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Ординатура / Хирургия / Библиотека им академика М.И. Перельмана / Книга_5366_Библиотеки_им_академика_М_И_Перельмана.pdf
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
L. Letendre et al.
13.7.3 Isolation ofN-Acetyl Calicheamicin
The isolation of N-acetyl calicheamicin from both Process 1 and Process 2 was resource intensive (Fig.13.6). In Process 1, the reaction mixture was reduced in volume prior to normal phase chromatography. Product-containing fractions were evaporated to dryness and the product was then precipitated from ethyl acetate/ heptane. Process 2 relied upon an aqueous workup, extraction with dichlorometh­ane, and evaporation of solvent followed by purication using reverse-phase chro­matography with aqueous acetonitrile. Product-containing fractions were extracted with dichloromethane followed by concentration and precipitation with ethyl ace­tate/heptane. Process 3 sought to reduce the number of manipulations, maximize yield, and improve manufacturability. Having conducted the acetylation reaction in mainly acetonitrile and quenched with water, all that was needed to prepare the reaction mixture for purication by preparative reverse-phase chromatography was to target the appropriate acetonitrile-water ratio for column loading. So, the aqueous quench directly generated the chromatography loading solution. Fraction selection was controlled by an in-process assay purity specication.
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
   
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 
     

  
 
   
Fig. 13.6 Isolation of N-acetyl calicheamicin


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

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In place of the Process 2 extractive workup of puried fractions, an improved method was sought which reduced unit operations and solvent usage and ideally eliminated dichloromethane. It was found that near quantitative recovery could be achieved by solid-phase extraction. Using the same chromatography stationary phase, the fractions could be loaded onto the column by appropriately choosing the proportion of water in the load solution. Fractions were pooled, diluted to achieve a higher water content, and loaded onto the column. The bound product was washed with water (containing a small percent acetonitrile to prevent column dewetting) and eluted with acetonitrile providing the product in essentially dry solvent. The acetonitrile was evaporated from the high-concentration eluate. Finally, a tractable solid was obtained by precipitation of the product from ethyl acetate/heptane and drying under vacuum in a manner similar to Processes 1 and 2.
The combined effects of the process changes introduced in Process 3 compared to Process 2 were a signicant reduction in unit operations, fewer days to complete manufacture, and an approximately 30% increase in average yield.
13.7.4 Production ofActivated Calicheamicin Derivative
The conversion of N-acetyl calicheamicin to activated calicheamicin derivative requires the addition of the activated linker. This conversion is the point where Processes 1, 2, and 3 differ most signicantly, with each iteration decreasing the number of steps used to install the activated linker. Reducing the amount of chem­istry performed on the calicheamicin-containing molecule preserves the highly valuable natural product and was likely to improve overall yield.
Process 1
Process 1 utilized three steps to add the activated linker: two steps to assemble the cleavable linker on the calicheamicin core and one to activate the carboxylic acid for reaction with the antibody (Fig.13.7, clockwise path). This approach rst reacts half of the linker, 3-methyl-3-mercaptobutanoic acid hydrazide (often referred to as DMH in publications [4], red in Fig.13.7), with the methyl trisulde of N-acetyl calicheamicin. This addition was a relatively low-yielding step, which was nally improved in Process 3. The addition was conducted in acetonitrile in the presence of triethylamine followed by concentration and silica gel chromatography. The selected fractions were concentrated, dissolved in methanol, and precipitated with water to afford solid N-acetyl calicheamicin DMH.
The second portion of the linker, 4-(4-acetylphenoxy)-butanoic acid (often referred to as AcBut in publications [4], blue in Fig.13.7), was then appended to N-acetyl calicheamicin DMH under acidic conditions in methanol. After removal of the solvent and silica gel chromatography to afford N-acetyl calicheamicin DMH- AcBut, the linker payload needed only to be activated for subsequent addi­tion to gemtuzumab. The acid moiety was converted to the N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) ester by treatment with NHS (green in Fig. 13.7) in acetonitrile and
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Fig. 13.7 Addition of the activated linker by Processes 1, 2, and 3
L. Letendre et al.
N,N- dimethylformamide (DMF) in the presence of 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethyl­aminopropyl)carbodiimide (EDC). Subsequent silica chromatography and precipitation from ethyl acetate/hexane led to the desired activated calicheamicin derivative.
