Future Pharmacies Above Gravity
Space Pharmacies: Real Projects Making Medicine Beyond Gravity
🚀 Did you know there are real companies already making drugs in space — not just sci-fi?
Varda Space Industries is using unmanned capsules to crystallize pharmaceuticals in microgravity. Their first mission produced ritonavir in a form that’s hard (or impossible) to get on Earth. Space
SpacePharma, a Swiss–Israeli company, runs mini‑laboratories on the ISS (modules like DIDO, MOTI), doing tiny but powerful drug experiments in microgravity. Wikipedia
NASA’s “Astropharmacy” is a wild concept: engineered Bacillus subtilis spores stored in space, activated to produce biologic drugs (like peptides) on demand — as needed during deep‑space missions. NASA Technical Reports Server+1
With Redwire and NASA’s In‑Space Production Applications (InSPA), projects like PIL‑BOX are pushing the limit: growing super-uniform protein crystals in orbit. NASA
Even Sierra Space + Merck are collaborating to crystallize monoclonal antibodies using the Dream Chaser spacecraft. The Verge
Imagine a future where AI-controlled orbital drug labs build personalized medicine, return high-precision crystals to Earth, or even manufacture life-saving therapies for space ravers.
