Varda’s third capsule, on the ground in Australia.
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The in-space manufacturing startup Varda has now raised another $187 million in private investment capital, bringing the total cash the company has raised to $329 million.
The $187 million fundraise was led by Natural Capital and Shrug Capital, with participation from Founders Fund, Peter Thiel, Khosla Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, Lux Capital, and Also Capital. Since launching their first mission, W-1, in 2023, Varda has completed three successful launch and return missions, with a fourth, W-4, currently in orbit and a fifth expected to launch before the end of the year.
…”With this capital, Varda will continue to increase our flight cadence and build out the pharmaceutical lab that will deliver the world’s first microgravity-enabled drug formulation,” said Varda CEO Will Bruey.
Varda has expanded its footprint terrestrially as well, opening an office in Huntsville, Ala. and a new 10,000 square foot laboratory space in El Segundo, which will allow its pharmaceutical scientists to begin working on developing processes to crystallize biologics, such as monoclonal antibodies. As of 2022, the market size for monoclonal antibodies is estimated to be $210.06 billion.
As I have noted previously, a real market for pharmaceuticals produced in weightlessness has existed for decades. It appears Varda is now well placed to be the first to make money doing so, using its returnable capsules.
One more note: These products and this industry could have been developed on ISS, but NASA has banned all profit-making commercial manufacturing projects there from the station’s beginning. You can do research, but you are forbidden to create any products for sale later on Earth. This strange policy is left over from before the station, when Reagan discontinued all commercial missions on the shuttle following the Challenger accident.