As can be readily surmised from the Process 1 description above, this synthesis is lacking since it performs several steps on the valuable calicheamicin core, involves multiple chromatography steps, and several steps involve solvent swaps. All of these limitations were to various degrees addressed in Processes 2 and 3.
Process 2
Process 2 (Fig.13.7, diagonal path) was initially implemented in order to supple­ment the supply of activated calicheamicin derivative to support the clinical devel­opment of inotuzumab ozogamicin with the intention of subsequently adding the preparation to the gemtuzumab ozogamicin supply chain. The primary improve­ment included in Process 2 was the assembly of the linker prior to attachment to N-acetyl calicheamicin. Using conditions similar to Process 1, the linker (DMH­AcBut in Fig. 13.7) was added followed by a precipitative workup to provide N-acetyl calicheamicin DMH-AcBut. Conversion to the NHS ester remained the same as in Process 1. However, the isolation of activated calicheamicin derivative was modied to rst purify the material by reverse phase chromatography, extrac­tion with dichloromethane, and purication by silica gel chromatography and con­centration. As was done in Process 1, the material was precipitated from ethyl acetate/hexane. While this process was more convergent, it still suffered from the
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NHS activation step involving the penultimate calicheamicin intermediate and the need for two chromatographic steps, a less than optimal purication process for activated calicheamicin derivative. Process 3, developed some 20years after Process 1, aimed to address these issues with contemporary knowledge and equipment.
Process 3
Process 3 (Fig.13.7, left direct path) became the manufacturing process for the US relaunch of Mylotarg and the launch of Besponsa. The primary improvement was the attachment of the activated linker to N-acetyl calicheamicin in one step. Along the way, novel chemistry was discovered that boosted the crude yield which, cou­pled with an optimized purication procedure, provided a signicant increase in overall yield. Preparation of the activated linker is not discussed here other than to say that it proceeds smoothly with the major improvements arising from replacing acid chlorides with less reactive analogs for the formation of the hydrazide and the NHS ester [21].
Attachment of the activated linker to N-acetyl calicheamicin was originally investigated with the relatively crude activated linker. The yields were signicantly higher than what had been achieved at the time for the reaction of DMH-AcBut with N-acetyl calicheamicin. However, as the preparation of the activated linker improved with concomitant increase in its purity, the yield of activated calicheamicin deriva­tive decreased. Contemplating upon what could cause this, the development group posited that there was a remaining coupling agent (carbodiimide) in the activated linker from the NHS ester-forming step. The hypothesis was tested and proven to be correct by including EDC in the coupling reaction mixture leading to an improved yield of activated calicheamicin derivative.
A mechanistic understanding of this observation was aided by the work of Myers etal. [22]. The reaction of the sulfur on the activated linker with the trisulde of N-acetyl calicheamicin is a complicated mix of equilibria and dead-end reactions. As shown in Fig.13.8, the linker sulfur could, in theory, attack any of the three sulfurs of the trisulde giving four different products of which only one is desired. Work by Evans and Saville [23] indicated that the two reactions which displace a leaving group from the central sulfur are slow which is consistent with our observa­tion of relatively low levels of ε-calicheamicin, the ultimate product of cleaving the sulfur–sulfur bond between the calicheamicin moiety and methyl disulde. The for­mation of ε-calicheamicin results from the reaction of the allylic sulfur via a Michael addition into the enone followed by Bergmann cyclization [22] (Fig.13.8, lower left). The second product of attack on the central sulfur is the linker trisulde (Fig. 13.8, lower right). Of the two remaining displacements, one provides the desired disulde affording activated calicheamicin derivative (Fig. 13.8, upper right) while the other produces a dead-end disulde (Fig.13.8, upper left). As shown in Fig. 13.9, a carbodiimide (blue, EDC for this case) can convert the dead-end N-acetyl calicheamicin disulde to an activated disulde, allowing another molecule of activated linker to attack the allylic sulfur to produce the desired product [21].
