Method transfer for ligand-binding assays: recommendations for best practice.

To support clinical trials, bioanalytical methods are often transferred from one laboratory to another. With the rising number of large-molecule therapeutic proteins submitted for US FDA approval, the demand for large-molecule bioanalytical support and, subsequently, method transfer increases. Ligand-binding assays are the methods most commonly used to quantify endogenous and therapeutic proteins for the assessment of biomarkers and pharmacokinetic parameters.

A strategy for improving comparability across sites for ligand binding assays measuring therapeutic proteins.

Outsourcing and multi-site testing has increased for ligand binding assays supporting protein therapeutic measurement. It is common to combine and compare data across studies with data from multiple bioanalytical sites. We designed a prospective study to determine the benefits of increasing control over the transfer process to improve ruggedness.

Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRACP 5b): a biomarker of bone resorption rate in support of drug development: modification, validation and application of the BoneTRAP kit assay.

A commercial kit assay of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRACP 5b) used for the diagnosis of bone resorption was modified with a 'Fit-For-Purpose' approach for drug development of anti-resorptive therapeutics. The modifications included changing the standard matrix from buffer to serum, using a consistent bulk reference material to prepare standards and quality controls (QC), and adding sample controls (SC) prepared from authentic sample pools. Method validation experiments were conducted for: inter- and intra-assay accuracy and precision, establishment of SC, range finding of different population groups, selectivity tests, parallelism and stability.