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Space Law/Aviation/Aerospace,
Health Care, Pharmaceuticals, Biotech

Feb. 25, 2026

The final frontier of drug development: Biotechnology and pharmaceutical innovation in low earth orbit

Scientists and companies are using the microgravity of low Earth orbit to develop drugs in ways impossible on Earth, creating new opportunities and legal challenges for space-based biotechnology and its regulation.

John E. Wehrli

Shareholder
Greenberg Traurig, LLP

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The final frontier of drug development: Biotechnology and pharmaceutical innovation in low earth orbit
Shutterstock

A quiet revolution is unfolding approximately 250 miles above the Earth's surface. In the microgravity environment of low Earth orbit (LEO), pharmaceutical companies, biotech startups and government-funded researchers are conducting experiments that may fundamentally alter how we discover, develop and manufacture drugs. For practitioners at the intersection of space law, life sciences regulation and i...

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