United Therapeutics Corp., the $14 billion biotech firm behind the first pig-to-human heart transplants, recently bought 45 acres of land to build a pig-to-human organ center in Stewartville.
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STEWARTVILLE, Minn. — United Therapeutics Corp., the $14 billion biotech company behind the first successful pig-to-human heart and kidney transplants, plans to build a a state-of-the-art pig-to-human organ center between Stewartville and Rochester.
Maryland-based United Therapeutics paid $4.5 million to buy 45 acres on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, to buy two parcels of property in the Schumann Business Park on the edge of Stewartville. The larger of the two parcels is between Interstate 90 and the FedEx facility as well as the Minnesota Medical Technologies complex. Another piece of land in located along U.S. Highway 63. Chris Terry of Hamilton Real Estate Group of Rochester handled the deal.
“United Therapeutics, the first biotech public benefit corporation, is constructing a state-of-the-art pilot scale designated pathogen-free facility to support clinical research using potentially lifesaving, gene-edited pig organs for transplant into patients who have end stage organ diseases of the heart and kidney,” wrote United Therapeutics Head of Investor Relations Dewey Steadman. “We are making a significant investment in the community of Stewartville and Olmsted County, Minn., guided by our commitment to being a responsible steward of the environment and an agent of change through the development of novel pharmaceutical therapies and technologies that expand the availability of transplantable organs.”
Maryland-based United Therapeutics Corp. is in the “very early stages” of plans to build new facility in Stewartville that will be “very similar” to a $100 million, 77,000-square-foot center that it recently built in Christiansburg, Virginia. United Therapeutics was the first to successfully transplant pig-to-human hearts and kidneys.
Contributed / United Therapeutics Corp.
“We plan to introduce the first pigs into the (Stewartville) facility in 2027,” wrote Steadman. As far as staffing, he estimated that the facility will add 20 new permanent jobs in the first 12 months after opening.
When asked about United Therapeutics, Rochester Area Economic Development Inc. President John Wade deferred to the company.
“While we don’t provide information related to any development that may or may not be under consideration, I can say that communities like Stewartville are well-led and well-positioned for growth,” he wrote in response to questions.
Steadman did elaborate on what made Stewartville’s Schumman Industrial Park attractive for this project.
“Proximity to Mayo (Clinic), which is a major transplant center, as well as proximity to the Rochester airport were important to us,” he wrote. “It does not involve Mayo directly, but we hope one day Mayo will be a customer for organs produced at the site.”
United Therapeutics does have several connections to Mayo Clinic and Minnesota.
United Therapeutics partnered with Mayo Clinic in 2015 to address the shortage of lungs suitable for transplant. In 2019, the company worked with Mayo Clinic to build and open the Discovery and Innovation Building focused on transplant research on Mayo Clinic’s Jacksonville, Florida, campus. The 75,000-square-foot Discovery and Innovation center also houses a Life Sciences Incubator that connects health care-focused entrepreneurs with business resources.
The company’s CEO Dr. Martine Rothblatt was named to Mayo Clinic’s Board of Trustees in 2022.
United Therapeutics’ most recent link to Minnesota is the $91 million acquisition of Miromatrix Medical, a University of Minnesota start-up company in the Fall of 2023.
The Eden Prairie-based firm, which collaborates with Mayo Clinic, adds human cells to organs engineered from pig kidneys and livers to make them suitable for humans. United Therapeutics Corporation’s mission to rectify the shortage of transplantable organs. Steadman added that while Miromatrix is not directly connected to the Stewartville project, it did have some influence in the decision.
“Through Miromatrix, we’ve learned a lot about how talented and vibrant the Minnesota biotech and healthcare community is. We’re excited to be expanding in Minnesota,” he wrote.
United Therapeutics has a reputation for being innovative, which it comes developing new medical solutions. It conducted the first successful pig-to-human heart transplant in 2022 and the first pig-to-human kidney transplant in 2024. United Therapeutics also has a number of pharmaceutical, including many drugs to aid organ transplantation.
Rothblatt, United Therapeutics’ CEO and founder, is a medical ethicist, an inventor, an attorney and a pilot. Rothblatt, who co-founded Sirius Satellite Radio, created United Therapeutics in 1996 to find a cure for her daughter’s medical condition — pulmonary arterial hypertension.
She has publicly shared her admiration of Mayo Clinic in the past.
“Mayo Clinic was uniquely able to save my father’s mobility after a car accident fifty years ago, and I have held them in awe ever since,” stated Rothblatt in 2015.
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