Space manufacturing startup Varda Space Industries is looking to help pharmaceutical companies pursue drug development in microgravity.
Varda will use robots to synthesize chemical compounds in space, which will fit into a three feet wide drug development and testing lab that fits into a space capsule. Varda's co-founder and CEO, Will Bruey, said, "We have built a unique way to manipulate chemical systems. And the most expensive chemical systems on Earth are drugs. We knew that making them in space was the killer app of microgravity."
As drug compounds synthesize differently in low-gravity environments, developing medicines in low-Earth orbit has the potential to be one of the major advances in pharmaceutical research.
- Merck & Co. refined its cancer treatment drug Keytruda on the International Space Station.
- However, organizations typically avoid such projects due to the risk associated with handling potentially dangerous chemicals in a confined space.
- Varda believes its innovations will inspire other pharmaceutical firms to develop novel therapeutics in space.
- It plans to test its robotic equipment and reentry procedures in June when its first capsule will be onboard a SpaceX rocket.
- The San Francisco, Calif.-based startup has raised $53M to date, from investors such as Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, and others.
