An estimated more than 100mn Americans have high blood pressure. One North Carolina-based drug company, Liquidia, has gone gangbusters over the past year selling the drug treprostinil under the brand name Yutrepia for pulmonary hypertension. Liquidia’s revenues surged following Yutrepia’s launch in June 2025: up from $12mn in the first six months of 2025 to $304mn in the same period this year.
This success appears to have set blood boiling at United Therapeutics, Liquidia’s larger rival. United’s brand is Tyvaso. United’s patent covering the treatment of PH-ILD via inhaled treprostinil is number 11,826,327 and runs to February 2042. Liquidia sought approval from the FDA to use Yutrepia for PH-ILD and United sued.
Last Wednesday, Judge Richard G Andrews issued his opinion. At the heart of United’s claim was that Liquidia had encroached on its territory by issuing an FDA-approved label on Yutrepia. Liquidia had conceded that Yutrepia infringed two of the claims under the patent but sought to claim that they were invalid. Judge Andrews disagreed, and Liquidia was ruled to have infringed the patent.
The patent infringement means Liquidia could be forced to pay damages and temporarily take Yutrepia off the market. That’s one expensive labelling “issue”. Circa $2bn of market value apiece for an extra “L” and “D”. Investors to have had almost two-thirds of their gains wiped out include Tom Steyer’s Farallon Capital. The two sides need to agree a remedy on the labelling by Wednesday.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing