Varda Space Industries
Launched the First Drug-Making Factory in Space
 |
| A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for the Axiom Space Mission 2 (Ax-2) on May 21, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. |
The first factory in space to manufacture
pharmaceuticals was launched on June 12, 2023 by SpaceX as part of a
ridesharing mission that included 72 other satellites. This was the 40th Falcon
mission of the year for SpaceX and the eighth dedicated smallsat rideshare
mission. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in
California and deployed the satellites into a 525-kilometer sun-synchronous
orbit. The booster landed at Landing Zone 4, marking the 200th recovery of a
Falcon booster and the ninth flight of this particular booster.
The factory is a 200-pound (90-kilogram)
capsule designed by Varda Space Industries, a California-based startup that
aims to commercialize in-space manufacturing of drugs. Varda Space Industries
was founded in 2020 by Will Bruey, Delian Asparouhov, and Daniel Marshall, with
the goal of building the first space station dedicated to industrial use, which
will take advantage of microgravity to manufacture fine goods that are
difficult to produce in Earth's gravity. Varda has received more than $100
million in seed funding and grants from investors such as Khosla Ventures,
Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and General Catalyst.
The capsule is attached to a Photon spacecraft
provided by Rocket Lab, which provides power, communication and propulsion for
the mission. Photon is a satellite bus based on Rocket Lab's kick stage, which
can support a range of missions from low Earth orbit to interplanetary
destinations. A high-energy variant of Photon was developed and launched by
Rocket Lab in 2022, successfully deploying the CAPSTONE spacecraft to lunar
orbit for NASA. Photon communicates on S-band and has a payload capacity of 170
kg (370 lb).
The capsule will conduct a pharmaceutical
experiment in orbit, testing the crystallization process of ritonavir, a
medicine that can be used to treat HIV/AIDS when combined with other
treatments. Ritonavir is a BCS class II antiretroviral agent which shows poor
aqueous solubility and low oral bioavailability. The co-crystallization approach
was selected to overcome these problems and to improve the physicochemical and
mechanical properties of ritonavir. Research has shown that protein crystals
grown in a weightless environment can result in more perfect structures
compared with those grown on Earth, which could potentially lead to
better-performing drugs that the human body can more easily absorb.
The experiment will take advantage of the
microgravity environment, which may allow for better drug formulations that are
not feasible on Earth. Microgravity can affect various aspects of drug
manufacturing, such as solubility, diffusion, nucleation, growth rate, purity,
and polymorphism. Decades of research have shown the advantage of
space-produced products, and recent advances have made getting to orbit
affordable. Varda's mission is to expand the economic bounds of humankind by
taking advantage of the unique environment of space to realize benefits on
Earth.
Once the experiment is done, the Photon
spacecraft will place the capsule on a trajectory to return to Earth, where it
will survive re-entry at speeds up to Mach 25 and land in Utah using
parachutes. The re-entry vehicle will come home to Earth at hypersonic speeds
of greater than Mach 25, or 19,000 mph. The produced materials will then be
analyzed and compared with those made on Earth. The landing site in Utah is
near Varda's headquarters in El Segundo, California.
Varda hopes to scale its business rapidly,
sending regular flights of satellites into orbit with experiments on behalf of
pharmaceutical companies, and eventually developing a golden ticket drug that
proves to be better when manufactured in space and can generate royalties for
Varda. A golden ticket drug is one that has a significant improvement in
efficacy or safety when made in space compared with Earth, and can command a
premium price in the market. Varda's ultimate aim is to enable an
interplanetary mission to Venus in 2025, delivering a laser-tunable mass
spectrometer into the Venusian atmosphere.
Varda's idea builds on previous experiments
carried out on the International Space Station (ISS), which hosts research from
various private companies and institutions, but this will be the first
experiment operating independently without human intervention. The ISS has been
a platform for microgravity research since 1998, and has hosted experiments
from various fields, such as biotechnology, materials science, fluid dynamics,
combustion, and physics. Some of the notable experiments that have been
conducted on the ISS include growing protein crystals for drug development,
testing 3D printing of human tissue, and producing optical fibers with improved
quality. However, the ISS has limitations in terms of cost, availability,
accessibility, and autonomy, which Varda aims to overcome with its own
dedicated satellites.
Sources
SpaceX launches eighth dedicated smallsat
rideshare mission.
https://spacenews.com/spacex-launches-eighth-dedicated-smallsat-rideshare-mission/.
SpaceX Transporter-8 launches 72 payloads
marking 200th booster....
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/06/spacex-transporter-8/.
Watch SpaceX's historic 200th rocket landing
in this super-sharp video.
https://www.space.com/spacex-200th-rocket-landing-video.
Varda Space Industries - Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varda_Space_Industries.
SpaceX to launch the first test payload for a
bold new drug ... - CNN.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/12/business/spacex-launch-varda-drug-pharma-space-industry-scn/index.html.
https://bing.com/search?q=Varda+Space+Industries.
Rocket Lab Photon - Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Lab_Photon.
Rocket Lab Completes Custom-Built Photon
Spacecraft for Varda Space ....
https://bing.com/search?q=Photon+spacecraft+Rocket+Lab.
Improved pharmaceutical properties of ritonavir
through co ....
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03639045.2022.2042553.
Drugs in space: the pharmacy orbiting the
Earth.
https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/feature/drugs-in-space-the-pharmacy-orbiting-the-earth.
Pharmaceutical Research Enabled Through
Microgravity: Perspectives on ....
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11095-019-2719-z.
Varda - Varda Space Industries.
https://varda.com/.
SpaceX’s Transporter 8 rideshare mission lifts
off from California. https://bing.com/search?q=SpaceX+rideshare+mission+June+2023.
Varda Space Industries - Factories in Space.
https://www.factoriesinspace.com/varda-space.
Photon | Rocket Lab.
https://www.rocketlabusa.com/space-systems/photon/.
Rocket Lab Completes Custom-Built Photon
Spacecraft for Varda Space ....
https://www.rocketlabusa.com/updates/rocket-lab-completes-custom-built-photon-spacecraft-for-varda-space-industries/.
Rocket Lab Completes Custom-Built Photon
Spacecraft for Varda Space .... https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230509005556/en/Rocket-Lab-Completes-Custom-Built-Photon-Spacecraft-for-Varda-Space-Industries.
Rocket Lab Launches Photon Satellite Designed
for Moon Missions.
https://www.businessinsider.com/rocket-lab-launches-photon-satellite-2020-9.
Elucidation of crystal form diversity of the
HIV protease ... - PNAS. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0437744100.
Crystal structures of drugs: advances in
determination, prediction and .... https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd1280/.
A Startup Tries Making Medicine in Space -
Slashdot.
https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/06/17/2053258/a-startup-tries-making-medicine-in-space.
BlueJ on Twitter: "Varda Space
Pharmaceuticals' creation, a 200lb/90 kg .... https://twitter.com/BlueJ11274903/status/1670230704892903425.
Supplying a pharmacy for NASA exploration
spaceflight ... - Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41526-019-0075-2.
No comments :