Challenges with effective removal of surfactants from monoclonal antibody formulations

Buffer exchange is a critical step in biologics development, playing a pivotal role in removing contaminants, adjusting sample conditions, and facilitating compatibility studies. The efficiency of centrifugal concentrators for polysorbate removal was compared to a two-step approach involving a surfactant removal column followed by buffer exchange. Trastuzumab-pkrb from Herzuma® was used. While a 30 kDa centrifugal concentrator was ineffective in polysorbate removal, a 50 kDa concentrator caused partial removal. Surfactant removal column proved more effective in removing polysorbates. Buffer exchange using polysorbate-containing formulation buffer, even with a 50 kDa concentrator, accumulated polysorbate, revealing the need for a different approach in small-scale formulation. Adding polysorbate in a separate step after buffer exchange appeared to be a good strategy to prevent this problem. The two approaches did not reveal any differences in the protein aggregation behavior.