With Varda Space, leading Silicon Valley players make big bet on making drugs in space

Varda Space raised $187 million to manufacture pharmaceutical components in orbit, aiming to overcome gravity's limitations on Earth. The funding will establish a 10,000-square-foot lab to identify promising biologics for space-based crystallization, potentially solving drug production challenges and generating valuable patents. Varda plans to increase its mission frequency and in-house spacecraft manufacturing, while also offering hypersonic flight testing for the U.S. Department of Defense.