Biotech reaches for the stars, with Indian startups in tow

IMAGINE A SUITCASE-SIZED box launched into space that autonomously manufactures medicines in zero-gravity conditions and soft lands on earth once the product is ready. No astronaut, no space station, just a small, reusable satellite, with all controls/monitoring taking place at the ground station. It’s not sci-fi, but what Antariksh Parichha, an Odisha-based entrepreneur, in his late 20s, is attempting to do. Parichha’s Serendipity Space aims to launch satellites that will spend a month in orbit, and then return to earth with pharma products. “Technologically [speaking], we have already created this lab, and tested the production of an anti-cancer drug inside it, completely autonomous. You just have to upload the materials and it works on its own. The next stage is to qualify for taking this to space, which should happen in a couple of months,” says Parichha. The startup recently raised an undisclosed sum as its first pre-seed funding. The concept of conducting research and carrying out manufacturing on a limited scale under microgravity conditions in space is not new. The time-tested approach has been to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) to undertake such lab-scale manufacturing or research missions, and return after a specific period with the products. Developed nations have done these several times, but not on a regular, commercial scale. Sending astronauts to space is very expensive; the time available is very limited; and if you have the results of the first mission, a follow-up study or project can happen only when your next turn comes, which could even take years. Serendipity aims to reduce this cost, the time frame and the gap between successive missions by removing the human from the loop, and building a small pharmaceuticals factory that can be launched more frequently, operate on its own, and can be controlled from earth. Globally, increased private participation, innovations such as reusable launch vehicles, low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites, etc., have made space more accessible to a wider range of stakeholders. According to a recent Ficci-EY report, the global space economy is expected to grow to $1.8 trillion by 2035, up from $630 billion in 2023, growing at an average of 9% per annum. The projection includes revenue from the development in space hardware such as satellites, launchers, and services — including broadcast television and GPS — as well as revenue due to industry-specific applications (like pharma in Serendipity’s case), where space-technology plays a significant role. Parichha’s Serendipity is just one example of new-age startups trying to make use of India’s two-year-old liberal space policy and develop global solutions that can help the country achieve its dream of becoming a leading space-faring nation by 2047. While some are developing capsules that can do life sciences experiments or build satellites that produce seed drug materials in space, others are into training astronauts, or are offering space suit technology. Policy push On July 15, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force (IAF), landed safely on earth after his 18-day space mission, aboard the ISS. He was part of Axiom Mission-4, a private astronaut mission organised by U.S.-based Axiom Space in partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Shukla conducted pioneering experiments in microgravity on subjects such as muscle regeneration, algal and microbial growth, crop viability, microbial survivability, cognitive performance in space, and the behaviour of cyanobacteria. These studies are expected to deepen global understanding of human space flight and microgravity science, besides providing critical inputs for India’s future missions. The Central government called the mission a vital stepping stone towards India’s own human space flight ambition, including the Gaganyaan (India’s inaugural human space flight endeavour) and the Bharatiya Antariksh Station or BAS (India’s own space station). Incidentally, Shukla is one among a handful of astronauts who will be a part of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro) Gaganyaan mission scheduled for next year. Set to be completed by 2035, BAS will serve as a national space laboratory for multidisciplinary microgravity experiments and act as a platform for global and national collaboration, as well as a gateway to lunar exploration and beyond. Space can play a major role in improving human health, says Rajiv Bahl, secretary, Department of Health Research, and DG, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). “If we were to have a Bharatiya Antariksh Station by 2035, we need to invest in research related to humans in space. Research on humans in space has great potential to improve health of humans on earth. Besides, pharmaceutical and biotechnology research on microgravity in space can improve our health by bringing better medicines and technologies on earth. Finally, the use of telecom, AI, and other digital health and other related technologies, which are in space, or used from space can improve human health on earth,” he adds. ICMR has set up the first Centre for Advanced Research in Space Psychology at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Bengaluru. More such centres are on the cards. