Why BORYUNG is Manufacturing Drugs for $500 Per Kilogram in Space

Space is no longer science fiction—it's a $500-per-kilogram opportunity that's about to explode. While most pharmaceutical companies are still thinking terrestrially, one Korean biotech is already manufacturing drugs in orbit.

BORYUNG, a forward-thinking pharmaceutical company, isn't just developing medicines on Earth. Through their HIS Challenge (Humans in Space Challenge), they're pioneering the next frontier of drug development: space-based manufacturing and research. As commercial space stations prepare to replace the International Space Station by 2030, BORYUNG is positioning itself at the intersection of two booming industries.

In this interview, Jack Lim, Executive Director at BORYUNG, reveals how they're connecting startups with NASA, why space offers unique advantages for drug manufacturing, and why the biggest risk in the space economy is not taking any risk at all.

Jack Lim: My name is Jack Lim, executive director at BORYUNG. BORYUNG is a pharmaceutical company. The way we are doing is kind of age of discovery from like 15th, 17th centuries that the European people explore to different American continents. I think it's the same type of thing.

We are currently living in blue marble Earth, but we all have our mission to explore space. That's why we're providing our service as a pharmaceutical but also looking at space as new growth opportunity as a business wise but also provide the right solution for humans exploration in space as well.

NASA Commissioner Bill Nelson said rockets run on fuel. NASA runs on inspiration. That inspiration will lead more and more people to space. That's why we're here. We need to be ready to send people to space safely. That's what healthcare in space is all about.

Jack Lim: Humans in Space Challenge is about the open innovation global challenge program. We are actually trying to discover the novel technology who actually provide the business service as a startup company and also the researchers who's willing to send their experimentation in space in terms of biomedical space healthcare.

So we see the space as a new opportunity, but we didn't know where to start in the beginning. We started by contacting with all the expertise all over the world. Luckily, I got in touch with one of our alumni who is actually the ex-astronaut in NASA and also a professor in Georgia Tech, and I asked a lot of questions and we did a lot of Zoom meetings back then and then she helped us to frame what type of problem we should solve.

We kind of divide into two scopes. The one sector we call critical problem in space, which is we're trying to solve the healthcare issues for our future astronaut in space, the human explorer in space, there's going to be many health issues that will occur from the human body and we're trying to solve that problem first. And second one, we're trying to, we call the critical problem on Earth, which is using space microgravity condition to solve many different kinds of health issues on Earth such as cancer or aging related issues.

Jack Lim: Luckily I got in touch with NASA HRP, the Human Research Program. They actually study very similar type of problem that we're trying to solve. When you think about NASA, we automatically think that they're going to have all different types of solutions, right? We saw their current work in terms of the human exploration and how the human body risks in terms of low Earth orbit or lunar and Mars, different kind of conditions.

When you send people to Mars, it takes at least like 6 months and during that time period, of course, there are many things you should be considered. In that case, NASA didn't even know how to solve that problem. So even NASA doesn't know the problem, then there might be something that as a commercial company can contribute to value with all different types of people all over the world, but as a commercial company, we are more flexible working on this type of initiative.

So we luckily got in touch with them and then they became one of our judges in 2022 and then the partnership kind of escalated. We get in touch with Stanford, MIT, Harvard Medical School. Everything just starts hard in the beginning. The main reason that how we started and how we actually be able to connect with all this very prestigious partners is because nobody started this type of initiative before.

Jack Lim: We can actually use not only just research test bed in space, but there's actually a company who's trying to use it as manufacturing platform. One of my favorite company called Lambda Vision, they're actually developing new artificial retina in space.

Lambda Vision participated in the Human in Space Challenge in 2023. We had to come up with a pitch competition and we pitched in front of a large audience, people came by and talked to us at our individual booths. We were a winner that year that supported us to do some additional research in microgravity.

We were really excited about the results that we got from space because what we're showing is that we can actually get a more even stable product. What we did is we took those open beaker experiments—you cannot fly open solutions on the International Space Station—flew that in a box, so the box that we're flying is about the size of a shoebox. I didn't think it was possible. It just wasn't the first thing on my brain.

There's actually some cases that some of the startups, they haven't thought about applying their current prototype model to apply to space. They never thought about that, but space will be the next opportunity for them to develop kind of long term phase.

Jack Lim: Our main mode is we connect the right teams to the right partners so that they can send their R&D and research to right platform. When it comes to fund, we have a different model, like one equity stake, we actually invest their equity in the company, but at the same time, we also have investment model called orbital launch funding, which we cover their space launch costs for their specific experimentation.

The people who applied this program, we have a right procedure for our judge process. Each individual judge, they actually review each individual applicants and then mostly equity stake companies, obviously we see them as an investment opportunity. So our venture capital partners also look at taking a look at the company as a potential for investment.

We're running our business initiative in a very smart way because we only invest like $100,000 for startup equity, but at the same time, we connect with numerous space agencies like NASA, European Space Agency, ESA. We supported them through the funding and until we have our internal own accelerator program. It's called Humans in Space Accelerator Program.

We are not a space company. We're not fully expertise of space healthcare, but we know how to create actual platform that we can connect the right people with our right partners, not only just the research level, but also the platform in utilizing space environment for those people as well.

Jack Lim: This is a really good time to get involved and we're also building something from the ground up, doing a blueprint of the future in 10-20 years. You're being pioneering not just what you need today, but what are you gonna need in 5 years? What are you gonna need in 10 years? Where do you think the industry is going to go?

When you're doing new things, it can be very challenging. It doesn't always feel like you're doing the right things, but if you're stagnant, you're not gonna grow.

One of the things that I realized running the program was how individual researchers and startup actually work on different kinds of problems when it comes to space exploration, also trying to solve the problem on Earth. We saw how they are scattered, how they are not able to connect with each other because each individual technology and research has a lot of values and potential, but they just don't know how to connect with the right partners.

I think we have a pretty good network in terms of all the prestigious university level and also space agency level historically conduct numerous space related research before so we can make sure that connect the right people who is very similar research experiments with our expertise.

Jack Lim: Don't be afraid to take the risk. Be bold, be visionary. This is a very pivotal time for space research, but I would also tell them that opportunities in space are not just for scientists and engineers. Right now there are opportunities in space for people developing space suits for people sewing in space, for insurance in space, hotel and hospitality, anthropology in space.

Where you start might not be where you end. I think most startups, they change their business model very frequently, but I think space will be the next opportunity for them to develop kind of long-term phase.

I want those who start out there to look at space as a new opportunity to testify or apply your current business model or your current technology in space. Everything that we're doing, it's pretty much like a first step. Space healthcare is a very rare topic, but at the same time, we are leveraging healthcare society to break into space economy, space industry. It's obviously intersect between two industries in one program together.

When people talk about space, it's very complicated, it's very difficult concept to understand, but the International Space Station has actually been built since 1998. It's about 20 years from now. The way we're trying to have the space healthcare ecosystem, not only just running the humans in space Challenge, but actually trying to secure the right infrastructure to provide the experiment service platform. It's not like a new concept, I think. It has been established ever since International Space Station built, but there's no one actually trying to play the way we're doing it. So that's, I think, a pretty big value.