On 21 February, a metre-wide space capsule landed in the Utah desert after eight months in orbit. Its cargo: a batch of Ritonavir, an antiviral drug used in the treatment of HIV and COVID-19.
Carried out by Californian start-up Varda Space Industries, the mission aimed to demonstrate the potential for the automated manufacturing of pharmaceutical drugs in space, possibly paving the way for new and more efficient methods of developing medicines.
Varda’s W-1 mission launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in June 2023. The capsule itself weighed in at around 90kg and is theoretically capable of manufacturing nearly 100kg of products over several months spent in orbit.
For this initial mission, however, just a small amount of Ritonavir was manufactured in a 27-hour test run.
In-flight analysis indicated that the manufacturing process ran as planned, and while final results are not yet available, Varda is currently busy preparing for a second mission that will carry their first commercial payload.
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But why go to all of the trouble?
Over the past few decades, experiments aboard the International Space Station and other spacecraft have proven it’s possible to make small quantities of pharmaceutical drugs in space.
It turns out that microgravity conditions cause many of the processes used to build complex crystalline molecules – such as the proteins and antibodies used in many medicines to treat everything from cancer to heart disease – to behave differently from how they do on Earth.
For instance, the liquid solutions from which crystals form no longer separate according to density, plus solids do not naturally fall or rise within them. And the lack of gravity means any structures that grow don’t warp out of shape and change their nature.
“The evidence suggests that crystals grown in a microgravity environment have an 80 per cent or better chance of being superior compared to their Earth-grown counterparts,” says Prof Anne Wilson, a researcher based at Butler University in Indianapolis who carried out a series of experiments growing in 2022.
“Our studies have shown that microgravity-grown crystals are more uniform, structurally improved, and often larger.”
Pharmaceutical companies have already harnessed the lessons learned from space experiments to improve manufacturing processes on Earth. But space-grown crystals can also display unusual and useful properties, and could potentially be more effective than medicines made on Earth.
“Microgravity enhances crystallisation so that you get more perfect and similar crystals,” says Dr Katie King, a microgravity researcher based at the UK space medicine firm BioOrbit.
“This technology can also be used to crystallise protein receptors from the body that medicines target. We can then better understand these in laboratories on Earth. The other application is to use the crystals themselves in medicines.
“Varda is attempting to use microgravity to find potential new and more effective forms of drugs. We at BioOrbit, in contrast, are working on turning existing drugs into something that patients can take at home.”
When it comes to making materials in space for use on Earth, economics remains a big challenge. While reusable launch vehicles such as Falcon 9 lower the costs of reaching orbit significantly, Varda also plans to make their own spacecraft increasingly versatile and reusable, allowing refurbishment and turnaround for relaunch on shorter timescales.
The company’s co-founder Delian Asparouhov says the initial run cost is around $12m million (£9.5m) but predicts they could rapidly be lowered to about $2m (£1.6m) million per mission. With plans for later generations of larger and more economical space labs already in the works, other players could soon start throwing their hats into the ring.
“There are huge benefits,” says King. “The full extent has yet to be tapped into. and there’s a lot more to learn for drugs, medicine and life science in general. Varda’s re-entry system is really the most pioneering part of what they’re doing because it opens the space for other companies to use microgravity in a variety of new applications.”
About our experts
Dr Anne Wilson is a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Butler University, Indianapolis. Her group’s research into crystal growth in microgravity has been published by the American Chemical Society in the journal Crystal Growth and Design.
Dr Katie King has a PhD in Nanomedicine from Cambridge University with research published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. She is a Tech She Can ambassador and founder and CEO of BioOrbit.
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