BioOrbit secures £9.8M to make drugs in space
BioOrbit, the in-space drug manufacturing startup, has raised £9.8 million in seed funding. Founded by Dr. Katie King and Co-Founder Dr. Leonor Teles, BioOrbit’s solution enables the usage of microgravity to develop crystals of biological drugs at scale that will transform how life-saving treatments reach patients worldwide.
The round was co-led by LocalGlobe and Breega, with support from Auxxo, Seedcamp, Type One, 7 percent, and angels. It is the world’s largest seed round for in-space manufacturing, and the funds will unlock the ability to produce high-value drugs at scale, in orbit for the first time.
Seventy percent of the highest-grossing drugs globally are administered intravenously in clinical settings, however, BioOrbit is on a mission to use the microgravity environment found in Low-Earth Orbit to reformulate them as subcutaneous, self-injectable treatments. This will help shift hospital treatments, including cancer care, from a hospital environment, to the home.
High-concentration antibody therapies are often too viscous for self-administration. BioOrbit’s proprietary microgravity crystallisation process overcomes this by transforming protein-based drugs into highly ordered crystalline forms. This enables injectable formats patients can self-administer at home, reducing costs, extending the commercial lifecycle of key therapeutics, and fundamentally improving access to life-saving treatments.
This is being made possible by its innovation BOX, a compact, modular, autonomous manufacturing unit (the size of a microwave) deployed in microgravity, which moves crystallisation from a one-off experiment to industry-ready scale, enabling better-performing biologics through formulation pathways not achievable on Earth.
Dr. Katie King, Founder and CEO of BioOrbit, commented: “This is a huge step-change in drug delivery and economics. Our focus from day one has been scale, moving beyond experimental results to industrial production, where no existing solution has succeeded. We are now enabling the creation of more perfect, highly ordered crystals that unlock drug formulations not achievable on Earth. It is a paradigm shift for cancer therapies and for the pharmaceutical industry at large, as we’re enabling manufacturing at scale in orbit for the first time.”
The funding will accelerate BioOrbit’s transition to industrial deployment, converting microgravity breakthroughs into contracted pharmaceutical programmes To accelerate this next phase, BioOrbit has appointed Dr. Molly Mulligan, President of BioOrbit Inc., who has been leading at the intersection of pharma and space for over 12 years, signing the first in-orbit pharmaceutical royalty agreement, along with Dr. Ken Savin, Chief Science Officer, formerly Chief Science Officer at Redwire, who brings together two decades at Eli Lilly, with ISS R&D leadership in the commercialisation of microgravity. Together, alongside the founders, they will drive BioOrbit’s transition from breakthrough science to scalable pharmaceutical manufacturing in microgravity.
The entire industry is excited for what BioOrbit can achieve in the future. Major Tim Peake, British European Astronaut, said: “BioOrbit is turning bold imagination into real-world progress – pioneering the future by using exciting innovations in crystallisation of protein drugs in space to improve life on Earth. Their record-breaking seed round demonstrates the real market potential of what space-manufacturing can bring.”
Space Minister Liz Lloyd said: “In-orbit manufacturing is a priority capability for this government, and BioOrbit is a compelling example of what world-leading UK innovation looks like in practice.
“By harnessing the unique environment of space to make pharmaceutical-grade materials, BioOrbit is not only advancing the UK’s position at the forefront of the global space economy, but doing so in a way that could transform outcomes for cancer patients. This funding round is a strong signal of international confidence in UK space manufacturing expertise.”
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