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Fig. 13.8 Thiolate attack on the methyl trisulde. (Adapted from Myers etal. [22])
With improved reaction conditions in hand as well as a mechanistic understand­ing of the chemistry available, the nal efforts focused on optimizing the purica­tion and isolation of the product.
The activated calicheamicin derivate contains both acid-sensitive (hydrazide) and base-sensitive (NHS ester) groups. Thus, any chromatographic purication of the molecule must take this into account. Also included in γ-calicheamicin are a number of ionizable groups which, depending upon the pH of any mobile phase used in reverse phase chromatography, could affect the ability to separate the desired product from impurities. An extensive study of the stability of activated calicheami­cin derivative in aqueous acetonitrile identied the optimal pH which allowed for efcient purication of the product. However, the elution conditions could not fully prevent degradation at ambient temperature and therefore fractions were immedi­ately sampled as they were collected and frozen during in-process analysis. Fractions that met the purity requirements were combined and additional water was added to decrease the solvent strength. The solution was then concentrated using solid phase extraction on a reverse phase column similar to the isolation of N-acetyl calicheami­cin. Once the material was loaded, the column was washed with water and then
13 Mylotarg: TheJourney toFDA Reapproval andBroad International Approval
Fig. 13.9 Role of EDC in the addition of activated linker
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eluted with acetonitrile. The early portion of the product peak eluted in acetonitrile containing a small amount of water, which could degrade the product if allowed to stand. Therefore, the rst few percent of solvent was isolated separately and imme­diately reduced in volume relying on the acetonitrile/water azeotrope to dry the material. After all of the solvent was removed, the material was precipitated from ethyl acetate/hexane to provide a tractable solid after drying under vacuum.
Manufacture of activated calicheamicin derivative by Process 3 has many improvements compared to Process 2. Changes made in Process 3 have greatly improved manufacturability, reduced the number of unit operations by almost 50% including the removal of multiple time-intensive chromatography steps, removed chlorinated solvents from the process, and doubled the average yield. Compared to Process 1, the Process 3 yield improvement approached an order of magnitude and, to date, the yield and quality of the product have been consistent demonstrating that the process is well controlled.
13.7.5 Regulatory Challenges Involving Activated
Calicheamicin Derivative
Two major challenges were presented by the activated calicheamicin derivative. One was chemical and the other was based upon the application of the ICH guide­lines. The former presented itself as we attempted to fully understand the fate of the
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various impurities encountered during the preparation. The latter presented itself in our efforts to reach uniformity in the designation of the regulatory starting material.
The study of the purge and fate of impurities in the preparation of activated cali­cheamicin derivative began, of course, with the crude calicheamicin fermentation product. Using mainly LC-MS, most of the previously known analogs were identi­ed as well as about a dozen new related compounds. As reported previously, the major analogs were β-calicheamicin and δ-calicheamicin, which differ from
γ-calicheamicin by the alkyl group on the nitrogen of the amino sugar, and ε-calicheamicin which is derived from γ-calicheamicin having undergone the
Bergmann cyclization [22]. Following these various impurities through the prepara­tion, we were gratied to learn that essentially all impurities were removed during the purication of N-acetyl calicheamicin and those that remained were removed during the purication of activated calicheamicin derivative.
