more frequent access
Asparouhov said several trend lines have come together, allowing Varda and United Therapeutics to collaborate. The basis for research conducted on the ISS is increased capital for space startups like Varda and the rise of reusable rockets that have lowered the cost of access to space and increased the speed. Varda’s spacecraft, weighing a few hundred kilograms, typically fly on SpaceX’s periodic transporter missions that launch dozens of space missions at a time.
Although he declined to discuss the explicit financial details of the agreement, Asparouhov said it will allow his company and United Therapeutics to conduct a large number of screening trials on the ground, primarily at Varda’s new 10,000-square-foot pharmaceutical lab in El Segundo, Calif., and then take these most promising applications to space.
Over time, scientists have come to understand that when molecules gather in microgravity – that is, in Earth’s orbit – they do so slowly and steadily. The crystalline structure of molecules is more similar rather than having wide variation.
This proves quite useful in some pharmaceutical applications, including allowing drugs to dissolve more consistently, maintaining a longer shelf life or reducing cold storage requirements and reducing side effects. Essentially, the pull of gravity is just another tool, like temperature or pressure, that drug manufacturers can apply to improve their products.
I’m not just a president, I’m also a customer
Varda’s W-6 spacecraft is currently in orbit, and Asparouhov said three more vehicles are being prepared for launch this year. There are plans to increase that cadence to seven launches next year. The company currently has about 200 employees and has raised $330 million to date.
In the long term, Varda’s goal is not to become a space company, but to become a pharmaceutical company that works in space and brings valuable materials back to Earth.
“We’re not just building reentry systems,” Asparouhov said. “We’re also building the largest customer for those reentry systems, which is our entire internal pharmaceutical business. Because at the end of the day, what are you re-entering? If you’re bringing things back from space, it’s either humans, in which case there’s a lot of human-rated stuff out there; and then if you’re not bringing humans back, it’s going to be a very valuable product.”
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