📍 Space Pharma: Making Drugs in Space

Shooting things into space is no longer just about rockets, satellites and launch vehicles or Chandrayaan and SpaceX and so on. There is a space frenzy and the newest happening thing is Space Pharma – the manufacturing of drugs and medicines in space. Earnings from the space economy are projected to be huge. Market professionals are anticipating that it could surpass $1 trillion by 2040. While settled industries like semiconductors and fiber-optic cables will be the biggest earners, Space Pharma is emerging as a significant player.

A number of precision drugs like monoclonal antibodies, steroids, antibiotics among many others, may now be coming from space. A number of pharmaceutical companies in recent times have been heading straight to the lower orbit of the earth to manufacture medicines. So what is the reason for going all that distance, you may ask, why not continue to produce drugs on earth as always? The answer is Microgravity. Microgravity is the state when the pull of gravity is not very strong since gravitational force gets weaker when objects are far apart. This microgravity condition is very enabling for the pharmaceutical sector as we shall see.

When pharmaceutical products are manufactured on earth, they face challenges from the force of gravity. How? because of a process called sedimentation when heavy particles settle below and smaller, lighter particles float on top. This disrupts the drug synthesis process because the mixture of compounds that goes into making a drug remains uneven. Fluids sink, making the mixture uneven. Unevenly distributed particles in compositions create problems

with dosage.

In space however, there is very low gravitational force, or micro gravity where the distortions created by gravitational force are cancelled. Better drugs can be manufactured in space by taking advantage of the microgravity conditions in low-Earth orbit. This enables the synthesis of more precise complex biological molecules and purer, more uniform protein crystals.

When molecules are more uniform, they become easier to administer to patients, When crystals are a mix of different sizes, small crystals hide in the gaps of larger ones, making the liquid thicker, more viscous. This matters because viscosity determines the efficiency with which patients absorb the medicine. Viscous injectable medicines are painful to administer, when viscosity is lowered, complex mixtures become lighter and less painful to take. 

The United States is the world leader in commercial space-based drug manufacturing and is already establishing supply chains. The US is followed by the UK which is trying to capture a dominant share of the European space-pharma market. Third in line is India a new player in the space-pharma arena.

Serendipity Space is the name of India’s first dedicated Space Pharma start-up operating out of Bhubaneshwar. The company is building satellites to manufacture pharmaceutical compounds in orbit so that drug crystals can be manufactured in microgravity. These will be brought back to produce purer forms of medicines than are possible on Earth. A futuristic, new sector is developing in medicines and it is wonderful to know that India is a major player.