United Therapeutics Corporation is an American

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

company that develops pharmaceuticals and technologies related to

organ transplantation Organ transplantation is a medical procedure in which an organ is removed from one body and placed in the body of a recipient, to replace a damaged or missing organ. The donor and recipient may be at the same location, or organs may be trans ...

, including

xenotransplantation Xenotransplantation (''xenos-'' from the Greek meaning "foreign" or strange), or heterologous transplant, is the transplantation of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another. Many of the company's products are focused towards lung disease and organ manufacturing. United Therapeutics is co-headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland and

Research Triangle Park Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the largest research park in the United States; it occupies in North Carolina and hosts more than 300 companies and 65,000 workers. It is owned and managed by the Research Triangle Foundation, a private non-profi ...

, North Carolina, with additional facilities in Magog and

Bromont Bromont () is a city in southern Quebec, Canada, at the base of Mont Brome; it is in the Brome-Missisquoi Regional County Municipality. The Bromont area and its resort, Ski Bromont, is well known as a tourist destination for its downhill skiing, ...

, Quebec;

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

and

Jacksonville Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

, Florida; Blacksburg, Virginia; and

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, New Hampshire.

History

United Therapeutics was founded in 1996 by

Martine Rothblatt Martine Aliana Rothblatt is an American lawyer, author, and entrepreneur. Rothblatt graduated from University of California, Los Angeles with J.D. and M.B.A. degrees in 1981, then began to work in Washington, D.C., first in the field of communic ...

, an American lawyer, author, and entrepreneur, who created

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merge ...

. In 1994, Rothblatt's young daughter was diagnosed with a fatal

orphan disease A rare disease is any disease that affects a small percentage of the population. In some parts of the world, the term orphan disease describes a rare disease whose rarity results in little or no funding or research for treatments, without financi ...

pulmonary arterial hypertension Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a syndrome in which the blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries and pulmonary arterioles (the blood vessels located proximal to the capillary bed, the site of oxygen exchange in the lungs) is elevated. T ...

(PAH). Rothblatt sold her telecom stock and started the PPH Cure Foundation to fund PAH research. In 2002, the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

(FDA) approved United Therapeutics' drug Remodulin, a

prostacyclin Prostacyclin (also called prostaglandin I2 or PGI2) is a prostaglandin member of the eicosanoid family of lipid molecules. It inhibits platelet activation and is also an effective vasodilator. When used as a drug, it is also known as epoprosteno ...

vasodilator used to treat PAH. Remodulin provided PAH patients with an alternative to

GlaxoSmithKline GSK plc (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with headquarters in London. It was established in 2000 by a Mergers an ...

's Flolan. By 2003, Remodulin annual sales had reached $50 million. By 2010, annual sales were $300 million and United Therapeutics' share price had increased 800 percent from the 1999

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

price. In 2011, United Therapeutics acquired Revivicor, a company focused on developing genetic biotechnology platforms to provide alternative tissue sources for treatment. With the acquisition of Revivicor, United Therapeutics began the xenokidney program to find alternative sources of organs for patients awaiting a kidney transplant.

Xenotransplantation Xenotransplantation (''xenos-'' from the Greek meaning "foreign" or strange), or heterologous transplant, is the transplantation of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another.medical device A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...

company developing injectable therapeutic drugs for pulmonary hypertension. Other acquisitions include SynQuest in 1999 and Cooke Pharma in 2000. United Therapeutics has entered numerous licensing agreements and collaborations with companies such as

Eli Lilly and Company Eli Lilly and Company, Trade name, doing business as Lilly, is an American multinational Medication, pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with offices in 18 countries. Its products are sold in approximately 125 count ...

, DEKA Research & Development,

MannKind Corporation MannKind Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company focusing on the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutic products for diseases such as diabetes and pulmonary arterial hypertension. Based in Danbury, Connecticut, the comp ...

, and the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

. In 2021, United Therapeutics converted to a

benefit corporation In business, and only in United States corporate law, a benefit corporation (or in some states, a public benefit corporation) is a type of for-profit corporate entity whose goals include making a positive impact on society. Laws concerning ...

