{"id":49,"date":"2011-06-16T10:40:08","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T10:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/2011\/06\/united-therapeutic-releases-annual-report-for-its-teenage-investors-%e2%80%94-a-comic-book.html"},"modified":"2011-06-16T10:40:08","modified_gmt":"2011-06-16T10:40:08","slug":"united_therapeutic_releases_an","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/2011\/06\/united_therapeutic_releases_an.html","title":{"rendered":"United Therapeutic releases annual report for its teenage investors \u2014 a comic book"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"unither4.bmp\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/files\/unither4.bmp\" width=\"615\" height=\"446\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Who said you can\u2019t have fun in biotech? The Silver Spring, Maryland-based United Therapeutics, instead of conventional typed pages and figures, employed a caricaturist and comic book artist, <a href=\"https:\/\/jedmickle.com\/\">Jed Mickle<\/a>, to write their annual report. At <a href=\"https:\/\/files.shareholder.com\/downloads\/UTHR\/1290392365x0x466310\/3ac92701-7658-49b1-a31e-67693969f01f\/UTAR_2010_lo-res.pdf\">44 pages<\/a>, it\u2019s narrated by vice president of business development, Martin Auster, who dances through the pages to share the tale of his own career path, what makes UT and its employees, the Unitherians, so special, and, of course, a few figures about revenue and product development.<\/p>\n<p>Did I mention that he drew one page that requires 3D glasses?<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s major product is Remodulin, which treats pulmonary arterial hypertension, high blood pressure in lung arteries that can cause a shortness of breath. It\u2019s currently offered as an injection or inhaled drug, the sales of which make up 92% of the company\u2019s profits. Earlier this month, a clinical trial of an oral version of the drug allowed patients to walk 25 meters in 6 minutes, 30 meters more than a placebo. <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2011\/06\/06\/us-unitedtherapeutics-idUSTRE7553ZH20110606\">Reuters<\/a><\/em> reports that this fell below expectations, but founder and <span class=\"caps\">CEO<\/span> Martine Rothblatt remains enthused..<\/p>\n<p>If their annual report reveals any truth about the company, it\u2019s not hard to believe that they\u2019ll pick themselves right back up.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"unither2.bmp\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/files\/unither2.bmp\" width=\"643\" height=\"476\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"unither5.bmp\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/files\/unither5.bmp\" width=\"623\" height=\"280\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Images used with permission of United Therapeutics. Read the entire report <a href=\"https:\/\/files.shareholder.com\/downloads\/UTHR\/1290392365x0x466310\/3ac92701-7658-49b1-a31e-67693969f01f\/UTAR_2010_lo-res.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who said you can\u2019t have fun in biotech? The Silver Spring, Maryland-based United Therapeutics, instead of conventional typed pages and figures, employed a caricaturist and comic book artist, Jed Mickle, to write their annual report. At 44 pages, it\u2019s narrated by vice president of business development, Martin Auster, who dances through the pages to share the tale of his own career path, what makes UT and its employees, the Unitherians, so special, and, of course, a few figures about revenue and product development. Did I mention that he drew one page that requires 3D glasses? The company\u2019s major product is&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/2011\/06\/united_therapeutic_releases_an.html#wpn-more-49\" class=\"more-link\"> &hellip; Read more<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/2011\/06\/united_therapeutic_releases_an.html\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-odds-and-ends"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}