Our Patients
Since our inception, we have been committed to our patients and their families. Our medicines treat life-threatening conditions that are extremely difficult for patients to manage, with a tremendous impact on quality of life for patients and their families. At United Therapeutics, we not only provide treatments, but we strive to ensure that patients have the support, education, and assistance they need when using our therapies to manage their disease.
Innovation
We seek to push technology forward
for the benefit of patients, with
the ultimate goal of developing
cures for pulmonary hypertension and
other end-stage organ diseases
through our organ manufacturing
program, which includes multiple
technologies and programs to create
an unlimited supply of
transplantable organs. Please see
our
Pipeline page to learn more.
Lung Biotechnology PBC, a wholly
owned subsidiary of United
Therapeutics, houses our organ
manufacturing work which is aimed at
dramatically increasing the supply
of transplantable organs. It is also
the
first public benefit
corporation (PBC)
subsidiary
of a public biotech or
pharmaceutical company. As a PBC,
Lung Biotechnology is chartered with
the express purpose of “address[ing]
the acute national shortage of
transplantable lungs and other
organs with a variety of
technologies that either delay the
need for such organs or expand the
supply,” and is expressly allowed to
consider the interests of this
public benefit purpose and to
operate in a responsible and
sustainable manner in addition to
the emphasis on shareholder value.
Our PBC is one way that we reflect
the
Business Roundtable Statement
on the Purpose of a
Corporation
(August 2019) signed by 181 CEOs who
commit to lead their companies for
the benefit of all stakeholders –
customers, employees, suppliers,
communities, and shareholders.

REHABILITATING DISCARDED LUNGS INTO LIFE-SAVING ORGANS
Since 2014, we have been developing technologies to convert donor lungs deemed unsuitable for transplantation into usable lungs through ex-vivo lung perfusion (EVLP). To date, we have performed over 150 EVLP procedures that resulted in successfully transplanted lungs for patients with end-stage lung disease. These are lungs that otherwise would have been discarded, absent the use of EVLP technology. We have two facilities dedicated to these technologies, including a site net zero facility we recently constructed on the campus of Mayo Clinic Jacksonville.
Patient Safety
Protecting and improving patient
health is our most important goal.
To ensure our patients’ safety, we
have a robust safety governance
structure and a comprehensive set of
standards designed to ensure that we
have proper oversight over
pharmacovigilance (PV) activities.
We extensively monitor the use of
our therapies, throughout the
product life cycle starting from
development programs and continuing
into the post approval phase, to
identify potential side effects, and
to ensure a positive benefit-risk
ratio. We provide mandatory training
of our employees and our third-party
collaborators to ensure proper
identification, rapid collection,
and analysis of adverse events (AE)
regarding the use of our therapies.
Patient safety risk
minimization
is at the core of our safety and PV
practice. Our PV team is
continuously monitoring AEs for any
key risks and stands ready to enact
risk minimization measures in order
to prevent or minimize AE associated
risks for patients using our
therapies. These principles also
guide our development efforts and
strategies. For example, one of our
lead products, Remodulin®, is
delivered by either subcutaneous
administration, which often causes
site pain reaction, or by
intravenous administration, which
involves the use of an indwelling
catheter and carries a risk of
bloodstream infections. We are
developing several next-generation
technologies to help mitigate or
eliminate these concerns.
Patient Support, Education, and
Financial Assistance
We take a holistic approach to our
patients and their families,
expanding our focus beyond just
treatments and therapies to include
a variety of support, education, and
assistance programs related to our
products. A few of our key programs
are outlined at our
Patients page.
Among other initiatives, we sponsor
the PAH Initiative, which
is committed to improving the lives
of patients with PAH through
education and empowerment, and we
are a long-standing supporter of the
Pulmonary Hypertension
Association (PHA).
We have dedicated teams to
ensure that patients have access
to our treatments.
One team works with insurers to
strive for the best possible
coverage for our drugs, and we are
proud of the results we have
achieved. We also have a variety of
options for patients who may still
need financial assistance to pay for
our treatments. And we have a
dedicated team,
ASSIST (Access Solutions and Support
Team), that helps our patients and
their families navigate this complex
area.
Finally, patient education is
critical to ensuring effective
management of a complex and
life-threatening disease such as
PAH. In addition, many PAH therapies
are specialty medications that bring
with them unique complexities
requiring in-depth patient education
to ensure safe and effective
administration. For this reason, we
have engaged a network of contracted
specialty pharmacies, with dedicated
nurses and pharmacists across the
country who are experienced
in
training and educating patients
on how to safely and effectively
use our medications. It is this level of interactions
with our patients – either through
nursing or the pharmacy staff – that
allows us to educate our patients as
effectively as we possibly can.