Space-made cancer drugs could let UK patients skip hospital visits
Key Points
- London startup BioOrbit has raised £9.8m to manufacture cancer drugs in low-Earth orbit using microgravity, in what it claims is the world's largest seed round for in-space manufacturing.
- The company's BOX hardware crystallises protein-based drugs in space, producing formulations too thick for standard injection on Earth into self-injectable treatments patients can use at home.
- BioOrbit has already sent one BOX unit to orbit and plans two further missions in 2026 and 2027, with clinical trials expected to begin in roughly five years pending regulatory approval.
- The UK Space Agency, NHS, MHRA and Regulatory Innovation Office are all engaged with BioOrbit, and the government has called in-orbit manufacturing a strategic priority.
- If successful, the technology could cut hospital drug administration costs by up to 90% and shift cancer care from clinical settings to the home.
London startup BioOrbit has raised £9.8 million in what it claims is the world’s largest seed round for in-space manufacturing to scale production of cancer drugs in low-Earth orbit.
Around 70% of the world’s highest-grossing drugs require intravenous administration in a clinical setting, meaning cancer patients must make repeated hospital visits for treatment.
BioOrbit wants to change that by manufacturing drugs in space and reformulating them into self-injectable versions that patients can administer at home.
Without gravity interfering, protein-based drug molecules form far more uniform and ordered crystal structures than they do on Earth.
BioOrbit says these higher-quality crystals reduce the viscosity of high-concentration antibody therapies, which are currently too thick to inject subcutaneously.
The result, the company argues, is a drug that works just as well but can come in a pen or auto-injector rather than a hospital drip.
The hardware doing the work
BioOrbit’s manufacturing system is called BOX, a compact autonomous unit roughly the size of a microwave that operates in low-Earth orbit.
BioOrbit sent its first BOX to space aboard The Exploration Company’s Nyx spacecraft last year and plans a second mission later in 2026, with up to two further missions scheduled for 2027.
The goal is not to develop new drugs in space but to take proven treatments already on the market and reformulate them for home administration.
Founder and CEO Katie King, who holds a PhD in Nanomedicine from Cambridge and interned at NASA, co-founded the company in 2023 with oncology researcher Leonor Teles.
King has said the company’s primary targets are anti-cancer antibodies, where it sees the strongest case for shifting from intravenous to subcutaneous delivery.
The funding and what it pays for
The £9.8 million round, co-led by LocalGlobe and Breega, also draws in Auxxo, Seedcamp, Type One, 7percent, and several angel investors.
BioOrbit plans to use the capital to scale production capacity, move from early demonstrations to industrial output, and open a US office on the East Coast.
The company has also brought in two senior hires from space manufacturer Redwire: Molly Mulligan as President of BioOrbit Inc., who has signed what the company describes as the first in-orbit pharmaceutical royalty agreement, and Ken Savin as Chief Science Officer, who led ISS research and development at Redwire after two decades at Eli Lilly.
King expects the regulatory process to take roughly five years before clinical trials can begin.
In the meantime, BioOrbit is building terrestrial drug manufacturing capabilities and pursuing co-development contracts with pharmaceutical companies to generate revenue ahead of any commercial launch.
UK government and regulatory backing
BioOrbit has secured support from the UK Space Agency, which awarded the company a £250,000 feasibility contract under its PHARM study to design an end-to-end, regulatory-compliant mission for in-orbit drug manufacturing.
The company is working with the MHRA and the Regulatory Innovation Office on what would be a first-of-its-kind pharmaceutical regulatory pathway for space-manufactured drugs.
Space Minister Liz Lloyd has described in-orbit manufacturing as a government priority and called BioOrbit a compelling example of UK innovation in practice.
The NHS has also expressed interest in the technology.
One analysis cited by the company puts potential hospital drug administration cost reductions at up to 90% for treatments that shift from intravenous to subcutaneous delivery.
If BioOrbit succeeds in moving cancer treatment from infusion centres to the home, it could meaningfully reduce pressure on hospital capacity.
BioOrbit operates in a small but growing field. US firm Varda Space Industries has already returned drug crystals from orbit and is working toward its first commercial pharmaceutical manufacturing mission.
SpacePharma is another active player in microgravity drug research, while UK rival Space Forge focuses on semiconductor and advanced materials manufacturing in space rather than pharmaceuticals.
BioOrbit’s specific focus on turning crystallisation into a repeatable industrial process, rather than a one-off experiment, is what the company argues sets it apart from the field.
