End-to-End Approach to Surfactant Selection, Risk Mitigation, and Control Strategies for Protein-Based Therapeutics

A survey performed by the AAPS Drug Product Handling community revealed a general, mostly consensus, approach to the strategy for the selection of surfactant type and level for biopharmaceutical products. Discussing and building on the survey results, this article describes the common approach for surfactant selection and control strategy for protein-based therapeutics and focuses on key studies, common issues, mitigations, and rationale. Where relevant, each section is prefaced by survey responses from the 22 anonymized respondents. The article format consists of an overview of surfactant stabilization, followed by a strategy for the selection of surfactant level, and then discussions regarding risk identification, mitigation, and control strategy. Since surfactants that are commonly used in biologic formulations are known to undergo various forms of degradation, an effective control strategy for the chosen surfactant focuses on understanding and controlling the design space of the surfactant material attributes to ensure that the desired material quality is used consistently in DS/DP manufacturing. The material attributes of a surfactant added in the final DP formulation can influence DP performance (e.g., protein stability). Mitigation strategies are described that encompass risks from host cell proteins (HCP), DS/DP manufacturing processes, long-term storage, as well as during in-use conditions.