Varda Space is utilizing microgravity for pharmaceutical research
Varda Space Industries Co-Founders Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhouv sit down with Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Akiko Fujita to give insight into the advantages of pharmaceutical research in microgravity. Bruey outlines how microgravity works and how the company is utilizing it here on Earth: "It's ubiquitous and it's impossible to create in perpetuity on Earth. And so we essentially are building space manufacturing modules because we can change the outcome of chemical systems like no one else can on Earth." "In 2019, Merck (MRK) actually published a particularly interesting result where they actually took their blockbuster monoclonal antibody, Keytruda. It does $25 billion of revenue for them every year, financial analysts estimate that it represents about $125 billion of their market cap," Asparouhouv elaborates, adding: "They were able to show that... when you turn off gravity, the chemical system changes, and it changes in a very unexpected way. And the result of that change was And the result of that change was they actually found... a version of the drug up in space that, rather than having to be delivered the way that it is today via an intravenous drip, where you're going in once every two weeks for sort of 4 or 6-hour appointment... Instead they could actually just send you home with a syringe that you could take in the safety and comfort of your own home." Catch up on Yahoo Finance's special coverage as part of this week's Space Race: Investing in the Final Frontier series. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Asking for a Trend. This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino
