How BioOrbit is using space to revolutionise drug manufacturing on Earth
Microgravity holds the key to a new kind of pharmaceutical, an opportunity that Dr Katie King is looking to capture through her pioneering in-space drug manufacturing company, BioOrbit.
One in two people will develop cancer in their lifetime, a statistic that both astounds Katie and yet also provides motivation to her on a daily basis.
Today, many of the most effective cancer treatments are administered intravenously and are limited by shelf life. By turning these medicines into precise, engineered crystals, BioOrbit is working to enable delivery by simple injection, meaning more patients will be able to self-administer.
70% of the world's highest-grossing drugs are currently administered intravenously in clinical settings. Space-based crystallisation changes that equation - producing higher concentration formulations with longer shelf lives, reduced cold chain reliance, and opening the door to home administration.
Space, specifically microgravity, provides the ideal conditions to allow for highly stable crystallisation and uniformity that enable next-generation drug formulations not achievable on Earth. With space launch costs rapidly decreasing and vehicle reentry an increasingly-plausible prospect, Katie recognised the exciting opportunity to harness microgravity, and manufacture these sorts of life-saving treatments at scale. Enter BioOrbit, the pharmaceutical factory in space that’s shaping the future of cancer treatment.
Q Why does this problem bother you more than most people? Why did you have to build this?
A This problem bothers everyone. I don't think it bothers me more than others. Half of us will get cancer in our lifetime, which means that whether directly or indirectly, all of us will be affected. I also have the absolute conviction that microgravity will be used to make products and bring them back down to Earth. I had to build this because it's inevitable, it's going to happen, and the time is now to solve these real problems that everyone will face. Space unlocks the answer, and now is the time to do that.
Q Which early life or career experiences led you here?
A I always wanted to be an astronaut as a kid, which led me to be interested in science. I then focused on chemistry and material science, specifically on nanomedicine, for my PhD, which meant that I had an understanding of matter, chemistry, and materials, and how to control matter on a nanoscale. Then my passion for space kept me inspired and I was keeping up to date with the changes happening in space-tech. The seeds were already in my brain, so it wasn’t a big leap, it was immediately obvious to me.
Q What were the insights that led you to realise this was even a possibility? Was there a eureka moment?
A My background is as a formulation scientist, working in chemistry, physics, and material science. So I really love understanding how materials form on a molecular level, and I’ve always loved space. The idea of manufacturing in space is not the stuff of science fiction.
It was during my PhD that I saw how SpaceX really started changing the game by enabling reentry through boosters landing. I remember seeing it and realising that reusability costs are going to come right down.
It suddenly felt like the perfect opportunity, and I have full conviction that humanity will use space for producing products. Launch costs are coming down, and there is now room in space, other than the International Space Station, meaning we can actually benefit from the material properties that you can make in space. So it was really about seeing trends converging across healthcare and space, and recognising that now’s the time to jump.
“I have full conviction that humanity will use space for producing products.”
Q So what was the first thing you did after that realisation?
A I quit my job. I didn’t know anything about starting a business at that point, but I understood that a company was needed to make this a reality.
I had some savings, enough for about a year, and I said to myself, “Alright, I've got 12 months. By the end of that year, I'll either have investment and therefore I'll have a job, or I'm going to have to get a job. But either way, in 12 months I'll have a job.” I had to learn very quickly as to what it takes to get that bold vision and turn it into small, manageable steps and into a milestone plan. It was quite scary.
Q Jumping ahead a little bit, if everything goes right for BioOrbit, what does that impact look like for cancer patients?
A It's going to affect all of us. If it's not us who are affected by cancer, it's our loved ones. For cancer patients being able to treat themselves at home gives them back their humanity, without having to feel like a patient. You don't have to go to the hospital and spend a whole day there. You have autonomy. And I think that that's huge in terms of every patient’s experience.
Another benefit of these crystals is that you don't need to keep them at cold temperatures, meaning we could get these drugs to people who live very far away from hospitals. So it actually increases the accessibility to some of these treatments. In the long term, it's a huge paradigm shift in terms of what it means to be suffering from cancer and receive the treatment you need.
Q Who else is trying to solve this problem—and why do you think you’ll win?
A There are a couple of other companies looking at doing drug crystallisation in space, but mainly from an R&D perspective. It's small scale, more about discovering IP and licensing it out. That’s not going to give us the large-scale production that means we can use these drugs every day. We’re the only ones innovating at scale, across Earth and Space, that means we can bring these drugs from the hospital into the home. And we have the correct team to make this happen: commercially, scientifically, engineering-wise. That’s why we’ll win.
Q How do you think about the ‘space race’?
A When I first founded the company, there weren't really any people working in this area. I think one of the key things is that I remain fixed on our vision and our mission.
The US is a strong market for space, but we're building this to be our own entity, as opposed to just being a European equivalent of an American company. I am constantly navigating the healthcare system and the space industry, focusing on our USP and how we can constantly iterate on it, and how we can be the best that we can be.
“Overcoming these challenges is all about the team - you can't do it on your own. I say this to every member of my team, that I see us like the Avengers. Everyone's got their superpower, and you come together and you can achieve the impossible.”
Q On that point, how do you think about the advantages of building in the UK?
A The talent is amazing here. In the UK, the number of brilliant universities we have with regard to science, technology, and engineering is just incredible. The size of the country also helps: we’re all close together, meaning you can bring together talent from all over the UK. BioOrbit has already attracted interest from the UK’s NHS and the UK Space Agency, and is spearheading pharmaceutical regulations in space with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Regulatory Innovation Office and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Q Over the next 12 months, you have a lot of exciting milestones coming up, and also some big challenges. How do you think about those challenges and how you will overcome them?
A We have a busy 12 months ahead of us. We have just launched to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX CRS-34 rocket and our compact, modular autonomous unit, that will carry out what is the largest drug crystallisation mission in microgravity yet, will be in orbit for approximately six weeks. This is a major step towards making space-based manufacturing commercially viable. Microgravity allows us to grow crystals with a level of quality and consistency that isn't feasible on Earth. It is the first step moving towards mass manufacture in a way that will transform cancer treatment, reduce hospital visits and support patients in receiving therapies at home.
Once we've got that data from the launch, we can start securing those first pharma customers to show what we can do with these drugs. We can even help customers with drugs that might be going off patent, and help them extend that through this process.
Crucially, overcoming these challenges is all about the team - you can't do it on your own. I say this to every member of my team, that I see us like the Avengers. Everyone's got their superpower, and you come together and you can achieve the impossible.
You quickly realise it's not impossible. The physics is there. It works. It's not like you're going against the laws of physics. You've just got to find the way to make it happen. So our success is all down to building that team, bringing other people on the mission and just working really damn hard.
Q How have you found securing investment before you have your first customers?
A We had to prove that the problem is clearly solved in space, and demonstrate how we're going to make it happen. It really helps to show the whole pipeline of the problem through to the solution.
I actually came to these first investor meetings with a stack of Post-It notes with each of our major milestones written on it, how we would accomplish it, and on the back were the costs for each. So I asked investors, “Which milestone do you want?”, and then could show how much it’s going to cost.
Q If you get this right, what does the industry look like in a decade?
A In ten years, there will be pharmaceuticals that have been manufactured in space being injected into patients, whether that’s through clinical trials or directly through care. We’ll be operating at a fairly large scale with multiple factories in space. And if you look at twenty years, we’ll be impacting millions of people with these drugs we’re making in space.