Several different types of vaccines are regularly examined in the pharmaceutical industry. Vaccines can contain large molecules such as proteins and polysaccharides or larger particles such as attenuated viruses, lipid nanoparticles or virus like particles. All these vaccine types contain a complex mixture of small and macromolecules, therefore several analytical tools often need to be assessed in order to assist in the various stages of vaccine process development.
Benchtop NMR is an advancing technology that can be a versatile analytical tool that provides quantitative information about the multiple components that arise in the development of a vaccine. The minimal sample preparation and easy to use software further make it an attractive analytical tool that can be quickly assessed when comparing different analytical approaches.
In this presentation we discuss benchtop NMR as an alternative to chromatographic methods and as a tool for real-time monitoring of reactions. Examples of using benchtop NMR to quickly determine solvent compositions, to confirm excipients and study alum sedimentation in vaccine-related samples are presented, with some comparison to chromatography-based methods. Furthermore, we discuss how benchtop NMR method development is possible even from those with no NMR experience.
