Molar mass plays an important role in the solubility, potency, and stability of polysaccharide-based vaccines. The production process includes a critical depolymerization step to reduce the polysaccharide’s initial weight-average molar mass, Mw, from over 1800 kDa down to less than 350 kDa.
Current methods to monitor molar mass during polysaccharide production employ off-line SEC-MALS analysis, during which a single run can take up to 30 minutes. With a typical depolymerization time of about 90 minutes, off-line analytics cannot provide timely feedback on reaching the endpoint. Real-time multi-angle light scattering (RT-MALS) fills this need and ensures that the process ends as soon as the endpoint criterion is achieved.
