NASA has spent decades letting scientists poke at drugs in microgravity, starting with the Space Shuttle and accelerating once the International Space Station got its act together in the 2010s. The big win? In 2019, they managed to grow a more uniform crystalline form of the cancer drug Keytruda, which meant patients could get a shot instead of parking themselves in a clinic for an IV drip. That's progress, if you ignore the whole "we had to go to space to figure this out" part.
NASA has been footing most of the bill - shipping experiments to the ISS isn't cheap, and astronaut time doesn't come free - but there were catches, like waiting forever to get anything launched. Still, the idea that making drugs in orbit might actually be commercially viable has been floating around like a lost screwdriver.
Enter Varda Space Industries, a private company that decided to skip the astronaut drama and fly uncrewed capsules with autonomous bioreactors. Their first vehicle, W-1, went up in mid-2023, and five more have followed. On Wednesday, Varda announced a partnership with United Therapeutics Corporation to use microgravity to improve treatments for a rare lung disease. Delian Asparouhov, Varda's president and co-founder, called it a big deal: "This is the first time that a large, publicly traded company is using capital from their own balance sheet, not just from NASA, to build and produce a product in microgravity." He expects more to follow, because apparently space is having a moment.
Asparouhov credits several trends coming together: years of ISS research, more money for space startups, and reusable rockets that have slashed launch costs. Varda's spacecraft - just a few hundred kilograms each - hitch rides on SpaceX's Transporter missions, which are basically space carpools. The financial details are secret, but Asparouhov says they'll run ground tests at Varda's new 10,000-square-foot lab in El Segundo, California, then send the best candidates to orbit.
The science: in microgravity, molecules assemble more slowly and consistently, making crystals more uniform. That means drugs can dissolve more reliably, last longer, require less refrigeration, and cause fewer side effects. Basically, removing gravity is just another dial - like temperature or pressure - that pharma can tweak.
Varda's W-6 is currently in orbit, with three more launches planned this year and seven next year. The company has 200 employees and has raised $330 million. Their endgame? Not to be a space company, but a pharmaceutical company that happens to operate in space. As Asparouhov puts it, "What are you reentering? If it's not humans, it's got to be a pretty darn valuable product."