Varda Space Industries announced a collaboration with United Therapeutics Corporation (NASDAQ: UTHR) to explore microgravity-based drug formulation for rare pulmonary disease treatments.

The partnership will conduct pharmaceutical processing of small molecule medicines aboard Varda's orbital manufacturing platform during multiple missions to low Earth orbit. The companies plan to utilize microgravity's effects on molecular structure and crystallization properties to develop formulations that may improve drug stability, bioavailability, and delivery characteristics.

The collaboration represents what the companies describe as the first space-based drug formulation research aimed at producing therapies for patients. Initial compounds analyzed onboard Varda spacecraft will focus on treatments for life-threatening pulmonary diseases.

"Microgravity gives us a fundamentally different environment to manufacture pharmaceuticals that are otherwise impossible on Earth," said Will Bruey, CEO of Varda Space Industries.

Martine Rothblatt, Chairman and CEO of United Therapeutics, stated that the collaboration will allow the company "to explore how space-based manufacturing could contribute to significant improvements for rare pulmonary disease treatments."

The project leverages research conducted on the International Space Station showing that microgravity allows molecules to assemble more uniformly, producing crystal structures difficult to create on Earth. On Earth, gravity can affect molecular assembly during manufacturing through sedimentation and convection currents.

Varda's platform launches pharmaceutical payloads to orbit, processes materials in microgravity, and returns finished products to Earth using reentry capsules. United Therapeutics specializes in treatments for rare pulmonary diseases including pulmonary arterial hypertension.

The information was disclosed in a company press release.