Why we invested: BioOrbit
The pursuit of medical frontiers in space dates back to the dawn of our first ventures into orbit.
When trying to justify the enormous cost of launching 50 flights per year, NASA suggested that its astronauts would multitask, using their extra hours in space to pursue cures for cancer and other diseases that were affecting humankind down below.
Over 60 years and 500 experiments later, the ISS (International Space Station) is a beacon of insight with research from cancer to gum disease, the vast majority of its experiments centred around a single category: protein crystals.
Earth’s gravity makes it incredibly hard to manage, study, and manipulate proteins. Cancer antibodies - such as Keytruda - when manufactured on Earth, are subject to sedimentation and convection, which disrupt the crystallisation process and means that crystals are formed with a wide range of sizes and quality.
Because of this, antibodies must be injected intravenously (into the vein) as part of a solution. Consequently, in this medium, Keytruda must be administered in a clinic, with procedures of 4-6 hours required every 3-4 weeks. An arduous and invasive patient experience that can result in a lot of vein scarring.
However in the weightlessness of space crystallisation happens very differently. Crystals can be grown in large and ordered batches, without the imperfections and inconsistencies that happen on Earth.
BioOrbit is harnessing microgravity to scale up this protein crystallisation in space, which could transform the way immunotherapy treatments are administered, and we’re delighted to back Katie and her team in building the first space CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization), which will be able to produce large quantities of drugs for pharmaceutical companies.
At a more uniform size, drugs like Keytruda can be suspended in solutions of much lower viscosity. Instead of intravenous injection, antibodies will be administered subcutaneously (under-the-skin) using a syringe. In a similar fashion to Insulin - which is also composed of small crystals - this would allow patients to be treated at home, or at other convenient locations, reducing the cost of administration by over 90%. This also comes with 62% less waste, 70% lower storage costs, and can allow hospitals to treat up to 8 times more patients.
Keytruda is a type of immunotherapy with sales of around $20+ billion per year. It is often touted as one of the most promising new ways to fight cancer; working by mimicking or invoking the body’s own immune defences to weed out and attack cancer cells. It is just the first of many drugs that BioOrbit could revolutionise. Creating self-injectable treatments also offers pharmaceutical companies the chance to extend the existing patents for the drugs they offer.
Historically, in-space pharmaceuticals have been focused only on R&D - producing single crystals for return to Earth, or studying protein mechanics at small scale, for example. Given that space launch is priced per kilogram, this was a more affordable option for pharmaceutical companies, and worked well for teams of engineers solving problems in biological testing.
However, with cost-to-orbit continuing to fall and with companies like Space Forge, The Exploration Company and Atmos all demonstrating returns vehicle technology, business models leveraging in-space manufacturing are becoming possible.
Pharmaceuticals, where substances are the most valuable chemicals per unit mass, are the obvious early adopter, with an established $1.5trn market-size on earth.
The implications of at-home treatment are also well aligned with the increasing demand for home based care due to the ever-increasing demands on hospitals. It also has the potential to expand access to care in emerging markets, and for those that are immune compromised, and would benefit from staying away from hospitals.
Katie brings a rare overlap of expertise to this intersection of space and biotech, with 10 years of lab research, including work with the University of Cambridge, NASA, and Astrazeneca. Beyond this - and perhaps most importantly in this intersection - she is an exceptional science communicator (we’d recommend anyone with kids to watch her work with TechSheCan). We see such skills as being crucial in bringing together stakeholders from across pharmaceuticals and the space sector.
BioOrbit delivered their first payload at the end of November 2024, just 6 months after our initial investment. Their first launch with The Exploration Company is scheduled for Q2 2025, providing a fantastic foundation for full-scale demonstrations throughout next year, and will allow the team to further develop the pharmaceutical partnerships and LOIs they have secured so far.
