In recent years, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) modified T cells have been used as a treatment for haematological malignancies in several phase I and II trials and with Kymriah of Novartis and Yescarta of KITE Pharma, the first CAR T cell therapy products have been approved. Promising clinical outcomes have yet been tempered by the fact that many therapies may be prohibitively expensive to manufacture. The process is not yet defined, far from being standardised and often requires extensive manual handling steps. For academia, big pharma and contract manufacturers it is difficult to obtain an overview over the process strategies and their respective advantages and disadvantages. This review details current production processes being used for CAR T cells with a particular focus on efficacy, reproducibility, manufacturing costs and release testing. By undertaking a systematic analysis of the manufacture of CAR T cells from reported clinical trial data to date, we have been able to quantify recent trends and track the uptake of new process technology. Delivering new processing options will be key to the success of the CAR-T cells ensuring that excessive manufacturing costs do not disrupt the delivery of exciting new therapies to the wide possible patient cohort.

Virus‐like particles (VLPs) have shown great potential as biopharmaceuticals in the market and in clinics. Nonenveloped, in vivo assembled VLPs are typically disassembled and reassembled in vitro to improve particle stability, homogeneity, and immunogenicity. At the industrial scale, cross‐flow filtration (CFF) is the method of choice for performing reassembly by diafiltration. Here, we developed an experimental CFF setup with an on‐line measurement loop for the implementation of process analytical technology (PAT). The measurement loop included an ultraviolet and visible (UV/Vis) spectrometer as well as a light scattering photometer. These sensors allowed for monitoring protein concentration, protein tertiary structure, and protein quaternary structure. The experimental setup was tested with three Hepatitis B core Antigen (HBcAg) variants. With each variant, three reassembly processes were performed at different transmembrane pressures (TMPs). While light scattering provided information on the assembly progress, UV/Vis allowed for monitoring the protein concentration and the rate of VLP assembly based on the microenvironment of Tyrosine‐132. VLP formation was verified by off‐line dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Furthermore, the experimental results provided evidence of aggregate‐related assembly inhibition and showed that off‐line size‐exclusion chromatography does not provide a complete picture of the particle content. Finally, a Partial‐Least Squares (PLS) model was calibrated to predict VLP concentrations in the process solution. Q 2 values of 0.947–0.984 were reached for the three HBcAg variants. In summary, the proposed experimental setup provides a powerful platform for developing and monitoring VLP reassembly steps by CFF.

Virus-like particles (VLPs) are emerging nanoscale protein assemblies applied as prophylactic vaccines and in development as therapeutic vaccines or cargo delivery systems. Downstream processing (DSP) of VLPs comes both with challenges and opportunities, depending on the complexity and size of the structures. Filtration, precipitation/re-dissolution and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) are potent technologies exploiting the size difference between product and impurities. In this study, we therefore investigated the integration of these technologies within a single unit operation, resulting in three different processes, one of which integrates all three technologies. VLPs, contained in clarified lysate from Escherichia coli, were precipitated by ammonium sulfate, washed, and re-dissolved in a commercial cross-flow filtration (CFF) unit. Processes were analyzed for yield, purity, as well as productivity and were found to be largely superior to a reference centrifugation process. Productivity was increased 2.6-fold by transfer of the wash and re-dissolution process to the CFF unit. Installation of a multimodal SEC column in the permeate line increased purity to 96% while maintaining a high productivity and high yield of 86%. In addition to these advantages, CFF-based capture and purification allows for scalable and disposable DSP. In summary, the developed setup resulted in high yields and purities, bearing the potential to be applied as an integrated process step for capture and purification of in vivo-assembled VLPs and other protein nanoparticles.

Virus‐like particles (VLPs) are particulate structures, which are applied as vaccines or delivery vehicles. VLPs assemble from subunits, named capsomeres, composed of recombinantly expressed viral structural proteins. During downstream processing, in vivo‐assembled VLPs are typically dis‐ and reassembled to remove encapsulated impurities and to improve particle morphology. Disassembly is achieved in a high‐pH solution and by the addition of a denaturant or reducing agent. The optimal disassembly conditions depend on the VLP amino acid sequence and structure, thus requiring material‐consuming disassembly experiments. To this end, we developed a low‐volume and high‐resolution disassembly screening that provides time‐resolved insight into the VLP disassembly progress. In this study, two variants of C‐terminally truncated hepatitis B core antigen were investigated showing different disassembly behaviors. For both VLPs, the best capsomere yield was achieved at moderately high urea concentration and pH. Nonetheless, their disassembly behaviors differed particularly with respect to disassembly rate and aggregation. Based on the high‐throughput screening results, a diafiltration‐based disassembly process step was developed. Compared with mixing‐based disassembly, it resulted in higher yields of up to 0.84 and allowed for integrated purification. This process step was embedded in a filtration‐based process sequence of disassembly, capsomere separation, and reassembly, considerably reducing high‐molecular‐weight species.

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