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The ICE Cubes facility on the ISS will host the remdesivir drug research experiment.
ESA / NASA
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When SpaceX’s CRS-21 mission launches on the International Space Station this weekend, it will be loaded with all kinds of supplies and research, including the first COVID-19 drug experiment to take place in space. The launch is scheduled for Saturday 5 December.
The experiment will not involve the astronauts who will undergo any treatment. It is about improving the effectiveness of the antiviral drug remdesivir, which is administered intravenously.
“Scientists will use the commercial ICE Cubes service in Europe to test a COVID-19 drug under microgravity conditions in order to better understand how remdesivir interacts with its delivery substance cyclodextrin so that the drug’s efficiency can be improved,” the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a statement Friday.
ICE Cubes stands for “International Commercial Experiment Cubes”. The service allows commercial entities to access space research on microgravity. “It will be the first time that any research related to COVID-19 will take place on the International Space Station,” ESA said.
Remdesivir has been a source of optimism when it comes to treating COVID-19, the disease that is ravaging the world during the coronavirus pandemic. In October, the The FDA has issued an emergency clearance for the use of the antiviral in the hope that it will help patients with severe COVID-19.
However, there is no broad agreement on the effectiveness of remdesivir. Also in November, the World Health Organization issued a conditional recommendation against the use of remdesivir in COVID-19 patients, stating that “there is currently no evidence that remdesivir improves survival and other outcomes in these patients.”
The groups behind remdesivir working on the ISS hope it can make the drug more effective and also reduce the risk of using it for patients with kidney problems, technology company InnoStudio, one of the experiment’s clients, said in a statement in November. PDF link).
The experiment will take place in ESA’s Columbus laboratory, a module on the ISS that hosts scientific and physical research activities.
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