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Could RTP be in line for another biotech expansion? United Therapeutics is weighing it
February 09, 2021 01:53 PM
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK — Last month, biotechnology company United Therapeutics began tearing down the historic Elion-Hitchings building in Research Triangle Park, a Mid-Century, Brutalist structure built by the famed architect Paul Rudolph.
While the move was met with dismay from architecture lovers, the demolition could portend a large expansion on the building’s 132-acre property in the coming years.
United Therapeutics has had a presence in the Triangle for more than 20 years. In 2009, it built a research and manufacturing facility in RTP that now employs more than 400 people. A few years later, it bought the neighboring Elion-Hitchings property from GlaxoSmithKline.
The RTP site has become so significant for the company that it now calls the Park its co-headquarters along with Silver Spring, Md., where the company was originally founded in 1996.
United Therapeutics is best known for its medicines that treat pulmonary arterial hypertension, a type of high-blood pressure that affects the lungs, and organ manufacturing programs, which include 3-D printing and regenerative medicine.
Growth in those two areas has led to the company to consider new options about how to handle increased demand for its products. That could potentially mean new facilities and more jobs in the Triangle, as the Elion-Hitchings site now provides the company lots of flexibility.
Significant expansion
Dewey Steadman, United Therapeutics’ head of investor relations, said the company is currently weighing where it might grow its manufacturing capabilities in the U.S., as it prepares to launch new products into the market.
North Carolina could benefit from that growth, he added, which would most likely occur in the next couple of years.
“It could be pretty significant expansion,” he said in a phone interview, adding the company is looking at options “either in RTP or Maryland.”
Specifically, the company believes it could see strong growth in one of its new pulmonary hypertension treatments.
In January, United Therapeutics released new data on Tyvaso DPI, a medicine that treats pulmonary arterial hypertension, that the company said demonstrated safety and tolerability.
Tyvaso DPI is a new form of a medicine that United Therapeutics already has had approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. While the older version of the medicine is delivered by a nebulizer, Tyvaso DPI is a dry powder that needs just a traditional puff-style inhaler.
The change makes the treatment more convenient for patients, and the company believes that will be a boon for demand in the treatment, Steadman said.
United Therapeutics plans to submit a new drug application for Tyvaso DPI with the FDA in April. If it gets FDA approval, the company would likely need to expand its headcount and facilities to handle its growth. That is where the RTP site could potentially play a role.
Further down the line, RTP also could play a key role in the company’s organ manufacturing programs, once they gain FDA approvals, Steadman said.
Scott Levitan, the president of the CEO of the Research Triangle Foundation, said he is “thrilled” that United Therapeutics is considering further investments into the Park.
“They have options about where they want to grow, but I get the sense they would like to grow in RTP,” Levitan said in a phone interview. “And I think our community and our board really want to make sure they feel comfortable here.”
Levitan, an architect by training, said the former Elion-Hitchings building was a great representation of a post-World War II era where architecture embodied a strong optimism about the future. Architects, trying to imagine what a future world might look like, experimented with the form of buildings and the types of materials they used to construct them.
But that experimentation also meant using things like asbestos for insulation and materials that ended up not being durable. Today, Levitan said, the Elion-Hitchings building is no longer suitable to be a laboratory space for those reasons.
“I think the building served its purpose and lived its time,” he said in a phone interview. “But it wasn’t able to sustain physically.”
Investments keep flowing to RTP
If United Therapeutics were to select RTP for any expansion, it would be another sign of biotech’s growth in the Triangle.
Despite the pandemic, 2020 ended up being a great year for the region’s biotech industry, with several companies announcing expansion plans to the region and several startups getting huge investments.
Levitan said $3.5 billion worth of projects were announced in RTP alone last year — a figure that doesn’t include the Research Triangle Foundation’s own investment into Hub RTP, a development that will include office towers, apartments, restaurants and retail.
The continued investments into RTP “indicate the Park has entered a new era to be able to accommodate R&D companies that are on the cutting edge,” Levitan said. “The investment we are making in Hub is driven by a desire to make the Park more interesting and desirable for the workforce.”
The office towers at Hub RTP could begin construction in 2022, Levitan said. He added that the foundation is still a big believer in the future of large mixed-use developments, despite the fact that many workers are stuck at home because of the pandemic.
And United Therapeutics is not alone in considering the Park for a future expansion.
Fujifilm Diosynth, a contract drug manufacturer, said earlier this year that it will invest $2 billion into a new facility in the U.S.
The company already has a large presence in RTP, where it is currently manufacturing doses of Novavax’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine.
Martin Meeson, Fujifilm Diosynth’s CEO, told The N&O in January that the Triangle is under consideration for the expansion.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
