An NIR‐based PAT approach for real‐time control of loading in Protein A chromatography in continuous manufacturing of monoclonal antibodies

Control of column loading in Protein A chromatography is a crucial part of development of robust and flexible process platforms for continuous production of monoclonal antibody (mAb) products. In this paper, we propose a control system that uses near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) flow cells to accomplish the above. Two applications have been demonstrated using a periodic counter‐current continuous chromatography setup. The first application involves use of single NIR flow cell before the inlet of the loading column to measure the concentration of mAb in the harvested broth. Measurement was in real‐time (every 3 s) and within ±0.05 mg/ml, significantly better than making UV‐based concentration estimations. The second application involved use of an additional NIR flow cell at the outlet of the loading column to measure column breakthrough in real time. The concentration data was transferred to a Python‐based monitoring and control algorithm layered over a Cadence BioSMB system. The program could successfully run a three‐column periodic counter current method on the BioSMB whereas controlling loading to ensure optimal resin utilization in each loading cycle phase based on precharacterized dynamic binding capacity models, whereas maintaining periodic elutions. The system was tested with multiple perturbations in harvest concentration, modeled after deviations that could arise downstream of a perfusion cell culture system. The results show that the proposed control is a spectroscopy‐based process analytical technology tool that facilitates real time monitoring and control of loading in process chromatography. It is adaptable to any continuous chromatography equipment and is very well suited for implementation in a continuous mAb production train.