Space pharmaceutical industry hopes to be future of medicine

(NewsNation) — For scientists, space could be the new frontier of medicine, particularly when it comes to creating new pharmaceuticals.

California-based Varda Space Industries is one company hoping outer space can be used to create new medications for people on Earth.

Co-founder Will Bruey told NewsNation the industry is looking beyond Earth for opportunities to “manipulate chemistry” in new ways.

“The reason we make pharmaceuticals in orbit is because the lack of gravity allows us to make drug formulations that you otherwise couldn’t on Earth because of Earth’s gravity,” he said. “So it’s a whole new way to manipulate chemistry.”

The conditions in orbit cannot be replicated on our planet, so scientists on the ground develop pharmaceutical predictions and test them by sending modules to space. The drugs are analyzed once the capsule returns.

“They can take a formulation that used to be an IV bag and turn it into a shot, or a pill to an inhalable,” Bruey said. “Those are what I mean by different formulations, and you can create those in the microgravity of space and then bring it back for use for people on Earth.”

The growing space industry is allowing for more research, although at the moment, it comes with a significant price tag.

Bruey hopes that, with progress, space will become just another laboratory.

“In the next few years, it will be just scaling up, so more flights, until we get to a daily cadence so that we simply look like another piece of lab equipment for the pharmaceutical industry,” he said.