Producing Conjugate Polysaccharide (CPS) Vaccines — When To Consider Customized Ultrafiltration Membranes

By Dr. Paul Beckett, MilliporeSigma and Ranjeet Patil, MilliporeSigma, the Life Sciences company of Merck KGaA

The conjugation of polysaccharide antigens to the immunogenic carrier protein is a critical production step in the manufacture of CPS vaccines. This reaction rarely goes to completion, which therefore requires a separation of the free polysaccharides from the conjugated product. This separation is typically done by tangential flow filtration and it is challenging due to the small size difference between the product and the free polysaccharide contaminant.

Customized TFF (Tangential Flow Filtration) membranes with tight pore size specifications have been shown to be effective in these applications, allowing maximization of product yield and purity.