Space pharmaceutical technology

The past few decades have seen extraordinary progress in the space industry and efforts that are being put into establishing, developing, and modernizing space stations to improve manned space exploration for long duration. With the increasing possibilities for manned deep space exploration, increasing attention is also being paid to understanding the effects of the space environment on human health to develop novel space-applicable therapeutics. Space pharmaceutical technology, therefore, serves as a promising field for research. The field primarily deals with screening and validating new drugs and their targets to meet the health needs of humans in space and utilizing the special space environment to facilitate the production of drugs. Considering the importance of the space environment and its possible application in the pharmaceutical sector, this chapter deals with the advances made in pharmaceutical technology in space, the opportunities that microgravity brings to the pharmaceutical field in terms of drug development, and insight into how space pharmaceutical technology may further advance in the future.