Building the Future of Organ Transplantation: Our New Xenograft Production Facility

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United Therapeutics proudly celebrated the ribbon-cutting of the new Thomas E. Starzl Xenograft Production Facility in Stewartville, Minnesota on August 12, 2026. We named this facility for Dr. Starzl because he is considered by many to be the Father of Organ Transplantation. His pioneering efforts led to a better understanding of transplant tolerance and improved surgical techniques, making transplants better and safer for patients.

This Designated Pathogen-Free (DPF) facility is crucial for advancing our revolutionary organ manufacturing program. It will produce our investigational xenotransplantation kidneys and hearts for patients in dire need of transplantation. The xenotransplantation products that we are researching and developing have the potential to significantly mitigate the organ shortage crisis.

We’ve made great strides in advancing our xenotransplantation program. We are developing our UthymoKidney™ from pigs with a single gene edit, as well as our Ukidney™ and UHeart™ from pigs with 10 gene edits.

Several ongoing clinical trials are assessing the efficacy and safety of our xenotransplantation products. Our goal is to obtain FDA approval of multiple xenotransplantation products to have different options for patients and enhance the available supply of transplantable organs.

In addition to our clinical milestones, we have also made important advancements for our manufacturing facilities.

A DPF facility requires strict biological and environmental controls, including air filtration, filtered water, high-quality feed supplies, and state-of-the-art decontamination entryways. Our new facility includes hundreds of miles of carefully calibrated air and water conduits to provide important quality control. The building contains multiple redundant electronic and energy control systems and a significant amount of insulated concrete.

Whether we are addressing the incredibly complex science of organ manufacturing or building the world’s first DPF facility for clinical and potential commercial transplantable organ production – overcoming obstacles and challenges is in our DNA.

The Thomas E. Starzl Xenograft Production Facility is a feat of biotechnology engineering that will help us achieve our goal to help solve the organ shortage crisis. It will allow us to bring transplantable organs, along with hope and new possibilities, to people desperately in need of all three. It allows us to carry forward Dr. Starzl’s belief that no life should be lost for lack of an organ.