. On January 7, 2022, a

porcine The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities consid ...

heart provided by United Therapeutics' Revivicor subsidiary in conjunction with the

University of Maryland Medical Center The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) is a teaching hospital with 789 beds based in Baltimore, Maryland, that provides the full range of health care to people throughout Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic region. It gets more than 26,000 inp ...

was used in the first pig-to-human transplant operation. The recipient subsequently died on March 8, 2022. In October 2023, United Therapeutics purchased bioengineering company IVIVA Medical, Inc. for $50 million plus royalties. Sixteen IVIVA employees transferred to United Therapeutics. In December 2023, United Therapeutics Corporation completed the acquisition of Miromatrix Medical Inc., a

company that specializes in the development of bioengineered organs composed of

human cells The list of human cell types provides an enumeration and description of the various specialized cells found within the human body, highlighting their distinct functions, characteristics, and contributions to overall physiological processes. Cell ...

Medicines

United Therapeutics products are sold in the U.S. and Canada, and its products are available in Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia through various distribution partners. In the U.S., the company has received multiple approvals from the Food and Drug Administration. These cover various strengths and routes of administration for Orenitram, Remodulin, Tyvaso, and Tyvaso DPI, each indicated for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Tyvaso and Tyvaso DPI are also indicated for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension associated with interstitial lung disease (PH-ILD). United Therapeutics also markets Adcirca (

tadalafil Tadalafil, sold under the brand name Cialis among others, is a medication used to treat erectile dysfunction, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and pulmonary arterial hypertension. It is taken by mouth. Onset is typically within half an hour and ...

) for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension under a licensing agreement with Eli Lilly and Company. In February 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted clearance for the Unity Subcutaneous Delivery System for Remodulin Injection, also known as the Remunity pump, allowing the system to be used with drug cassettes that have been prefilled by specialty pharmacies. The Remunity system allows for constant, subcutaneous (under-the-skin) delivery of Remodulin. The Remunity system is indicated for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension in patients older than 22. In March 2015, the U.S. FDA approved United Therapeutics'

Biologics License Application A biologics license application (BLA) is defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as follows: The biologics license application is a request for permission to introduce, or deliver for introduction, a biologic product into inters ...

(BLA) for Unituxin. Unituxin is a

monoclonal antibody A monoclonal antibody (mAb, more rarely called moAb) is an antibody produced from a cell lineage made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell. Monoclonal antibodie ...

used as a second-line treatment for children with high-risk

neuroblastoma Neuroblastoma (NB) is a type of cancer that forms in certain types of nerve tissue. It most frequently starts from one of the adrenal glands but can also develop in the head, neck, chest, abdomen, or Vertebral column, spine. Symptoms may include ...

, a rare form of cancer. In May 2022, the U.S. FDA approved United Therapeutics'

New Drug Application The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) New Drug Application (NDA) is the vehicle in the United States through which drug sponsors formally propose that the FDA approve a new pharmaceutical for sale and marketing. Some 30% or less of initial ...

(NDA) for Tyvaso DPI. Tyvaso DPI is a dry powder inhaler containing treprostinil and is indicated for both PAH and PH-ILD.

Research

United Therapeutics is advancing a pipeline of research and development projects that includes new indications, formulations, and delivery devices for its existing products. The company's R&D pipeline includes five registration phase studies, primarily in rare lung diseases, and seven preclinical product leads, primarily in organ manufacturing. In February 2020, United Therapeutics reported that it had successfully completed the INCREASE study of Tyvaso in patients with pulmonary hypertension associated with

interstitial lung disease Interstitial lung disease (ILD), or diffuse parenchymal lung disease (DPLD), is a group of respiratory diseases affecting the interstitium (the tissue) and space around the alveoli (air sacs) of the lungs. It concerns alveolar epithelium, pulm ...

(PH-ILD) and that the study met its primary endpoint of demonstrating improvement in six-minute walk distance (6MWD). The company submitted the INCREASE study results to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in support of an efficacy supplement to the Tyvaso

and received approval on March 31, 2021. Ongoing clinical trials of new medicines include ADVANCE OUTCOMES (Phase 3) for ralinepag in pulmonary arterial hypertension; a registration study of the Centralized Lung Evaluation System; and TETON 1 and TETON 2 for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). United Therapeutics is developing a unique type of

biopharmaceutical A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biological medical product, or biologic, is any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesized from biological sources. Different from totally synthesized pharmaceuticals, t ...

