Uncertainty Estimates of Purity Measurements Based on Current Information: Toward a “Live Validation ” of Purity Methods

Purpose To predict precision and other performance character-istics of chromatographic purity methods, which represent the most widely used form of analysis in the biopharmaceutical industry. Methods We have conducted a comprehensive survey of purity methods, and show that all performance characteristics fall within narrow measurement ranges. This observation was used to develop a model called Uncertainty Based on Current Information (UBCI), which expresses these performance characteristics as a function of the signal and noise levels, hardware specifications, and software settings. Results We applied the UCBI model to assess the uncertainty of purity measurements, and compared the results to those from conventional qualification. We demonstrated that the UBCI model is suitable to dynamically assess method performance characteristics, based on information extracted from individual chromatograms. Conclusions Themodel provides an opportunity for streamlining qualification and validation studies by implementing a “live valida-tion ” of test results utilizing UBCI as a concurrent assessment of measurement uncertainty. Therefore, UBCI can potentially miti-gate the challenges associated with laborious conventional method validation and facilitates the introduction of more advanced analyt-ical technologies during the method lifecycle