3M Health Care has launched 3M™ Polisher™ ST, an advanced, single-use AEX solution designed to replace the reusable AEX polishing column for biologic drug manufacturing. Polisher ST improves the biopharma manufacturing workflow by reducing the number of processing steps thereby helping to improve process economics. The new product was developed by 3M scientists who passionately create solutions to manufacture biologic drugs more efficiently.

3M Polisher ST is a synthetic, fully encapsulated, single-use membrane chromatography solution containing two complementary AEX-functional media: quaternary ammonium (Q) functional non-woven and a guanidinium-functional membrane. The Q-functional non-woven provides a reduction of turbidity (when present), DNA, and endotoxin, as well as a portion of the product's AEX capacity for HCP and virus reduction. The novel guanidinium functionality in the guanidinium-functional membrane of 3M Polisher ST provides HCP and virus reduction in a salt-tolerant (ST) manner.

"3M Polisher ST is designed as a next-generation bioprocessing solution for process intensification in both large, dedicated product sites and small multi-product manufacturing facilities," said Robert Befidi Jr, Division Vice President, 3M Separation and Purification Sciences. 

The new product can be used in continuous bioprocessing which can enable facilities to reduce both their size and cycle times. It is a single-use technology designed as a cost-efficient option to increase biomass production in therapeutic recombinant protein processes in all operating conditions and to replace the downstream AEX polishing column in fed-batch and/or continuous manufacturing. 

3M Separation and Purification Sciences Division utilises cutting edge 3M material science that pushes the boundaries of purification, filtration, and separation to support production, processes that change lives, and deliver quality water where it matters most.