Varda and United Therapeutics bet on microgravity medicines

Varda United – Varda Space Industries is partnering with United Therapeutics to test small-molecule drugs using automated in-orbit experiments. The effort aims to grow more perfect and uniform crystals in microgravity, but faces major risks around cost, scale, and controllin

When Varda Space Industries sends capsules into orbit, it isn’t doing it for a cinematic view of Earth. The goal is to manufacture something harder to achieve on the ground: crystals for medicines grown under microgravity conditions.

This week. the Los Angeles County–based startup announced a partnership with United Therapeutics. a biotech company known for treatments targeting rare respiratory diseases and for organ transplants.. Varda says its automated in-orbit technology can perform experiments that it claims can only be done in microgravity—work that United Therapeutics will use first with its small molecule drug candidates.

For years, pharmaceutical researchers have looked to space as a cleaner proving ground for materials and biology.. But Varda’s approach is built around the economics of crystal growth.. The company has. for the past few years. been sending capsules into space to develop automated experimentation techniques. including manipulating small molecules—the backbone of many medicines. from antibiotics to corticosteroids.

“Surprisingly it’s very economical for things like small molecules, where you’re able to create novel crystal seeds in space, and then bring them back down to Earth,” said Michael Reilly, Varda’s chief strategy officer.

United Therapeutics will primarily test its small molecule drugs with Varda’s in-orbit technologies, Reilly said.. He also expects the work to reach beyond a single partner or drug class over time. pointing to biotechnologies such as monoclonal antibodies.. In his view, these therapies could eventually shift from intravenous administration to subcutaneous injections.

The pitch is that microgravity changes what crystals do.. In space, Varda’s researchers and collaborators argue, crystals can grow larger, more perfect, and more uniform.. “In space. you can get bigger crystals. more perfect crystals. and they can be more uniform. ” said Anne Wilson. a Butler University chemist who has designed experiments for the International Space Station and collaborated with Redwire.. Wilson also described that crystals with unique physical structures can be spawned in orbit.. With the right structures. she said. it might be possible to make a drug more soluble—potentially reducing doses and lowering costs.

But even if the physics works, turning it into a reliable manufacturing pipeline is another matter. Gerard Capellades, a chemical engineer at Rowan University who has also worked with Redwire, said the idea remains risky—especially when it comes to scale and reproducibility.

The problem. Capellades said. is that researchers will have to either use space-grown crystals as seeds to multiply on Earth. or focus on growing single. high-value crystals for uses outside mainstream pharmaceuticals.. Both paths are difficult.. Just as challenging is the need to control the environment tightly enough to consistently produce the precise crystal structure on a schedule that is cost-effective.

Capellades described the uncertainty as something like a lottery. “For the same environment, sometimes it can take minutes to form a crystal, and sometimes it can take weeks or longer,” he said.

Still, he believes costs can drop and that the effort is worth pursuing.

At the center of Varda’s project is an orbital lab the company has nicknamed “Winnebago.” It is a 300-kilogram satellite bus.. After a launch vehicle deposits it in orbit, Winnebago uses its own propulsion to maneuver into the right attitude.. The satellite houses the capsule where the experiments take place.. When the work is complete. the capsule reenters Earth’s atmosphere at about 18. 000 miles per hour. then parachutes down with a landing “bump” in the Australian outback.

Varda’s path back to Earth has not been automatic. An early prototype’s planned landing zone in a desert in Utah was delayed in 2024 because the company was initially denied a reentry license by the Federal Aviation Administration.

In addition to drug experiments. Varda’s flights carry defense experiment payloads for the Pentagon. Reilly said. a detail that points to how the startup is trying to balance high-tech ambition with practical financing.. Launch costs per pound of cargo have fallen over the past decade—thanks especially to SpaceX’s reusable rockets—but they remain expensive enough that companies are still searching for new customers.

That search could intersect with one of the biggest expectations in the private space sector: the expanding market for orbital services.. “First, it’s a giant market,” said Matthew Weinzierl, a Harvard Business School researcher who studies the private space industry.. “It’s also because the mass of some of the key ingredients in pharmaceuticals is relatively small.”

Researchers have already sent experiments to orbit through institutions and programs. including the International Space Station and China’s space station. Tiangong.. But Reilly said Varda and SpaceX are currently the only companies capable of launching experiments into orbit that don’t require astronauts to operate them.

Looking ahead, the commercial space-station era planned for the 2030s could widen the playing field.. New orbital outposts are expected to replace the aging ISS, and some companies have already begun offering “plug-and-play” research support.. Space Tango and Voyager Technologies (formerly Nanoracks) have started providing research services. and Voyager Technologies is working on a commercial station concept called Starlab—one that. Weinzierl said. places the pharma industry at its center.

Weinzierl said the key question is whether Varda’s partnership with United Therapeutics becomes a proof of concept that can be replicated. If it works, he argued, it could trigger a domino effect, with more pharmaceutical space alliances following.

“It would be fantastic if this partnership yielded a couple or even one blockbuster product or drug that really started opening up profitable business models for pharma in space at scale,” Weinzierl said.

For now, Varda is positioning itself to move quickly.. The company is planning more partnerships and a faster launch cadence. aiming to shift from a launch per quarter to every other month.. The stakes are clear: microgravity may offer pharmaceutical advantages that Earth can’t match. but the business still hinges on whether those advantages can be made predictable—at a cost that drugmakers can actually bet on.

Varda Space Industries United Therapeutics microgravity pharmaceuticals crystal growth space-based manufacturing International Space Station Winnebago satellite bus Starlab commercial space stations