United Therapeutics Announces Recent Milestones for its Heart and Kidney Xenotransplantation Programs

United Therapeutics Corporation (Nasdaq: UTHR), a public benefit corporation, today announced the achievement of two milestones for its xenotransplantation programs in September: the second transplant of a UHeart xenoheart into a living person, and a 61-day study of the UThymoKidney xenokidney and thymus in a human pre-clinical model.

United Therapeutics’ organ manufacturing efforts consist of seven investigational programs: xenoheart, xenokidney, xenothymokidney, regenerative lungs, 3D-printed lungs, 3D-printed livers, and 3D-printed kidneys. These groundbreaking programs are intended to address the ongoing shortage of transplantable organs for patients with end stage organ disease.

According to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, around 110,000 Americans are currently waiting for an organ transplant, and more than 6,000 patients – 17 every day – die each year before receiving one. Almost 89,000 patients are waiting for kidneys, over 10,000 for livers, over 3,300 for hearts, and almost 1,000 for lungs, with many more patients suffering from end-stage organ failure who are ineligible for the strict organ transplant waiting list who could benefit from a readily available supply of organs on demand.

United Therapeutics initiated its xenotransplantation research work in 2011 and currently employs more than 50 scientists and support staff advancing this program. The company is currently finalizing construction of a $100 million clinical-scale designated pathogen free facility in Christiansburg, VA to support future clinical xenotransplantation studies with a capacity of approximately 125 organs per year.

To date, 10 xenotransplantation procedures using United Therapeutics' xenohearts and xenokidneys have been performed in living and brain-dead human recipients: two living human recipients of xenohearts, six brain-dead xenokidney/thymokidney recipients, and two brain-dead xenoheart recipients. United Therapeutics has built on its history of innovation in xenotransplantation with strong partnerships with top academic medical centers including the University of Maryland Medicine (UMM), NYU Langone Health (NYU), and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).