EOS (Electrophoresis Operations in Space)
Joint venture with McDonnell Douglas and Johnson & Johnson's Ortho Pharmaceutical to make and sell pharmaceuticals made in space.
Created: 2023-03-15
Updated: 2024-03-02
Company - EOS (Electrophoresis Operations in Space)
Product/Service - EOS-1
- Classification
- In-Space Manufacturing
- Category
- In-Space Manufacturing
- Fields
- Medicine and Drugs
- Status
- Dormant
- First launch
- 1982
It won't ever happen until someone is willing to take the risks. Johnson & Johnson's Ortho Pharmaceutical division did agree initially to test and sell the products made in space, leaving McDonneIl Douglas free to explore other opportunities with other institutions. The joint venture acquired a name, EOS (Electrophoresis Operations in Space), which has another meaning as weIl. Eos was the Greek goddess of dawn, and space enthusiasts hope that the EOS project will be the dawn of a new era in space.
But how were these companies going to get into space? Would
they have to pay each time to fly this apparatus aboard the shuttle to
perfect the process? Or would they have to go through the usual proposal
procedures at NASA, whereby everything they learned at great
expense would have to be shared with all corners because government
organizations can't keep trade secrets? NASA was very sensitive to the
need to involve the private sector to a greater extent, and it developed
the concept of a Joint Endeavor Agreement (JEA). This scheme allows
NASA to work with potential paying customers in a way that protects
the customers' investment in the groundwork. The general idea of a
JEA is that NASA and the company will share the risks of a project. In
this case, NASA will fly, for free, the electrophoresis apparatus while
it is being tested and producing drugs to be used in animal and human
clinical trials. During this period, the company can protect proprietary
information as necessary. Once the material is marketed, the EOS
project will have to pay the going rate to fly the apparatus in the shuttle
or wherever they decide is best.
Until the Challenger blew up, progress on this experiment was
really impressive. The first flight, on the fourth flight of the space
shuttle in June 1982, demonstrated that the expected improvement in
volume and purity of product would happen. Preflight calculations
indicated that one could double the size of the apparatus, increasing the
area of the input and output holes fourfold, and improve the concentration
of protein from 0.25% to 25%, a 100-fold improvement. The
expected 400-fold increase in productivity was realized in practice; the
separation efficiency was improved 463 times. A year later, on the
seventh shuttle flight, McDonnell Douglas tried increasing the voltage
in the cell, and a 718-fold improvement over ground-based results was
obtained. In 1984, they hoped to produce enough protein for the first
tests on animals, but the equipment malfunctioned and the carrier
solution became too hot, allowing bacterial contamination. 12 But in
April 1985, one gram of pure drug was produced, and animal testing
started. 13
An illustration of how successful the Joint Endeavor Agreement
scheme was in keeping the trade secret is that it was not until
November 1985 that McDonnell Douglas released the identity of the
drug that they were purifying in space. The drug is called erythropoietin, a human hormone that controls the production of red blood
cells. Before this venture, it was available only in very small quantities
for laboratory research and had not been used clinically.
Yet McDonnell Douglas's partner, Johnson & Johnson, seems to
have got discouraged. Arecent report indicated that they had decided
instead to test erythropoietin sampies made by Amgen, an earthbound
genetic engineering firm. 14 Perhaps the uncertainties following the
Challenger disaster, given that it's not clear at this writing how soon
the electrophoresis apparatus could fly again, produced so me second
thoughts. And so, it's not now clear where this particular venture is
headed. McDonnell Douglas's hopes had extended far beyond erythropoietin;
they had a shopping list of something like twenty drugs that
they had in mind for space mimufacturing. One specific possibility has
been announced: the production of beta cells in space as a possible cure
for diabetes, done in collaboration with Washington University in
Saint Louis.
Space drug grounded but going strong (1986-10-22)
The EOS-1 payload was to have been tended in orbit by McDonnell Douglas engineer Robert Wood.
The electrophoresis experiment often served as the symbolic leader
of the fledgling microgravity industry. A number of other ventures
have occurred as weIl. Most other companies are simply using the
space environment to do research of interest to them, as John Deere
and GTE did in exploring the properties of arcs in light bulbs and cast
iron in farm tractor engines. 3M's joint endeavor with NASA, for
example, involves growing crystals in orbit. Its initial emphasis is on
basic research rather than on making products in orbit. Grumman,
Batelle Columbus Laboratories, Union Carbide, and Westinghouse
have all been cited as possible participants in similar projects.
Sources
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