Peptones: Established Supplements for Vaccine Applications
When developing a vaccine, you will continually look for ways to increase process productivity while simultaneously reducing the per-unit cost of your vaccine. As such, you’re likely focused on optimizing cell culture media, feeds, and serum substitutes that have the potential to drive down costs.
Peptones, which are rich in amino acids, peptides, vitamins, carbohydrates, nucleosides, minerals, and other components, make great supplements and feeds and may offer a solution. This versatile, low-cost option can also be used as an alternative to serum, enhancing performance and offering cellular protective effects. Having played an important role in viral vaccine development for many decades, peptones can continue to help you get your vaccine to market more efficiently and cost-effectively.
An Alternative to Serum
While serum has traditionally been used to achieve adequate production levels in mammalian cell culture, challenges associated with the use of sera are leading vaccine developers to look for alternatives. These challenges include limited availability, changing supply, fluctuating costs, and lengthy ordering processes. In addition, animal-derived sera can add significant risk to your vaccine development process with the potential for contamination.
That said, there is a growing trend within the bioprocessing industry to remove and replace serum when possible. As a nutrient-rich supplement, peptones have been shown to increase performance in a variety of vaccine applications. In addition, with animal origin-free options available, peptones can reduce the risk factors associated with products derived from animals. Serum all too often drives up costs associated with vaccine development, so selecting an alternative with low-cost volatility can be an essential first step.
Outsourcing your media manufacturing or qualifying a secondary or tertiary supplier has the potential to alleviate some of these pressures. At times of unpredictability, having access to additional capacity is paramount to risk mitigation. Considering the approval of multiple sites or vendors for media and bulk process liquids may be your best bet.
Versatile and Flexible
Peptones can be used in several ways—as feeds or supplements, to support serum reduction, or as a serum replacement. Peptones are also varied in their origin and composition, with some derived from animals, some from plants, and some from microbial sources. As a result, this wide variety of peptones, all with differing nutritional profiles, can be used for a broad range of process types, cell types, and applications to achieve target viral titers. In addition, peptones are highly stable, with a long shelf life, and can easily blend into any medium or supplement, whether in liquid or dry powder format.
However, this versatility also means that peptones should be selected carefully based on bioprocess requirements. Because the nutritional requirements of cell lines can differ, it is important to identify a peptone that meets the requirements of your cell line.
Peptones Are Familiar to Regulators and Suppliers
Numerous vaccines, including the hepatitis B vaccine, are manufactured using peptones. As a result, both suppliers and regulators are experienced in using peptones for vaccine development and filing. Gibco peptones, for instance, are currently used in the manufacturing of more than 150 marketed drugs, including 15 blockbuster drugs and many more in the pipeline.
While peptones offer many benefits when compared with sera, peptones offer different benefits across bioprocesses. Historically, peptones were manufactured for the food industry as nutritional additives and flavor enhancers. When considering peptones, choosing those that have been manufactured and tested specifically for bioprocessing applications will be critical for maintaining consistency from batch to batch.
Your supplier can help select the optimal peptone scheme for your specific process, with recommendations based on libraries of data and experience working with customers to develop ideal solutions. Finding the right balance for your cells can be a challenge, but through screening and key driver analysis, you will be able to identify the peptones that provide the greatest benefit. With your optimal peptone scheme identified, you can enhance performance and reduce time-to-market for your critical vaccine.
Looking to the Future
With the increasing demand for serum from the growing gene therapy market, the bioprocessing industry is anticipating a serum supply deficit in the coming years. Acceleration in serum consumption means that demand for sera will soon exceed supply, causing a significant increase in serum prices.
As a result, it has never been more important to consider alternatives for your bioprocesses. Peptones, which offer a flexible, versatile, and efficient means to support vaccine development and manufacturing, may be the solution to improve your processes now and into the future.
Note: While peptones can be used as a complete replacement for serum, this is limited to cells grown in suspension. For adherent cells, which are commonly used in vaccine production, peptones cannot be substituted for serum by themselves and need to be used in combination with cell adhesion factors.
