THE SpaceX’s highly anticipated mega-IPO is part of a space frenzy that extends beyond satellite connectivity, launch vehicles and aerospace defense to the pharmaceutical sector. A growing number of companies are heading to lower Earth orbit to make drugs in zero gravity.
The range of business opportunities is expanding as core aerospace industries build the necessary infrastructure. Morgan Stanley predicts that the space economy could overtake $1 trillion by 2040and while industries ranging from semiconductors to fiber optic cables are expected to benefit, medicine could face the most immediate disruption.
Last year, a space and defense technology company Redire has created a dedicated subsidiary, SpaceMD, commercialize pharmaceutical products developed in space. She has spent years developing orbital bioprinting, but sees her biggest business opportunity in creating ways to deliver drugs to patients.
The most successful technology is PIL-BOX, a new drug formulation technology, SpaceMD CEO John Vellinger told CNBC.
SpaceMD has already flown 54 PIL-BOX units – specialized, automated micro-laboratories designed to crystallize proteins in orbit – and tested 37 drug compounds, he said.
“We worked with Elie Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibbother pharmaceutical companies, and we showed them these new crystal forms, and they want to continue to give us new drug candidates,” Vellinger said.
Why are drugs made in space?On Earth, pharmaceutical formulation is constantly disrupted by gravity via mechanisms such as sedimentation, where heavy particles fall to the bottom of a test tube, and convection, where hot fluids rise and cold fluids sink.
In space, the absence of gravity means scientists can produce more uniform and better quality crystals, said Phil Williams, professor of biophysics at the University of Nottingham. Crystals grown in low Earth orbit are therefore more predictable and free of defects.
Glycine crystals grown with Redwire’s PIL-BOX on the ISS. Glycine is an amino acid that serves functions in many areas of the human body, such as a neurotransmitter, a component of collagen, and a building block of other important molecules in the body. The crystals returned to Earth in April 2024. Image: Redwire
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When molecules are more uniform, they generally become easier to administer to patients, Williams said. When the crystals are a mixture of different sizes, the smaller crystals hide in the gaps of the larger ones, making the liquid thicker.
This is important because viscosity – the thickness of the medication – dictates how patients absorb the medication. Biologics and thick medications typically require large needles and long hospital infusions. By lowering the viscosity, complex therapies can be reformatted into fine, painless injections. Heavy, unstable liquids can also be stored without the massive financial and environmental costs associated with, for example, frozen air freight.
Merck’s proof of conceptThe space pharmacy was born with Merckknown as MSD outside the United States. In 2014, she led crystal growth experiments on the International Space Station to better understand how the absence of gravity influences medications, including its best-selling cancer drug, Keytruda.
IN SPACE – FEBRUARY 18: In this photo provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, the International Space Station is seen from Atlantis as the orbiter undocks February 18, 2008 in space. Atlantis has delivered the long-awaited $2 billion Columbus Science Laboratory addition to the space station, built by the ESA. (ESA/NASA photo via Getty Images)
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Keytruda is a laboratory-made antibody that helps the body fight disease. Initially administered to patients in hospitals via intravenous infusions lasting several hours, the experiments helped develop an injectable version that patients could potentially administer at home.
UV imaging of the spaceflight samples revealed that the growth of antibodies in space produced a very uniform and stable mixture that dissolved easily.
Merck has found a way to replicate these conditions on Earth. This delivery route takes just minutes to administer and achieve FDA approval in 2025.
Pathways to space commercialization The pharmaceutical industry alone spends hundreds of billions each year on research and development and working with contract research organizations (CROs) to conduct clinical trials.
“We only need a thimble full of these crystals… we’ve actually shown that you can replicate this crystal across five different generations,” said SpaceMD’s Vellinger. “We have the drug candidates, we have the spaceflight-proven hardware…and we have the royalty agreements in place.”
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Varda is banking on continuous orbital production and has developed 300-kilogram autonomous manufacturing satellites equipped with specialized re-entry pods. He recently completed his sixth capsulewhich was launched with SpaceX’s Transporter-16.
“We fundamentally believe that it is the industrialization of space that will [human expansion] happening, and this first industrial use case is in space manufacturing,” Delian Asparouhov, president and co-founder of Varda Space Industries, told CNBC.
The drugs’ active ingredients (APIs) are so highly concentrated that Varda can generate significant value from relatively small charges.
The volume of crystalline API needed to administer to 450 million patients the Pfizer The Covid-19 vaccine would only fill two jugs of milk, Asparouhov said.
Companies like United therapeuticswhich recently announced a collaboration with Varda to explore the use of microgravity to improve treatments for lung diseases, is not purchasing a spacecraft from Varda, Asparouhov said. “They just send us a medicine and we give them back a better medicine.”
Overcoming bottlenecksThe aerospace industry has a strong supply chain in place to get to space, but only a narrow and expensive one to get back. Existing spacecraft built for human reentry, like SpaceX’s Dragon, are high-end, expensive vehicles designed for safety.
According to Asparouhov, they are not economically viable for high-speed, low-cost commercial manufacturing logistics.
Varda and SpaceMD agree that relying on the International Space Station, which will shut down in a few years, is not viable for long-term commercial production.
“By the time you’re working in a government-run research lab… there’s just no clear path to commercialization,” Asparouhov said. “You are aware of the vagaries of geopolitics… a station run half by the United States, half by the Russians.”
Regulation is another obstacle. Across the Atlantic, the UK recognized earlier this year that patients could benefit from better quality medicines and set out a plan path to commercialize drugs made in space. The UK Space Agency is also investing in projects such as a feasibility study by UK startup BioOrbit.
BioOrbit is exploring a scalable system to crystallize and manufacture complex biological medicines in space to enable at-home cancer treatments. He recently poached two high-level executives from Redwire: Molly Mulligan as president and Ken Savin as chief scientific officer.
Given the financial and environmental costs of large-scale manufacturing in orbit, Williams, a biophysics professor, expects the future lies in doing small batches of research in space and replicating those results on Earth.
Whether this is achievable is the “crucial question”, he said, adding: “It’s really exciting science and technology… I don’t see the same future in it as they [BioOrbit and other space drug manufacturers] TO DO.”
What’s next for space pharmacy? As the ISS nears retirement, companies are already moving away from government-run research labs. SpaceMD is building relationships with commercial providers of low Earth orbit destinations like Vast and StarLab.
SpaceMD’s Vellinger said he ultimately wants to use space to develop promising drug compounds that are derailed by crystallization errors or instability.
Varda plans to nearly double its flight cadence to seven next year and eventually launch a vehicle about 10 times larger and fully reusable, moving toward fixed infrastructure in orbit where mini spaceplanes ferry ingredients up and down.
While early operations are being automated to keep costs low, Asparouhov added: “Once we can economically justify one person in orbit doing this type of productive activity, we’ll probably be able to justify 10, 100, 1,000 and, at some point, build essentially the first industrial city in low Earth orbit.”
