More frequent access
Asparouhov said several trend lines have converged, allowing Varda and United Therapeutics to collaborate. There is the foundation of research carried out aboard the ISS, the increase in capital for space startups like Varda and the rise of reusable rockets that has reduced the cost of access to space and increased the cadence. Varda’s spacecraft, with a mass of a few hundred kilograms, typically flies 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 this deal, Asparouhov said it will allow his company and United Therapeutics to conduct a large number of screening tests in the field, primarily at Varda’s new 10,000-square-foot pharmaceutical laboratory in El Segundo, California, and then take these more promising applications to space.
Over time, scientists have come to understand that when molecules assemble in microgravity (that is, in Earth orbit) they do so more slowly and consistently. The crystal structure of the molecules is more uniform, rather than widely varying.
This is quite useful in some pharmaceutical applications, including allowing medications to dissolve more consistently, retaining a longer shelf life or reducing cold storage requirements, and reducing side effects. Basically, eliminating gravity is another tool, just like temperature or pressure, that drug makers can apply to improve their products.
I’m not just the 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. The plan is to increase that cadence to seven pitches 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 be a space company, but rather a pharmaceutical company that operates in space and brings valuable materials to Earth.
“We are 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 reentrying? If you bring things in from space, they’re humans, in which case there are many types of human-graded things; and then if you don’t bring humans in, it has to be a pretty valuable product.”
