Bristol Myers blasts off with SpaceX to study biomanufacturing in space

The launch of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft from Cape Canaveral last night had more on board than just supplies for the International Space Station. It also contained research materials, including some from Bristol Myers Squibb.

BMS’ project to study the crystallization of biotherapeutic compounds in microgravity is one of about 20 research projects on board, according to a press release from the International Space Station National Laboratory. The BMS research will investigate how the crystallization process could improve biomanufacturing and eventually provide delivery of higher doses of proteins.

Robert Garmise

Space offers a “unique environment” for crystallization with the complete absence of sedimentation and convection which is not available on Earth, said Robert Garmise, the associate director of BMS’ material science and engineering and the leader of the pharma’s space station research project, in an email to Endpoints News.

BMS’ ride on the latest SpaceX trip stems from a grant proposal in 2018 for microgravity research on protein crystallization. The grant was awarded, and the team was able to launch its first experiments on a SpaceX vessel in December 2020. Garmise said the results from that experiment led to a follow-on grant which was awarded last year for the current mission.

This particular project aims to obtain crystals that have greater “uniformity,” he said, which can BMS hopes can lead to a more efficient manufacturing process for therapeutics.

“In the future, we hope to continue to advance our knowledge of crystallization of therapeutics in microgravity, and then taking our learnings and applying them to broader modalities,” he said.

BMS is not the only one that is working on drug manufacturing projects in space.

Redwire Corporation, a Florida-based company that manufactures space infrastructure, is developing tech for drug manufacturing in low Earth orbit and has partnered with Eli Lilly to conduct testing on its first experiments. The project, dubbed the Bio-crystal Optimization Xperiment, or PIL-BOX, gives commercial customers and researchers a platform in microgravity that could improve the development of pharmaceuticals and other products.

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