medicinal product known as a manufactured organ. This type of biologic would be transplanted into the patient as a substitute for a failing organ. The company has regenerative medicine products such as these being developed via

xenotransplantation Xenotransplantation (''xenos-'' from the Greek meaning "foreign" or strange), or heterologous transplant, is the transplantation of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another.New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

used a ThymoKidney xenokidney in the first transplant of a genetically engineered, nonhuman kidney into a brain-dead human body, observing kidney function over 54 hours. Researchers at The University of Alabama at Birmingham used a UKidney xenokidney in a transplant into a brain-dead recipient, observing kidney function over 77 hours. In 2021, engineers from the company's Unither Bioelectronics subsidiary conducted the first flight of human lungs for transplant from

Toronto Western Hospital The Toronto Western Hospital (TWH) is a major research and teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is part of the University Health Network (UHN). It has 256 beds, with 46,000 visits to its emergency department annually. It is known fo ...

Toronto General Hospital The Toronto General Hospital (TGH) is a major teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and the flagship campus of University Health Network (UHN). It is located in the Discovery District of Downtown Toronto along University Avenue (Toronto), ...

. The lungs were successfully transplanted into Alain Hodak, an engineer from

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, Canada. In 2022, the UHeart xenoheart was used in the first pig heart to living human transplant. The transplanted pig heart had ten genetic modifications to the pig genome. In 2022, Martine Rothblatt debuted a 3D printed lung scaffold that was what she called one of the "most complex 3D printed objects ever printed." The printed lung scaffold contained 44 trillion voxels that laid out 4,000 kilometers of pulmonary capillaries and 200 million

pulmonary alveoli A pulmonary alveolus (; ), also called an air sac or air space, is one of millions of hollow, distensible cup-shaped cavities in the lungs where pulmonary gas exchange takes place. Oxygen is exchanged for carbon dioxide at the blood–air bar ...

Operations

United Therapeutics owns a 415,000-square-foot combination laboratory and office building complex in Silver Spring, Maryland. The facility serves as the company's co-headquarters and is used for commercial manufacturing of

active pharmaceutical ingredients An active ingredient is any ingredient that provides biologically active or other direct effect in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease or to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or animals. ...

and finished dosage form products. United Therapeutics also owns a 380,000-square-foot combination manufacturing plant and office building in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The facility serves as the company's co-headquarters and is occupied by clinical research and development, commercialization, logistics, manufacturing, and packaging personnel. Adjacent to its Research Triangle Park complex, United Therapeutics owns a 132-acre site containing approximately 330,000 square feet of building space that is used for research, development and manufacturing related to the company's lung regeneration program. This site is available for future expansion. United Therapeutics subsidiaries include Lung Biotechnology PBC; Lung Bioengineering Inc.; Miromatrix Medical; United Therapeutics Europe, Ltd.; Unither Biotech Inc., Canada; Unither Pharma, LLC; Unither Telmed, Ltd.; Unither Bioélectronique, Quebec; IVIVA Medical; and Revivicor, Inc. As of December 2023, United Therapeutics had a global workforce of 1,168. On June 1, 2024, United Therapeutics' market capitalization was $12.3 billion.

Lung Biotechnology PBC

United Therapeutics' subsidiary Lung Biotechnology PBC was the first

public benefit corporation Public-benefit corporation may refer to several types of corporate entity: United Kingdom * public benefit corporation, the legal form of NHS foundation trust United States * Benefit corporation or public-benefit corporation, for profit but with ...

subsidiary of a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company. Utilizing

perfusion Perfusion is the passage of fluid through the circulatory system or lymphatic system to an organ (anatomy), organ or a tissue (biology), tissue, usually referring to the delivery of blood to a capillary bed in tissue. Perfusion may also refer t ...

, Lung Biotechnology pursued innovative technology that could preserve lungs for transplant by stabilizing lungs that would otherwise be discarded. The objective was to address the acute shortage of transplantable lungs for patients with end-stage lung disease, including PAH.

Corporate social responsibility

In 2020, United Therapeutics established a minimum "living wage" of approximately $75,000 per year for employees, inclusive of incentive pay. Fulltime employees are shareholders of the company through United Therapeutics' long-term incentive programs. United Therapeutics has been recognized as one of the Top 10 Corporate Citizens in the field of U.S. drug manufacturing, along with companies such as

Amgen Amgen Inc. (formerly Applied Molecular Genetics Inc.) is an American multinational biopharmaceutical Corporation, company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. As one of the world's largest independent biotechnology companies, Amgen has a ...

