Why is it important to do viscosity testing at greater than 1,000 1/s?

If you are not performing high shear viscosity testing on your proteins, then you are not fully characterizing your samples. You may be missing valuable information that can shape, direct and influence your formulation.

Relative Viscosity vs. Shear Rate of 250 mg/ml BgG at (25°C)

• •Complete shear rate profile
• •Most shear thinning occurs at shear rates above 1,000 1/s
• •Accurately estimate shear at the needle
• •With knowledge of shear thinning
  • •Therapeutic concentration can be increased
  • •Needle gauge can be higher for increased patient comfort leading to greater patient compliance
  • •More accurate injection force calculations

Viscosity vs. Shear Rate of 250 mg/ml BgG at (25°C)
Complete characterization is fast and easy with RheoSense VROC^® technology!
The importance of fully characterizing your sample cannot be underestimated.
You may be missing valuable information leading to missed deadlines and delay to market.

A lot of my customers have admitted to measuring viscosity at a shear rate of 1,000 1/s when it comes to formulating various types of drugs including injectables. However, from our recent in-depth analysis of various salt concentrations added to proteins, our results further confirmed why you are not getting your full spectrum when it comes to measuring your proteins at just one and a low shear rate of 1,000 1/s.

1. Viscosity measurement at wide shear rate range (low to high shear rates) probes Protein to protein interaction and set a better course to formulation optimization of protein therapeutics.    
2. Accurate injectability estimation requires high shear rate viscosity measurement.  Need to measure viscosity not only at 1000 1/s but also at 100000 1/s.  

Want to learn more about shear rates? Download our webinar to learn how to best design your experiments to get the most out of your viscosity measurements. Or contact us to speak with one of our rheology experts about the shear rates you should be using to measure your sample viscosity. 

Written by: Rick Paulino, RheoSense Senior Technical Specialist