Anissa Boumlic-Courtade
Merck Life Science, France
Title: Development of a production and purification platform for virus like particles (VLP) vaccine candidates: A case study
Biography
Biography: Anissa Boumlic-Courtade
Abstract
Virus like particles (VLP) vaccine candidates have received increased attention following their success with vaccines like for HPV and HBV. Whilst clinical candidates have proven efficacy and protection, their large scale production implies high titer production, high recovery and purity leading to constant process improvement to meet market demand. In this study, a Hepatitis C Virus VLP based vaccine candidate production and purification was evaluated in collaboration with Insituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnologica (IBET), Portugal. The VLP vaccine candidate was produced in insect cell expression system in a disposable bioreactor technology and cell culture attributes were compared with those from glass stirred tank bioreactor culture. Both systems harvests were subsequently purified to assess the impact of upstream processing on the downstream and the product quality. The downstream train was improved through the selection of appropriate anion exchange resin to reach 70% recovery and a satisfactory Baculovirus log reduction. In addition, appropriate depth filtration and ultra filtration technologies were assessed and selected. Altogether, this case study laid the foundation for a fully GMP production process that can easily pilot transferred and implemented for clinical and subsequent commercial production of VLP vaccine candidates.