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical technologies corporation headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Its common stock is a c ...

, and

Bristol-Myers Squibb The Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, doing business as Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), is an American multinational pharmaceutical company. Headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, BMS is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and consist ...

. United Therapeutics was named on Fortune's Best Workplaces in Health Care & Biopharma 2021 (third consecutive year);

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

's Top Workplaces for 2020 (sixth consecutive year); Fortune's Best Small & Medium Workplaces 2020 (third consecutive year); and Fortune's Best Workplaces for Millennials™ 2020. In 2019, United Therapeutics received Women in Technology's Corporate Board Award and was named on Triangle Business Journal's "Best Places to Work List" for the sixth consecutive year. The company was also named to Newsweek's America's Most Responsible Companies list in 2022 and 2023. United Therapeutics facilities include one Platinum and two Gold

LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...

certified buildings, as rated by the

U.S. Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), founded in 1993, is a private 501(c)(3), membership-based non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in building design, construction, and operation. USGBC is best known for its development of t ...

, and four

net zero Global net-zero emissions is reached when greenhouse gas emissions and removals due to human activities are in balance. It is often called simply net zero. ''Emissions'' can refer to all greenhouse gases or only carbon dioxide (). Reaching net ze ...

buildings located across three states. Innovative, energy-efficient building design, multiple solar arrays, purchase of renewable energy credits (RECs) and carbon offsets, and other green energy technologies have enabled United Therapeutics to achieve a sustainable urban campus. At the time of its construction, United Therapeutics' site net-zero "Unisphere," a 135,000 square foot high-rise office building in Silver Spring, Maryland, was the largest urban office building to be energy positive. Using extensive solar arrays, heat mediating wells, and other leading-edge design technologies, Unisphere generates more energy on site than it consumes. United Therapeutics has implemented corporate governance best practices ahead of industry peers and the

Russell 3000 The Russell 3000 Index is a capitalization-weighted stock market index that seeks to be a benchmark of the entire U.S. stock market. It measures the performance of the 3,000 largest publicly held companies incorporated in the United States as me ...

. These include adopting majority voting and proxy access policies, initiating a Board declassification process, and imposing a tighter limit on director outside board membership. The Board of Directors engages with company shareholders multiple times each year to discuss governance and operations priorities. In 2020, 2021, and 2022, United Therapeutics published a comprehensive

Corporate Social Responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate social impact is a form of international private business industry self-regulation, self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropy, philanthropic, activist, or chari ...

report. In 2021, United Therapeutics shareholders approved the conversion of the company into a public benefit corporation (PBC). As a PBC, United Therapeutics, while creating value for shareholders, must also consider the best interests of those materially affected by the company's conduct and the specific public benefit that it chooses to adopt in its charter. PBCs like United Therapeutics are intended to produce public benefits and to operate in a responsible and sustainable manner. United Therapeutics public benefit purpose is "to provide a brighter future for patients through (a) the development of novel pharmaceutical therapies; and (b) technologies that expand the availability of transplantable organs."

Leadership

Martine Aliana Rothblatt, founder and chairperson of the board of United Therapeutics, graduated from

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, with J.D. and

M.B.A. A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

degrees in 1981. In June 2001, she earned a Ph.D. in

medical ethics Medical ethics is an applied branch of ethics which analyzes the practice of clinical medicine and related scientific research. Medical ethics is based on a set of values that professionals can refer to in the case of any confusion or conflict. T ...

at the

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, commonly known as Barts or BL, is a medical school, medical and dental school in London, England. The school is part of Queen Mary University of London, a constituent college of the federal ...

Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University ...

. Rothblatt worked in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, first in the field of

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

law, and eventually in life sciences projects like the

Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a ...

. She also served as the CEO of GeoStar and the creator of SiriusXM Satellite Radio. Michael Benkowitz serves as president and chief operating officer; James Edgemond is chief financial officer and treasurer; Paul Mahon is general counsel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:United Therapeutics Biotechnology companies of the United States Companies listed on the Nasdaq American companies established in 1996 Biotechnology companies established in 1996 1996 establishments in Maryland Companies based in Silver Spring, Maryland 1999 initial public offerings Companies in the S&P 400