United Therapeutics Corp. / UTHR

About United Therapeutics Corp.

1110 Spring St., Silver Spring, Md. 20910
www.unither.com | 301-608-9292 | Founded: 1996

Industry: Biotechnology | Category: Top 100 Companies

United Therapeutics is a rare breed among biotech companies in the region: It makes money. And in 2005, it made a lot more than it had ever made before. The firm's big splash came during the second quarter, when it reported that its profit had tripled from the year before, to $12.2 million. The news sent United Therapeutics' stock up 26 percent to a five-year high. Analysts used phrases like "blowout" to describe the company's performance.
What was happening? More patients were shifting to the company's pulmonary hypertension drug, Remodulin, because it is easier to administer than the chief competitor's product. While Remodulin must constantly be pumped into the body, it doesn't have to be frozen and carried in a special backpack, as Glaxo's drug Flolan does. Also, Remodulin stays in the body for more than four hours, compared with Flolan's less than three minutes. That means patients on Glaxo's product must respond quickly to any problems with the drug's pump. And Remodulin, while expensive at about $100,000 a year per patient, costs about $6,000 less than Flolan.
Even with all the success in 2005, United Therapeutics hit a rough patch in early 2006. The company badly missed Wall Street's expectations when it reported results for the fourth quarter. Analysts blamed the poor showing on stiff competition from a new treatment called Ventavis, which is inhaled, not continuously pumped into the body like Remodulin. Ventavis, made by CoTherix Inc., hit the market in March 2005. United Therapeutics is developing its own inhaled version of Remodulin, which could win approval at the end of 2007. Inhaled Remodulin could eventually leapfrog Ventavis in sales because Remodulin will probably need to be inhaled fewer times per day.

President and COO: Roger Jeffs

2007 Financial Data

Total employees: 200 | Local employees: 47