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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Julia Kollewe

Final frontier for meds? UK startup sends drug-making into space

A white rectangular device with scalloped edges floats inside a space station module, surrounded by equipment
BioOrbit’s Box-E unit was launched on a rocket from Kennedy Space Center heading for the International Space Station. Photograph: S Adenot/ESA/NASA

Onboard a SpaceX flight last week was a remarkable piece of cargo – a hi-tech box destined for the International Space Station to grow ultra-pure protein crystals, with the aim of producing self-injected cancer drugs.

A British startup, BioOrbit, has developed the drug-crystallisation technology at its labs in London and launched Box-E, a compact unit the size of a microwave, on the 15 May rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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