The vital role of biological standardization in ensuring efficacy and safety of biological products – Historical perspectives

Abstract

Biological Standardization has been pivotal to the success of traditional biological products, such as vaccines, antitoxins, and immune globulins, by ensuring their quality and consistency across manufacturers worldwide. The principles of biological standardization have similarly supported the development and manufacture of safe and effective modern biological products, including hormone, therapeutic protein, and monoclonal antibody products, and continue to play a vital role in advancing new cutting-edge biological products, such as tissue, cellular, and gene-therapy products. Biological standardization started with the physical standards ensuring the reliability and suitability of methods used to test biological products and science of bioassays or biological methods and related biostatistics providing a framework for evaluating biological, functional activity or potency of these products. It expanded to include written standards defining the quality requirements for manufacturing and regulation of biological standards. Due to the shift in the biologics industry from public health to commercial-driven enterprises during the past 50 years, the biological standardization program has evolved to include the product-specific reference standards and harmonization of physical standards. The global success of conventional vaccines in controlling numerous deadly infectious diseases can largely be attributed to the availability of physical and written international standards developed through a strong biological standardization program. This article explores the evolution of biological standardization for more than a century, its scientific and regulatory principles, challenges from disruption in international standardization efforts, and future perspectives for the field.