteins provide innovative and effective therapies for numerous diseases. However, some of these products are associated with unwanted immunogenicity that may lead to clinical consequences such as reduced or loss of efficacy, altered pharmacokinetics (PK), general immune and hypersensitivity reactions, and neutralisation of the natural counterpart (e.g.

Advances in the assessment and control of the effector functions of therapeutic antibodies.

The Fc (crystallizable fragment) region of therapeutic antibodies can have an important role in their safety and efficacy. Although much is known about the structure-activity relationship of antibodies and the factors that influence Fc effector functions, a process has not yet been defined to clearly delineate how Fc functionality should be assessed and controlled during antibody development and manufacturing. In this article, we summarize the current knowledge of antibody Fc functionality, provide a strategy for assessing the effector functions of different classes of therapeutic antibodies (including Fc fusion proteins) and propose a path for routine testing and controls for manufacturers of antibody products.

Meeting report on protein particles and immunogenicity of therapeutic proteins: filling in the gaps in risk evaluation and mitigation.

This meeting was successful in achieving its main goals: (1) summarize currently available information on the origin, detection, quantification and characterization of sub-visible particulates in protein products, available information on their clinical importance, and potential strategies for evaluating and mitigating risk to product quality, and (2) foster communication among academic, industry, and regulatory scientists to define the capabilities of current analytical methods, to promote the development of improved methods, and to stimulate investigations into the impact of large protein aggregates on immunogenicity. There was a general consensus that a considerable amount of interesting scientific information was presented and many stimulating conversations were begun. It is clear that this aspect of protein characterization is in its initial stages.