Catalent
Articles
The Role of On-Demand Manufacturing and Derisking in Accelerating Early Clinical Trial Success
June 4th 2025Small pharmaceutical companies are constantly seeking innovative solutions to streamline early clinical trials. Adaptive clinical trials offer important benefits to sponsors and patients, both from a commercial and ethical standpoint. These trials offer flexibility and efficiency, especially in the early stages, where trial protocols can be adjusted based on interim data, such as introducing new doses or modifying participant sample size. However, adjusting manufacturing demand during an adaptive trial can be complicated, and strict regulatory requirements present significant challenges. On-demand manufacturing provides a robust solution, allowing for real-time supply and demand adjustments and improved trial flexibility. This paper explores how on-demand manufacturing meets the operational needs of adaptive trials and aligns with regulatory expectations.
Harnessing mRNA as a Readout to Develop Robust BioPotency Assays
December 12th 2024Transcriptional activity within a cell can be used to evaluate cell response to a ligand or promoter activity within a transgene or plasmid within a cell. Catalent has developed a relative potency bioassay using real-time quantitative reverse transcription (RT-qPCR) in a duplex format to assess relative transcription activity in cells treated with ligands or transgenic vectors. The assay utilizes two fluorescent dyes with minimally overlapping emission spectra that allow real-time monitoring of the gene expression of both target and normalizer genes. The assay does not require purification of the mRNA produced by the cells once lysis has occurred. Normalizing the qPCR cycle thresholds (CT) of the target transcript to the reference transcript allows response curve to be generated and compared to a reference standard. The generation of a four-parameter fit curve analysis from raw qPCR cycle threshold data allows for comparison of relative potency and assessment of suitability based on curve parallelism. The assay platform has been used by Catalent to qualify a repeatable, accurate, linear, and specific bioassay for assessing relative potency.
Exploring New and Improved Analytical Methods for Traditional and Unique Modalities
December 12th 2024Biophysical characterization is critical to understand the make-up and behaviors of biologic therapies and vaccines, both early in development and throughout the manufacturing scale-up process. As biologics become more complex in structure, and as scientists improve their understanding of the effects of structure on stability, efficacy, safety, etc., there is a need to develop new and improved analytical methods to characterize biologic products. During this presentation, experts will discuss the latest challenges in biophysical characterization and will present solutions to overcome these challenges.
Leveraging Novel Analytical Approaches For Advanced Therapies
December 12th 2024The characterization and analysis of advanced therapies, such as cell and gene therapies (CGTs) can be difficult, as these products are designed to function using complex mechanisms of action (MOA)s. There are a wide range of challenges associated with accurately assessing the potency and impurity profiles of these complex biologicals. As many CGT programs qualify for accelerated review pathways, novel approaches for analysis and characterization can help generate data that allows for real-time decision making and faster development timelines. Catalent has developed a relative potency bioassay using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to assess relative transcription activity in cells treated with ligands or transgenic vectors. The assay platform can be used to qualify a repeatable, accurate, linear, and specific bioassay for assessing relative potency for CGTs, mRNA- and other nucleic acid-based therapies.
