Made in space: Startup is creating drug ingredients in low Earth orbit to make medicines 'purer' and cheaper

A space capsule containing a small, unmanned pharmaceutical plant floated down into the Utah desert this February carrying freshly made crystals of HIV medication.

The orbital platform was the culmination of four years of work by a new company based in California, Varda, which hopes to use the unique conditions of microgravity in low Earth orbit to manufacture more pure, and thus cheaper, drugs.

Not unlike the odd shape that ice cubes can take in an off-balance ice cube tray, a drug manufacturer's tiny, molecular-scale chemical reactions can lead to lopsided, unwanted shapes due only to the bias of Earth's gravitational pull.

But Varda is not the only company entering the Big Pharma space race in an effort to improve these conditions for creating their crystalline drug molecules. 

Drug giant Eli Lilly and a host of universities that have partnered with the International Space Station's National Lab have also begun testing orbital platforms for everything from cancer medication to Alzheimer's disease research.

A space capsule containing a small, unmanned pharmaceutical plant (above) floated down into the Utah desert this February carrying freshly made crystals of HIV medication

The orbital platform was the culmination of four years of work by a new company based in El Segundo, California , Varda Space Industries, which hopes to use the unique conditions of microgravity in low Earth orbit to manufacture more pure, and thus cheaper, drugs

'The impact of microgravity seems to be very effective at getting pure crystalline materials that have unique properties,' as biochemistry professor Anne Wilson at Butler University told the Wall Street Journal this week.

Wilson — who has conducted research on microgravity crystallization chemistry, but has no direct affiliation with Varda — noted that the promise of microgravity includes improved molecular structures for a host of special materials, in and out of medicine.

Varda is currently analyzing the results of its test of space-based HIV drug production, according to the company's Chief Science Officer Adrian Radocea.

Varda is now preparing for two future flights, which will launch this year beginning in June or July onboard a SpaceX reusable rocket, according to Varda's co-founder and president Delian Asparouhov

Asparouhov said his firm has already signed contracts with pharma companies for this year's flights as well as three more scheduled for 2025, some of whose names will be disclosed ahead of this summer's launch

The project, which fabricated the drug ritonavir, launched in June 2023.

The company is now preparing for two future flights, which will launch this year beginning in June or July onboard a SpaceX reusable rocket, according to Varda's co-founder and president Delian Asparouhov. 

Asparouhov told the Journal that his firm has already signed contracts with pharma companies for this year's flights as well as three more scheduled for 2025 - some of whose names will be disclosed ahead of this summer's launch.

But the space drug start-up also has a more terrestrial program to help pharmaceutical companies determine if their drugs would particularly benefit from the elaborate process of microgravity manufacture in orbit.

A new paper by two researchers for Varda, published on Thursday in the journal Crystal Growth & Design, used a ground-based centrifuge to track which crystalline-structured drug molecules are most sensitive to gravitational forces. 

The company's scientists called the proof of concept a 'hypergravity crystallization platform,' which they plan to offer to prospective pharmaceutical clients as a convenient screening tool for how their own proprietary drugs respond to gravity.

For their peer-reviewed test, Varda researcher Kanjakha Pal and its CSO Radocea used the essential amino acid L-histidine, which has unique properties based on its shape and has been employed to preserve organs ahead of transplant surgeries. 

A new paper by two researchers for Varda, published on Thursday in the journal Crystal Growth & Design , used a ground-based centrifuge (above) to track which crystalline-structured drug molecules are most sensitive to gravitational forces.

'The hypergravity experiments,' Pal and Radocea wrote, 'show that gravity affects the crystallization process even when the solution is stirred at high rpm [in a centrifuge].'

The result, they said, highlighted 'that gravity likely plays a significant role in many small-molecule crystallization processes.'

'If you can observe a trend it's much easier to convince a scientific audience,' as Radocea told the Journal.

Varda's researchers hope to do further experiments to differentiate what other factors, like cosmic radiation, might impact chemical reactions in low Earth orbit. 

'Ideally,' as Varda's co-founder and investor Josh Wolfe put it, 'it is lowering the cost of very expensive, lifesaving drugs.'

EXPLAINED: THE $100 BILLION INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SITS 250 MILES ABOVE THE EARTH

The International Space Station (ISS) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory that orbits 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

It has been permanently staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000. 

Crews have come mainly from the US and Russia, but the Japanese space agency JAXA and European space agency ESA have also sent astronauts. 

The International Space Station has been continuously occupied for more than 20 years and has been expended with multiple new modules added and upgrades to systems 

Research conducted aboard the ISS often requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit, such as low-gravity or oxygen.

ISS studies have investigated human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology.

The US space agency, NASA, spends about $3 billion (£2.4 billion) a year on the space station program, with the remaining funding coming from international partners, including Europe, Russia and Japan.

So far 244 individuals from 19 countries have visited the station, and among them eight private citizens who spent up to $50 million for their visit.

There is an ongoing debate about the future of the station beyond 2025, when it is thought some of the original structure will reach 'end of life'.

Russia, a major partner in the station, plans to launch its own orbital platform around then, with Axiom Space, a private firm, planning to send its own modules for purely commercial use to the station at the same time. 

NASA, ESA, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are working together to build a space station in orbit around the moon, and Russia and China are working on a similar project, that would also include a base on the surface.