United Therapeutics Adds Dzau to Board as Revenue Growth Stalls
The board move landed weeks after United Therapeutics reported its first year-over-year revenue decline in recent memory, with first-quarter sales falling 2% to $781.5 million.
United Therapeutics (UTHR) appointed Victor Dzau to its board of directors on July 23. The appointment lands at a moment when the biotech's underlying financial trajectory has shifted, and it is that shift, not the board seat, that shapes how investors are likely to read the company's next moves.
The pulmonary-disease drugmaker closed 2025 on an upswing. Fourth-quarter revenue rose 7% year-over-year to $790.2 million and net income climbed 21% to $364.3 million. That momentum reversed in the first quarter of 2026, when revenue slipped to $781.5 million, down 2% from $794.4 million a year earlier, and net income fell 15% to $274.9 million from $322.2 million. The swing from growth to contraction across a single quarter is the clearest signal in United Therapeutics' recent disclosures.
The company's flagship inhaled therapy shows why. Tyvaso DPI revenue grew 24% in the fourth quarter to $338.6 million but decelerated to 9% growth in the first quarter, reaching $330.3 million on just $16.0 million of unit growth versus $63.5 million the prior quarter. Nebulized Tyvaso, the older formulation Tyvaso DPI was designed to succeed, saw its decline widen from 12% in the fourth quarter to 22% in the first, a $36.6 million drop tied to a $33.3 million fall in U.S. quantities sold. Combined, the Tyvaso franchise swung from 12% growth in the fourth quarter to a 2% decline in the first, as $457.5 million in first-quarter revenue fell short of the $466.3 million booked a year earlier.
Remodulin added to the pressure, with its year-over-year decline widening from 5% to 8% on an $11.1 million drop in quantities sold. Orenitram was the exception, holding steady at 12% growth in both quarters and adding $14.9 million in the first quarter versus $13.4 million in the fourth, driven mainly by unit gains. Cost of sales rose 45% to $132.4 million in the first quarter from $91.6 million a year earlier, a cost-pressure disclosure that had no counterpart in the fourth-quarter release.
The language accompanying the numbers changed with them. United Therapeutics' fourth-quarter release forecast "durable double-digit revenue growth," while its first-quarter release instead pledged a "return to sequential quarterly revenue growth" through "relentless drive and unwavering discipline".
On the pipeline side, the company moved its ralinepag program forward. After a March 2 topline readout from the ADVANCE OUTCOMES trial showing a 55% risk reduction and 47% odds of clinical improvement, the first-quarter release formalized a development plan that included, for the first time, a ralinepag dry-powder-inhaler formulation targeting once-daily dosing in pulmonary hypertension and fibrosis.
United Therapeutics also moved on capital return during the period, authorizing a $2 billion share buyback and launching a $1.5 billion accelerated share repurchase program on March 9, neither of which appeared in the surrounding quarterly earnings releases. The Dzau appointment adds board depth as the company works to reverse the revenue slide it has now acknowledged in its own language.