SpaceMD will use Starfall to launch its creation of space pharmaceuticals

Redwire, working through its space-based pharmaceutical subsidiary, SpaceMD, has bought the first operational flight of the SpaceX Starfall to continue the research and development of drugs using microgravity to improve their potency and other qualities. If and when the company creates space-manufactured drugs, they will constitute the first physical product created beyond the Earth.

The only two successful commercial space products have been Earth observation and satellite communications. The possibility of space-manufactured drugs has been the subject of experiments on the International Space Station and, before that, the shuttle for decades. 

SpaceMD’s use of Starfall represents a leap forward toward treatments for everything from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease being created in low Earth orbit.

The SpaceX Starfall was first launched on a Falcon 9 on June 23 on a test flight, though it can also be deployed on a Starship. The “disk-shaped spacecraft” is roughly “2.5 feet tall,” with “a diameter of 10.2 feet,” and weighs “roughly 4,600 pounds.” It carries “about 2,200 pounds” of cargo.  

Starfall has two parts: “an aluminum ‘top plate’ that weighs about 3,090 pounds,” and “a detachable carbon-fiber heat shield.” The cargo rides in the top plate.

A typical Starfall mission would take a payload like the one developed by SpaceMD to low Earth orbit, remain there for a time, and then reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and splash down in the ocean. 

SpaceMD mission is currently scheduled to launch in 2028. It will take as many as 32 Pharmaceutical In-Space Laboratory, dubbed PIL-BOXes, to develop candidates “to crystallize drug compounds in microgravity to develop improved formulations and new therapeutics.”

Redwire has already flown versions of the PIL-BOX on the International Space Station. Starfall will greatly expand the company’s capacity to perform drug research in low Earth orbit.

According to a piece in Tech Times, SpaceMD will be able to process over 100 distinct drug compounds in a single Starfall mission. By contrast, the company has been able to crystalize 45 drug compounds on the ISS to date, “including insulin and drug candidates targeting cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes.”

Performing drug crystallization in space eliminates two factors that damage the resulting crystals on Earth: gravity and temperature differentials. Drug crystals created in space are larger and more orderly than those grown on the ground. 

“Drug crystal structure directly affects dissolution rate, solubility, and bioavailability — how quickly and completely an active ingredient enters the bloodstream,” according to Tech Times. 

Growing the drug crystals will be only the first step in developing new pharmaceuticals that will be available in a clinical setting. SpaceMD has a licensing agreement with ExesaLibero Pharma to develop drugs from the crystals grown in space and go through the arduous process of clinical trials and regulatory approval. Every drug that ExesaLibero Pharma brings to market using crystals developed in space by SpaceMD will win Redwire subsidiary royalties.

What sort of treatments will be made available by drugs made in space has yet to be determined. But any new treatments will be a boon for people who have to deal with debilitating diseases.

For example, according to the National Cancer Institute, over 2.1 million people are estimated to receive a cancer diagnosis in 2026. Of that number, 626,140 will eventually die of the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that 6.7 million American adults are living with Alzheimer’s, a figure that is expected to double by 2060.

Any treatment that reduces those numbers will be a good thing. The degree of human suffering, not to mention the cost of caring for patients of such debilitating diseases that could be lessened, is beyond evaluation.

In times past, space activities have been regarded at best as something nice to have and at worst a distraction from more Earthly concerns. More recently, politicians such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have attacked commercial space barons such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos for their activities, some conducted at the behest of NASA and the Defense Department.

The position that exploring and developing space are bad things is becoming more and more untenable. Real, direct benefits have been flowing from the frontier of space. That flow, thanks to enterprises such as Redwire, is about to become a flood.

Better, more effective drugs will be just one benefit that will feature the new, commercial space age.

Mark R. Whittington, who writes frequently about space policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?” as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond” and, most recently, “Why is America Going Back to the Moon?” 

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/6030495-redwire-spacemd-starfall-drug-research/