GE Launches New MAb Purification Resin

On Sep. 22, 2017, GE Healthcare announced a new Protein A chromatography resin, MabSelect PrismA, for improving monoclonal antibody (mAb) purification capacity by up to 40%. The resin is alkaline-stable, meaning it can be cleaned with a higher concentration of sodium hydroxide, offering better control over cross-contamination and bioburden risks, according to the company.

Protein purification is an obligatory step in biomanufacturing, with the target protein used to make the final biopharmaceutical product extracted from cell culture. Nearly all mAbs on the market use Protein A resin as the first purification step. Protein A resin offers an efficient, common platform for different mAbs, according to the company.

With the increased efficiency of mAb production over the years, purification processing times have increased, which increasingly consumes chromatography resins. This puts pressure on purification technologies. GE’s new resin, which has a high binding capacity, addresses a number of these challenges, including the increased upstream titers. Its binding capacity determines how much resin is needed to purify a certain amount of protein.

The new resin was developed and will be manufactured in GE Healthcare Life Sciences’ site in Uppsala, Sweden. GE is annually investing up to $70 million in this production facility to significantly increase its capacity.