New mission will test making cancer drugs in space
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Varda's W-1 vehicle after landing in 2024. Photo: Varda/John Kraus
Orbital pharma and re-entry startup Varda Space Industries launched a new mission Tuesday to test microgravity's effects on an innovative cancer treatment.
Why it matters: Developing medicine in space, away from the pesky influence of Earth's gravity, could unlock better treatments — though commercial scale for "space meds" is still a moonshot.
Driving the news: The California company's W-7 spacecraft launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission.
- Varda is testing whether the key ingredient in next-gen cancer medicines called PROTACs will crystalize differently in microgravity than it does on Earth.
- That could make the treatment easier for recipients' bodies to absorb.
What they're saying: "We are exploring a new class of cancer drugs that are very innovative, but have problems with dissolving in the body," Varda chief strategy officer Michael Reilly tells Axios.
- "So the premise is that in space we can create unique crystals that have superior dissolution properties, and therefore can be far more effective and perhaps safer as well."
- Reilly adds that, for missions like this one, the company can create "seed quantities" in space, then return the results to Earth to be propagated.
"We do this with manufacturing scale in mind," Reilly says.
- "We understand the process and conditions that will eventually lead to manufacturing at appropriate scale — and then with that in mind, we fly this mission, which essentially is a first test of that hypothesis: Can we produce unique crystals in quantity in space?"
How it works: Microgravity lets pharmaceutical compounds crystalize without disruptive processes like sedimentation and convection, potentially leading to better solubility, efficacy and other benefits.
- There's a long history of fruitful microgravity crystallization experiments — many aboard the International Space Station.
Zoom in: This is Varda's third launch of the past month. It aims to ramp up in 2027, with seven planned launches compared to four this year.
- Varda's W-series spacecraft work autonomously in orbit and return to Earth at hypersonic speeds.
- The company recently announced a $251 million series D fundraising round led by Lux Capital and Natural Capital.
- Aside from space-based pharmaceuticals, Varda also has a defense business involving hypersonic testing and data-gathering.
The big picture: Orbital re-entry vehicles are hot in the commercial space world, with SpaceX recently testing its "Starfall" capsule designed for space manufacturing and rapid point-to-point delivery.
What's next: Reilly says that Varda is planning a mission involving a pulmonary disease treatment from United Therapeutics "sometime next year."