Despite our detailed understanding of the purge of impurities, HPLC analysis of activated calicheamicin derivative always showed a small peak eluting just before the desired product (Fig.13.10, left) even though the chromatographic fractionation during purication excluded this peak. Believing that the peak must be from some related compound, an LC-MS analysis across both the minor and major peaks pro­vided mass spectral data that were identical. An additional HPLC experiment pro­vided an explanation for the phenomena. The major peak was isolated and reinjected immediately followed by several more injections in sequence thereafter. The result­ing chromatograms demonstrated that the major peak was being converted to the minor peak over time. Understanding that the major peak did not completely con­vert to the minor and that the minor peak always represented the same proportion of the major, we concluded that the two peaks represented isomers in equilibrium.
The source of the isomerization is not known with certainty. The activated linker alone demonstrated similar behavior thus pointing to the isomers originating from the linker portion of activated calicheamicin derivative. The acyl hydrazone core of the activated linker was identied as the likely isomerization center (Fig.13.10).
Fig. 13.10 Activated calicheamicin derivative isomers
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Interconverting isomerization of acyl hydrazone compounds has been observed by HPLC [24], NMR [25, 26], and IR spectroscopy [27]. The HPLC observation with activated calicheamicin derivative could be explained by dynamic isomerization around the hydrazone bond, the hydrazide bond, or a combination of the two (Fig.13.10, right). Luckily, narrowing the mechanistic explanation down to one was not required because it had been demonstrated that the two peaks were from the same molecule albeit from different, interconverting forms. Since the hydrazone is hydrolyzed to release the toxin invivo, the released toxin would be the same regard­less of the isomer’s origin.
The purge and fate experiments also included the fate of the impurities in the activated linker. In a manner similar to that of N-acetyl calicheamicin, it was dem­onstrated that none of the impurities in the activated linker contributed to impurities in the activated calicheamicin derivative. The ICH Q11 guideline [28] speaks to several points relevant to the selection of starting materials for the preparation of activated calicheamicin derivative. Among others, these include:
• The activated calicheamicin derivative is a semisynthetic material. In selecting a
starting material Q11 states: “However, if it can be demonstrated that one of the
isolated intermediates in the synthetic process complies with the principles out-
lined above for the selection of starting materials for synthetic drug substances,
that isolated intermediate can be proposed as the starting material.”
• The inclusion of manufacturing steps in Section 3.2.S.2.2 of an NDA or BLA is
guided by: “Manufacturing steps that impact the impurity prole of the drug
substance should normally be included in the manufacturing process described
in Section 3.2.S.2.2 of the application.”
A regulatory strategy was thus developed proposing starting materials for acti­vated calicheamicin derivative. The strategy included:
• that the preparation of the semi-synthetic activated calicheamicin derivative ful-
lled the requirement to be treated as a standard synthetic compound
• that the impurities in both N-acetyl calicheamicin and the activated linker did not
contribute to the impurities found in the activated calicheamicin derivative
• that activated calicheamicin derivative was not a drug substance but an interme-
diate in the production of antibody-drug conjugates.
Pzer therefore approached the various regulatory agencies proposing N-acetyl calicheamicin and the activated linker as starting materials. The initial responses from the agencies were varied. Some accepted the proposal. Some indicated that the activated linker and crude γ-calicheamicin fermentation product would be accept­able. And some agencies on nal review changed their requirements, differing from Pzer in their interpretations of the ICH guidelines on starting materials. During the review of the nal submission, a number of agencies indicated that the calicheami­cin starting material should be earlier in the synthesis than N-acetyl calicheamicin. The argument for requiring an earlier starting material, reminiscent of the propin­quity arguments of draft versions of ICH Q11, was cited by some agencies. In the
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end, the regulatory starting material ranged from the bacterial cell banks in a few markets to N-acetyl calicheamicin in most markets. The activated linker was accepted everywhere as a starting material.
L. Letendre et al.
13.8 Production ofGemtuzumab Ozogamicin
Drug Substance
Conjugation of the activated calicheamicin derivative to the gemtuzumab antibody followed by purication constitutes the drug substance process. While the drug sub­stance process for this ADC, the rst on the market and the only one for over a decade, may seem unsophisticated by contemporary standards, it has provided con­sistent drug substance for over two decades.
