![]() ![]() ![]() (Merck used that research to inform other Earth-based studies, but the findings have not yet been applied to drugs on the market, the company told CNN on Friday.) ![]() Scientists found that using crystals formed in space could create a more stable drug, one that could be administered by a shot rather than the time-consuming intravenous injection currently used. One key example, from research Merck carried out on the International Space Station, is the active ingredient pembrolizumab used in the cancer drug Keytruda. These space-formed crystals can then be used to create pharmaceuticals that the human body could more easily absorb - or overall better-performing drugs. Research has already established that protein crystals grown in space can form more perfect structures compared with those grown on Earth. In this weightless environment, such experiments aren’t bogged down by Earth’s pull. The goal is to create key components of pharmaceuticals while in microgravity. Then the experiment begins, carried out by simple on-board machines. (For Varda’s first few missions, the satellite bus will be provided by another commercial space company, Rocket Lab.) Once in orbit, the capsule detaches and begins flying through space attached to what’s called a satellite bus, a structure that will provide the power, propulsion and communications necessary to navigate the vacuum of space. Varda’s vision is straightforward: The company’s capsule will launch with an experiment already on board. Varda Space Industries plans to use a small capsule, shown in the rendering above, to conduct pharmaceutical research in space, commercializing work that has been carried out on the International Space Station for more than a decade. And some of this work may lead to changes in the drugs that people on Earth take today.īut whether Varda’s ambitious business plan is viable will depend on numerous technological and financial questions. Big pharma firms, including Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb, have sent experiments there, working with the ISS National Laboratory. The core of this idea - manufacturing pharmaceuticals in microgravity - builds on experiments carried out on the International Space Station, which is operated by astronauts but hosts experiments from a range of private companies and research institutions. Eventually, the firm hopes that research will yield a golden ticket drug, one that proves to be better when manufactured in space and can return royalties to Varda for years to come. If successful, Varda hopes to scale its business rapidly, sending regular flights of satellites into orbit stuffed with experiments on behalf of pharmaceutical companies. On board the rocket, tucked among a bevy of other satellites, was the company’s first creation: a 200-pound (90-kilogram) capsule designed to carry drug research into microgravity. The company then confirmed in a tweet that its satellite successfully separated from the rocket.Ī SpaceX rocket took off the afternoon of June 12, 2023, carrying Varda Space Industries' first experimental satellite. Varda launched its first test mission Monday aboard a SpaceX rocket, which took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California just after 2:30 pm PT. “But the bet that we’re making at Varda is that manufacturing is actually the next big industry that gets commercialized.” “It’s not as sexy a human-interest story as tourism when it comes to commercialization of the cosmos,” said Will Bruey, Varda’s CEO and cofounder. Its research, company officials hope, could lead to better, more effective drugs - and hefty profits. One California-based startup, Varda Space Industries, is betting that big business will lie in relatively unassuming satellites that will spend days or months in Earth’s orbit quietly carrying out pharmaceutical development. For years, the private sector has envisioned an illustrious future in space - an extraterrestrial playground with tourists flying to and from orbiting hotels and the occasional trip to Mars being as easy as a transatlantic flight.īut if the space economy is to become a $1 trillion sector by 2040, as one Citigroup report suggested, not all of its enterprises will be so grandiose. ![]()
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