Zymeworks Inc.
Process and methods for efficient manufacturing of highly pure asymmetric antibodies in mammalian cells

Abstract:

The present invention provides a process and methods for producing asymmetric antibodies in a mammalian expression system. The asymmetric antibodies are transiently or stably expressed and in cells that stably express the asymmetric antibody, following a rapid 2-step process of stable pool to clone, a highly pure asymmetric antibody expressing clone can be identified at a success frequency that permits for screening of tens of clones rather than thousands. The asymmetric antibodies are produced at a high titre and with a high level of purity with no contaminating homodimer antibodies following protein A purification with a step yield of near 100%. Typical downstream purification processes employ standard hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) and/or cation exchange (CEX) resins and the antibody is stable within a wide dynamic range of buffer pH (4-8) and within the requirements for manufacturing antibodies for pre-clinical and clinical applications.