Economic Drivers and Trade-Offs in Antibody Purification Processes

Oct 02, 2009



Lonza, Ltd., Basel, Switzerland

Economies of Scale

Figure 1. Typical cost trends as scale increases for (a) total COG/g, (b) material, labor, and indirect (capital-related) costs, and (c) upstream and downstream processing operating costs.
The relative importance of key process parameters on the overall economic feasibility of a process varies with both the scale of operation and the titer assumed. As annual output and scale increase at a given titer or combined with titer increases, the relative importance of different cost categories are expected to change as follows (Figure 1): Overall cost of goods/gram (COG/g) decreases; direct/indirect costs: material costs rise considerably and dominate COG/g, labor and capital-dependent costs (overheads) represent a less significant proportion of COG/g; and upstream/downstream processing costs: downstream processing costs become a major component of COG/g.
