High‐throughput, aseptic production of injectable Tetra‐PEG hydrogel microspheres for delivery of releasable covalently bound drugs

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this work was to develop equipment and procedures for large‐scale aseptic production of injectable microsphere (MS) drug conjugates. The two major challenges were (a) to prepare sufficient amounts of MSs for clinical trials, and (b) to prepare the MS‐drug product under aseptic conditions. The approach was to prepare the MS‐drug conjugate in two stages. Stage 1 was the preparation of monodisperse tetra‐PEG amine derivatized MSs (amino‐MS) from two soluble PEG prepolymers under low to no bioburden conditions. To accomplish this, custom‐engineered equipment compatible with both aqueous and organic solvents was fabricated for parallel microfluidic preparation of amino‐MS. The system was capable of preparing up to ∼2 L of high quality 50 μm diameter amino‐MS per day. Stage 2 was the sterilization of the starting amino‐MS and aseptic production of the MS‐drug conjugate. The amino‐MS were first sterilized by autoclaving then transferred to a custom‐engineered autoclave‐sterilized washer‐reactor. This apparatus allowed for activation of the amino‐MS and attachment of a linker‐drug under aseptic conditions to give the sterile MS‐drug conjugate drug substance. The final drug product was produced by addition of excipients to form a homogeneous suspension. The entire process is exemplified by an engineering production run of a sterile MS‐peptide drug product.

Keywords

• aseptic manufacturing
• controlled release
• drug delivery system
• microspheres
• microfluidics
• process development