Reformulating existing pharmaceutical molecules in microgravity

Zero Gravity Works (ZGW) is an Italian deep-tech company building Europe's first orbital pharmaceutical manufacturing platform. Our Module Gamma will crystallise small-molecule drug substance in Low Earth Orbit and deliver it to a single pharmaceutical partner under a defined supply agreement.
By exploiting microgravity, ZGW enables solid-state outcomes that are difficult or impossible to achieve on Earth — unlocking new options for solubility, stability and brand-quality consistency on commercial small molecules.

• Why Microgravity Matters
• Why now
• Who We Are Looking For
• Contact

Why microgravity matters

In microgravity, three physical changes reshape fluid systems: i) buoyancy-driven convection is suppressed and diffusion dominates mass transport, ii) sedimentation of particles and droplets is essentially absent, iii) hydrostatic pressure gradients vanish.
For selected small molecules, these changes can enable:
● kinetic stabilisation of metastable polymorphs with superior biopharmaceutical properties
● improved crystal-quality consistency in commercial batches
● reduced inter-batch variability for narrow-therapeutic-index drugs
● process patents on the orbital seeding method

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Why now

Commercial space infrastructure has transformed what is possible. Reusable capsules, commercial launch services, and rapid re-entry capabilities now make orbital missions operationally viable.
Wilson et al. (2025) demonstrated orbital crystallisation with seeds propagating the target polymorph across 10 terrestrial generations.
Varda Space Industries crystallised a metastable polymorph in orbit during W-1 (2023) — the first commercial orbital pharmaceutical batch.
ZGW is building a European platform dedicated to pharmaceutical partnership: one molecule, one partner, three years.

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Who we are looking for

We are engaging with pharmaceutical companies whose portfolio includes either:
● a development-stalled small molecule with a metastable polymorph problem, or
● a marketed narrow-therapeutic-index brand drug where crystal-quality variability is clinically meaningful and commercially valuable.The conversation is most valuable when the partner has multiple NTI assets, where validated execution on a demonstration molecule creates strategic value across the broader portfolio.
Early partners co-design experiments and access orbitally-processed batches.

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