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under the Ministry of Science and Technology is also keen to promote space-based manufacturing and research. In fact, one of the six verticals the DBT wants to promote through its BioEnabler Hubs, including Biofoundries and Biomanufacturing Hubs, is biotech research in space. In October 2024, the DBT signed an MoU with Isro to promote startups in space and biotechnology sectors to innovate and develop commercially attractive technological solutions in the area of space biotechnology. “We think space is the new laboratory for biotechnology. The two most exciting opportunities for the biotech industry in the potential research in biomanufacturing are microgravity and cosmic radiation,” says Rajesh Gokhale, secretary, DBT. According to Gokhale, since there is no gravity in space, muscles lose their activity very rapidly. “You will lose 10-15% of muscles within 10-15 days of your space flight. One of the key reasons of ageing is the loss of muscle mass. So, the concepts of muscle ageing can be studied very rapidly in space. Many diseases cause muscle mass loss on earth, and you can find solutions for such problems through research in space,” he explains. Pathbreaking work The development of a space-based pharmaceutical ecosystem in India will drive collaboration between industry, government, and academia to unlock the potential of microgravity research for drug discovery and development, a recent white paper, published by Indian space industry association, SIA-India, says. It showcases the way U.S. drug major Merck used space to develop a subcutaneous way of administering its blockbuster cancer drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda). “By leveraging the unique conditions of space, researchers produced more uniform crystals with improved injectability properties. These space-grown crystals demonstrated lower viscosity and more uniform sedimentation, crucial factors for developing an injectable formulation. The breakthrough paved the way for a potential shift from intravenous to subcutaneous administration of pembrolizumab in non-small cell lung cancer treatment,” says Rajeev Gambhir, deputy director-general, SIA-India. MicroQuin’s space-based pharmaceutical research that led to successful crystallisation of the TMBIM6 protein, a critical component in cancer cell survival, in microgravity conditions, is another example. This achievement accelerated the drug development process by an estimated five to eight years, and enabled MicroQuin to develop promising drug leads for ovarian and breast cancers, the white paper says. Varda Space Industries’ success in creating and stabilising different polymorphs in space, developed to improve drug formulations with enhanced bioavailability, stability, and efficacy, and LambdaVision’s artificial retina development by leveraging microgravity conditions in LEO to achieve precise layering of proteins, a crucial step in manufacturing their innovative retinal implant, are also examples of how space-based manufacturing is helping advance innovations in healthcare. Indian entrepreneurs Rifath Shaarook, Shishir Bankapur, Jibin Jeffrey Dhanaraj and Abhijit Bhutey are all space entrepreneurs based in cities across the world with two common threads connecting all of them — they are all Indians, and the companies each of them founded or co-founded are all creating business models based on microgravity. Shaarook is the co-founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Catalyx Space, a company that claims to offer the fastest and most affordable way to deploy experiments and manufacture in orbit. “Our autonomous space labs and reusable capsules take your ideas to space and safely bring them back. You dream it; we handle the rest, from launch to landing,” the company’s website states. Established in 2024, Catalyx was conceived by Shaarook in India before he moved to the U.S. after being selected under the Techstars Space Accelerator programme. “We have got around 10 customers, we launched [the payloads of] two of them in SSLV-D3 [Isro’s third developmental flight of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle or SSLV, launched in August 2024]. After that we raised $1.7 million in a pre-seed round and set up the company in the U.S.,” says Shaarook. Catalyx has also designed and built a re-entry vehicle, which has undergone two back-to-back successful landing tests in Nevada. “We are launching payloads of four more customers by the end of this year in the upcoming mission with Isro. Then we have one more launch with SpaceX,” he says. Pharma and lifesciences research and manufacturing is one of the focus areas of the company. “We are planning to set up a manufacturing unit in India. We will be building 70-75% of our spacecraft in India, and the final integration will happen in San Francisco,” he adds. If life sciences is one of the sectors Catalyx caters to, New York-based Helogen calls itself a space infrastructure company that focusses on accelerating early stage drug discovery by using cutting-edge instrumentation, including the Multi-Modal Culture Analyzer, Sequencer, and Bioreactor, that speed up new target discovery, leveraging complex disease modelling and expediting compound testing through high-throughput screening. Shishir Bankapur, Helogen’s co-founder and CEO, believes in the potential of India to serve global clients. His company has partnerships with NASA and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the U.S. and AgResearch, New Zealand, on specific areas of space-based research and manufacturing. Helogen hosts advanced biolabs, reactors, and sensing instruments that harness the unique conditions of space to uncover the next groundbreaking drug, transformative material, and innovations in food security — advancing both human and planetary health, through such partnerships. It already has one commercial launch to its credit and has announced the schedule of its next launches — a drug development mission focussing on radiation mitigation and oncology drug development in November 2025, followed by a lifesciences mission for in-space manufacturing and high throughput screening development in March 2026. Helogen announced an interesting acquihire recently. It scooped up Vellon Space, a Madurai-based startup, for technology collaboration and commercial participation interest it had generated along with its founder Ajay Kumar. Vellon’s tie-up with