Working with a cell culture medium that is specifically optimized for your chosen cell line and workflow can have a transformative impact during biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing. Maximizing yields and titers, establishing greater process consistency, and meeting critical quality attributes are just some examples of the benefits that can be gained.
With high-performing catalog products available for well-established modalities, as well as concerns over timelines, resources, and ease of supply, many may choose to opt out of creating a custom medium. While valid, the benefits of using custom media may outweigh the perceived concerns. Utilizing custom media can be a powerful way to meet or exceed the demands of a drug development process.
Benefits of custom media development
Although custom media development may involve more upfront investment, the potential long-term benefits—such as greater productivity and enhanced performance—are likely to offset these initial costs. You can tailor your formulation to help ensure it will be suitable throughout the entire biopharmaceutical development journey, particularly as you scale towards commercial manufacturing. This is especially vital for less established modalities where custom media may be necessary to meet those critical productivity and process performance requirements.
Proactive optimization using advanced technology, such as multi-omics analysis, can also help reduce, or eliminate, the need for reformulation further down the line, which can be resource intensive. By removing the need for further optimization in late-stage drug development, the overall timeline can potentially be shortened, helping reduce delays and cost. In addition, as custom media formulations can often be delivered in relatively short timeframes depending on project complexity, key milestones in the development cycle may be met quickly.
Choosing a media development collaborator who integrates CGMP manufacturing capabilities can further help streamline your process. Not only will you gain a greater understanding of your formulation, but you will also be using the same raw materials during development and manufacturing, reducing the risk of variability. Working with a trusted partner that has a robust supply network, global manufacturing redundancy, and proven equivalency can also alleviate some of the concerns surrounding being reliant on a single supplier.
Ultimately, it is vital to carefully assess project requirements to determine if custom media development will support your needs and timelines. A knowledgeable media development collaborator will be able to carefully guide you towards media solutions that will help drive success in your project and help meet your long-term bioprocessing goals.
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