Drug Companies Explore Making Some of Their Most Lucrative Drugs in Space
Experiments in orbit have shown the advantages of crystallizing valuable protein-based medicines in microgravity, possibly yielding new patents.
Startup LambdaVision Inc. has big plans to develop the world’s first protein-based artificial retina for patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic cause of blindness. Manufacturing the retina involves depositing 200 paper-thin layers of a light-sensitive protein in a polymer mesh. The protein layers must be perfectly even for the retina to work properly, a process that’s hard to get right on Earth.
So starting in late 2018, the company turned to the International Space Station in the hopes that the microgravity there could help. In the eight experiments it has sent to the Space Station so far, it’s improved the production quality dramatically. In space, “you get nice even layers” of the protein with less wasted material, says Nicole Wagner, LambdaVision’s chief executive officer. “The goal is to be one of the first products manufactured in space that would be used here on Earth.”