London-based BioOrbit said it has raised \u00a39.8 million ($11.4 million) in a seed funding round to accelerate its space-based pharmaceutical manufacturing technology and expand operations into the United States.<\/p>\n
The round was co-led by LocalGlobe and BREEGA, with participation from Auxxo, Seedcamp, Type One Ventures, 7percent Ventures, and undisclosed angel investors.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2023, BioOrbit is developing technology to leverage microgravity conditions in space to reformulate existing drugs, with the aim of enabling patients to self-administer treatments that currently require clinical supervision. The company has built an autonomous, microwave-sized manufacturing unit called BOX, designed to operate in orbit and produce crystallized pharmaceutical compounds within reentry vehicles or commercial space stations.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur primary targets are anti-cancer antibodies, because this is where we can bring the biggest value propositions,\u201d said Katie King, chief executive of BioOrbit. \u201cWe would be looking at taking marketed products and turning them into subcutaneous versions,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The newly raised capital will be used to scale production capabilities as BioOrbit moves from early-stage demonstrations toward industrial capacity. The company is also preparing to establish a presence on the U.S. East Coast as part of its international expansion strategy.<\/p>\n
To support its commercial push, BioOrbit has recruited industry executives from Redwire. Molly Mulligan, formerly part of Redwire\u2019s business development team, has been appointed president and is credited by the company with securing the first in-orbit pharmaceutical royalty agreement. Meanwhile, Ken Savin, previously Redwire\u2019s chief science officer, has taken on the same role at BioOrbit, bringing experience from pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and the ISS National Lab.<\/p>\n
BioOrbit launched its first BOX unit into orbit last year aboard Nyx spacecraft, developed by The Exploration Company, and plans a second mission later this year. The company expects to conduct up to two missions in 2027, according to King.<\/p>\n
While the timeline for bringing space-manufactured drugs to market remains lengthy\u2014King said regulatory processes could take around five years before clinical trials begin\u2014the company is pursuing near-term revenue opportunities. These include developing terrestrial drug manufacturing capabilities and entering co-development agreements with pharmaceutical companies.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London-based BioOrbit said it has raised \u00a39.8 million ($11.4 million) in a seed funding round to accelerate its space-based pharmaceutical manufacturing technology and expand operations into the United States. The round was co-led by LocalGlobe and BREEGA, with participation from Auxxo, Seedcamp, Type One Ventures, 7percent Ventures, and undisclosed angel investors. Founded in 2023, BioOrbit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6208,6236,7415,3763,244,7416,7417,7418,7419,7074,7420,7299,4697,7421,279,1620,7422],"class_list":["post-20853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bioorbit","tag-biotechnology","tag-breega","tag-eli-lilly","tag-europe","tag-iss-national-lab","tag-katie-king","tag-ken-savin","tag-localglobe","tag-london","tag-molly-mulligan","tag-nyx-spacecraft","tag-redwire","tag-space-drug-manufacturing","tag-the-exploration-company","tag-united-kingdom","tag-venture-capital-funding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}