Case Study: Lilly, Insulin and Automated Crystallisation
What has Eli Lilly's work with Redwire's PIL-BOX shown, and what does automation change?
Chapter summary
Lilly has used Redwire's Pharmaceutical In-space Laboratory (PIL-BOX), an automated crystallisation cassette on the ISS, to grow crystals of small molecules for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and pain research, and earlier work showed insulin crystals grown in microgravity were larger and more ordered than ground crystals.
Key takeaways
- 1
Redwire has returned several batches of crystals for Lilly and others, and a March 2026 NASA funding announcement for Redwire's drug development work named Lilly and Bristol Myers Squibb among partners.
- 2
The case shows large pharma using automated hardware for repeated campaigns, the pattern most likely to grow on capsules.
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