Space medicine has developed controlled terrestrial models to investigate the impacts on human health and performance, and their application should be expanded to encompass disease conditions involving hypoxia and other factors, in order to make valuable contributions to clinical drug development. Hypoxia, a condition in which the body is deprived of adequate oxygen supply, profoundly affects human physiology at multiple levels and contributes to the pathogenesis of various diseases. Experimental exposure to hypoxic conditions has gained recognition as a valuable model for studying diseases like pulmonary hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), migraine, and kidney disease. The approach may be particularly useful in mechanism-oriented early-stage clinical studies. This review will discuss the ability to mimic or induce these conditions in a controlled laboratory setting using hypoxia, making it a valuable tool for testing the efficacy and safety of new pharmaceutical interventions.