In 1996, Martine Rothblatt’s six-year-old daughter was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare lung and heart disease without a cure. Undeterred, Rothblatt, a cofounder of Sirius Satellite Radio, launched her own biotech firm with the goal of finding one.
“There is nothing worse than being told that your daughter is going to die,” https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2018/06/20/how-ceo-martine-rothblatt-turns-moonshots-into-earthshots/" aria-label="Rothblatt told Forbes">Rothblatt told https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2018/06/20/how-ceo-martine-rothblatt-turns-moonshots-into-earthshots/">Forbes in 2018. “I just said I will find a way, or she was going to die, because all of the previous people with this illness had died.”
Nearly three decades later, Rothblatt’s daughter is healthy and in her 30s. Meanwhile, shares of the now publicly traded firm, United Therapeutics, are up 54 times its price at its 1999 IPO. This year alone, shares have surged, up 50% so far in 2024 and up 40% since April 30—enough to make Rothblatt the world’s newest billionaire.
The Silver Spring, Maryland-based business generated $2.1 billion in sales last year, largely from selling five FDA-approved drugs to help people like Rothblatt’s daughter treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Investors have been cheering on United Therapeutics since it announced a $1 billion accelerated stock repurchase program in March, signaling it’s bullish about its pulmonary hypertension drugs. Also driving up the stock is excitement over the 41% year-over-year jump in revenue from its star drug, Tyvaso.
Rothblatt, 69, has led the now $14.7 billion (market capitalization) firm as CEO since she founded it. She has also been instrumental in helping push its subsidiary Revivicor into xenotransplantation, specifically manufacturing pig organs to transplant into humans with end-stage renal and cardiac diseases.
“There are tons of people on the waiting list for kidneys and hearts,” says Joseph Thome, senior research analyst at TD Cowen. “They’re willing to capitalize on it.”
No one has benefitted more financially from United Therapeutics’ success than Rothblatt, who has long been one of America’s wealthiest https://www.forbes.com/self-made-women/" aria-label="self-made women">self-made women. Forbes’ pegged her net worth at $390 million in 2015, after the company found a successful treatment for PAH with Orenitram (“Martine Ro” spelled backwards). By 2021, with United Therapeutics stock on the rise, she was worth some $585 million. Now—given her 650,000 shares, plus options to acquire even more stock, cash accumulated over her decades in business, and houses in several states—Forbes estimates Rothblatt’s net worth has hit the $1 billion mark, making her one of just 35 self-made women billionaires in America.
Click here to read the full article.