Perhaps it was inevitable that pharmaceuticals would follow the same trajectory as every other industry that's looked skyward for an edge: start with a proof of concept, attract just enough regulatory attention to seem legitimate, then raise capital before the hard questions arrive.
BioOrbit, a London-based startup, just closed a £9.8 million seed round—announced April 30, 2026—as it readies what it calls its "Baby BOX-E" crystallization unit for a May launch to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's CRS-34 mission. LocalGlobe and Breega co-led the financing, joined by Seedcamp, Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund, Type One Ventures, 7percent Ventures, and angel investor Phil Chambers. Investors are calling it the largest seed round in the nascent in-space manufacturing sector, though that distinction is difficult to verify in a field this small.
What's less ambiguous is the convergence the company finds itself riding. In March, the UK government rolled out what it termed a "world-leading pathway" for space-manufactured medicines, coordinating guidance from the UK Space Agency and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The package included a £250,000 feasibility study earmarked for BioOrbit—the kind of early government endorsement that signals intent, if not yet infrastructure.
The Physics Are Simple. Everything Else Isn't.
The core technology is compact: a unit about the size of a microwave, designed to crystallize protein therapeutics in microgravity. Strip away gravity's interference, the thinking goes, and protein molecules arrange themselves into more uniform, highly ordered crystals. Those structures could—emphasis on could—enable high-concentration, lower-viscosity drug formulations suitable for subcutaneous delivery instead of the intravenous drip.
NASA lent credibility to the concept in January 2026 when it disclosed that ISS microgravity research had informed Merck's FDA-approved subcutaneous formulation of pembrolizumab, better known as Keytruda. The result: administration time dropped from hours-long infusions to roughly one minute every three weeks.
BioOrbit isn't starting entirely from scratch. In 2025, the company tested the survivability of protein crystals during atmospheric re-entry, partnering with The Exploration Company on its Nyx "Mission Possible" demonstration flight. The upcoming ISS mission will be its first attempt at a full crystallization run in orbit—proof of concept gives way to proof of process.
Building for Scale, Perhaps Prematurely
Much of the fresh capital is earmarked for a U.S. expansion that suggests BioOrbit is moving faster than its revenue—or product—might justify. The company is planning to open an East Coast office and has recruited leadership with pharmaceutical and space manufacturing credentials: Dr. Molly K. Mulligan as President and Dr. Ken Savin as Chief Science Officer.
Mulligan previously worked on ISS National Lab commercialization efforts and is credited with negotiating the first in-orbit pharmaceutical royalty agreement. Savin logged two decades at Eli Lilly before stints at CASIS and Redwire. Both hires signal ambition—and perhaps a recognition that credibility in this arena requires people who've navigated both regulatory mazes and boardrooms.
CEO Dr. Katie King, who earned a PhD in nanomedicine from Cambridge and interned at NASA on the Curiosity Rover program, told Payload in early May that the company expects a regulatory timeline of roughly five years before clinical trials can begin. The company incorporated in July 2023, which means it's still operating on faith and funding rather than revenue.
The Regulatory Gamble
That March government announcement matters more than it might initially appear. Manufacturing drugs in orbit is scientifically plausible—NASA's Keytruda validation proved that. But the regulatory and logistical infrastructure to bring those products to market has been, until recently, undefined.
The UK's framework addresses that gap, offering regulatory sandbox provisions for re-entry operations and supply chain logistics. It's the kind of coordinated policy push that could either accelerate the industry or reveal how far the technology still has to go. BioOrbit's £250,000 feasibility study was explicitly named in the announcement—a tailwind, certainly, though one that brings scrutiny alongside support.
A Crowded Orbit
BioOrbit isn't alone in this vertical. Varda Space Industries, the most capitalized player in the field, raised a $187 million Series C in July 2025, bringing its total haul to $329 million. Redwire launched SpaceMD in August 2025 and secured an additional $4 million from NASA in March for its PIL-BOX in-orbit drug research platform.
The competitive landscape underscores a tension at the heart of the sector: capital intensity without clear paths to revenue. BioOrbit's seed round is substantial relative to its stage, backed by firms known for deep tech infrastructure bets. But it's dwarfed by what competitors have raised, and none of them have a commercial product yet either.
What Success Looks Like—If It Comes
Following the May ISS mission, BioOrbit has outlined plans for a second flight later this year and as many as two more in 2027. The company's LinkedIn page lists somewhere between two and ten employees, though 14 individual profiles appear under its banner. More than half of its technical staff are reportedly women—a detail the company emphasizes, perhaps because it's unusual enough in aerospace to warrant mention.
The long-term vision, according to King and the company's public statements, is to build a pharmaceutical factory in space within a decade. That's an audacious timeline, contingent on regulatory progress that hasn't fully materialized, launch costs that remain stubbornly high, and clinical proof that microgravity crystallization delivers meaningful therapeutic advantages at commercial scale.
For now, BioOrbit has capital, regulatory momentum, and a launch slot. Whether that's enough to turn orbital physics into profitable pharmaceuticals is the kind of question that takes years—not press releases—to answer.