One interesting aspect of gemtuzumab ozogamicin which engendered a number of questions from knowledgeable colleagues as well as others in the industry is whether we would attempt to adjust the drug loading prole to align more closely with contemporary ADCs. Mylotarg contains about 50% unconjugated or “low con­jugate” antibody [9, 29]. This was not realized until a number of years after its ini­tial launch when improved analytical methods were able to identify this fraction. Pzer did not and could not easily change the composition of Mylotarg because the original composition was the basis of the clinical trial experience as well as the US commercial experience and the product remained on the market in Japan. All work to further our understanding of the manufacturing process must ultimately keep the unconjugated fraction unchanged.
The manufacturing process involves the addition of activated calicheamicin derivative in an alcoholic solvent to an aqueous solution of the gemtuzumab anti­body, a surfactant, and a buffering system. The process development used for the original approval of Mylotarg explored the process space using one factor at a time (OFAT) experiments. While OFAT justication for some process parameters is acceptable if shown to be unaffected by other process parameters, it is not surprising that many conjugation processes are best described using multivariate analyses.
While the number of ingredients used in the conjugation reaction may seem few, there are multiple parameters associated with them. Complicating the development of this conjugation chemistry, the addition of the activated calicheamicin derivative to the lysine amines is analogous to the Shotten-Baumann reaction, which is known to be both rapid and very exothermic. In the present case, the NHS ester, a less reac­tive acid derivative, replaces the acid chloride of the Shotten-Baumann reaction but is still quite reactive and the kinetics can be nearly as fast. Therefore, a number of additional reaction parameters such as antibody to activated calicheamicin deriva­tive ratio, antibody concentration, and reaction temperature, which are related to the conjugation kinetics and drug substance quality attributes, needed to be included in the re-examination of the process parameters.
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Several parameters were studied for their effect on the level of aggregate and the average drug loading (drug to antibody ratio, DAR) with target values set based upon the capability of the subsequent purication to bring the material within the drug substance specication.
The parameters were investigated in a series of multivariable experiments (design of experiments or DOEs), which demonstrated that several parameters either did not affect the outcome or their effect was not correlated with changes to some other parameter. Given that it had been demonstrated that the kinetics of the addition of the NHS ester of activated calicheamicin derivate was fast, the decision was made that mixing could be set such that it would be sufcient for all subsequent experi­mental conditions and thus not included in any DOE analysis. In order to determine an acceptable blend time and translate it to the scaled-down model used in the DOE, the blend times and concentration distributions within the commercial scale and lab scale reactors were modeled both experimentally and with in silico uid dynamics calculations. The modeling exercise rst determined that which could be achieved in the commercial setting then the results were scaled down to the lab scale and held constant for the OFAT and DOE experiments. The remaining process parameters were tested in a multivariable environment, which demonstrated some interaction between several of the factors. These interactions would not have been discovered if the parameter space had been investigated as they were originally with OFAT experiments. The goal of these experiments was to determine a set of parameters that would keep the drug substance attributes, including the amount of unconju­gated antibody and drug-to-antibody ratio, within the historical ranges dating back to the initial introduction of Mylotarg to the market. Thus, the operating conditions were redened while keeping specications unchanged. The practical effect of this deeper knowledge was to adjust the manufacturing instructions to meet the better understood requirements.
Purication of the drug substance reaction mixture to produce bulk drug sub­stance was performed by size exclusion chromatography using the nal excipient solution as the eluting buffer. Since the quality of the crude drug substance after the conjugation reaction was well within the historical range, the chromatographic puri­cation process was not modied.
13.9 Production ofMylotarg Drug Product
The Mylotarg drug product is a lyophilized powder, which is reconstituted with water for injection. Since the bulk drug substance contains all of the excipients in the drug product, no changes to the drug product were necessary.