IIT Madras to carry out an in-orbit demonstration mission to conduct biological experiments, particularly in long-duration cell culture under low-earth microgravity, will now fructify via Helogen. “We signed an MoU with IIT Madras to send bacteria halobacterium into space. Once in space, it will start producing a high-sensitive protein (that can help retinal degradation of individuals and restore eyesight). So retina studies, retina disease modelling, etc., can be done in a much faster way,” says Kumar, currently Helogen’s VP for mission development for Middle East & Asia-Pacific. “We are opening an Indian entity very soon. The intent is to be part of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station,” he adds. Multi-jurisdictional advantage is something spacetech startup founders such as Jibin Jeffrey Dhanaraj are keen to make use of. Dhanaraj is the co-founder of Adelaide-based ResearchSat, and founder, Hyderabad-based RSAT Space Technologies. ResearchSat offers a variety of cutting-edge capabilities and features using the microgravity environment in space as a stimulant to advance medical and life sciences knowledge. The company’s objective is to develop off-the-shelf medicines to treat diseases currently considered moderately deadly. RSAT Space offers microgravity research services for multiple sectors, including pharmaceuticals. “Currently we are in the ideation stage. We were working on certain enzymes where we can create seed crystals for the pharma industry. One of the questions the industry often asks is the quantity one can produce in space. That is not an issue when it comes to seed crystals since pharma companies can [use this to] produce in large quantities [through conventional modes] later. That is how we are trying to evolve,” says Rahul Shetty, chief business development officer, RSAT Labs. RSAT is also working with researchers to design a device for crystallisation in space, which can be used in stem cell research, on cancer cells, or to make organoids. Chennai-based Inbound Aerospace is the newest kid on the block. Incorporated in January this year, Inbound is trying to build an autonomous spacecraft that can conduct microgravity experiments and carry out space manufacturing. “Since this is a proven concept and ISS is going to be decommissioned in 2030, this is a good opportunity to have a platform that is capable of doing microgravity research,” says co-founder Abhijit Bhutey. “The advantage of a spacecraft far outweighs that of a capsule. The design is done in-house. We made a couple of prototypes with glass fibre in the IIT Madras workshop. If the design works out well, then we are good,” says Bhutey. “The cost of launch is coming down, private players are being allowed, and there is so much deeptech things happening [in India]. All these factors are slowly converging towards new opportunities.” Beyond microgravity India’s vibrant pharma industry, space tech startups and the government’s plans for human space missions are attracting foreign players as well. Australian startup Metakosmos is a prominent example. Founded by Kiriti Rambhatla, an Australian citizen of Indian origin, Metakosmos focusses on bioastronautics and next-generation spacesuits. The company has recently opened a branch office in India to support Gaganyaan missions in the future. “India has a vibrant and established space economy. Looking at the upcoming startups, we believe there is an opportunity for supply chain collaborations,” says Rambhatla. “We are already engaging Indian software and defence firms for some of our product development work and would like to expand our collaboration across areas, including research and supply chain. We aim to work with Isro and defence in the future.” Bengaluru-based Protoplanet Expert network is another company that is looking to strengthen India’s space expedition ecosystem. “We are working with Isro’s human space centre in the capacity of a consultant, and also with research institutions and universities. We are also part of the space tutor programme,” says founder Siddharth Pandey. “I am collaborating with Isro for analogue missions for human space flight programmes. There is a need to train both humans and systems. Analogues serve to train astronauts. It is a complementary thing.” Challenges and the way forward The Ficci-EY report on ‘Unlocking India’s Space Economy’ states that in order to fully realise the country’s potential, it is important to address regulatory simplification, infrastructure investment, and public-private partnerships, essential to drive innovation. “Establishing dedicated financial mechanisms — such as sovereign space funds, venture capital incentives, and R&D grants — will provide the momentum for startups and industry players to scale operations,” it proposes. “As with any new technology that comes in, there are teething troubles, but the way the pharma industry is looking at space presents a huge opportunity,” says Sridhar Narayanan, senior technical advisor, innovation, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA). “IPA member firms are excited about doing research in space, especially with the launch of drugs, including Keytruda in the Indian market, one of the world’s largest selling products.” Incidentally, IPA companies have a joint vision to innovate at least 100 drugs from India by the 100th year of Indian independence. Narayanan says for this to become a reality, space research needs to play a major role. “I believe at least 10 of those will be drugs discovered based on technologies that are used in space,” he says. Exactly the kind of encouragement India’s space startups are looking for. Fortune India is now on WhatsApp! Get the latest updates from the world of business and economy delivered straight to your phone. Subscribe now.

Biotech reaches for the stars, with Indian startups in tow

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