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United Therapeutics of Silver Spring isn't your typical Maryland bioscience company.

For one thing, it's quite profitable, as its third-quarter net income climbed to $11.9 million from $11.0 million a year ago, with quarterly revenues approaching $100 million.

For another, it has defied convention during the economic slowdown by refusing to cut back on its clinical trials, conduct less risky trials or outsource them to clinical research organizations or overseas to save money.

"Our strategy has not changed much at all over the company's life," said Andrew Fisher, senior vice president of investor relations for the 400-employee company, which went public 10 years ago.

"We have always utilized internal and external resources to conduct our trials," Fisher said. "We rarely outsource a trial to a CRO. And, we rarely go it alone with our internal resources. There is usually a good balance."

The strategy has paid off, with annual sales increases of about 30 percent for nine straight years, results that lead some industry observers to think the company is ripe for a takeover.

"We are the No. 1 company in terms of growth on that metric, greater than 30 percent revenue growth each year," Fisher said. "I think any biotech company would be envious of that metric and honestly there are not that many profitable biotech companies out there. We have done so as a profitable company."

The biotech has put practically all its eggs into one pharmaceutical basket: treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare disorder characterized by continuous high blood pressure in the pulmonary artery in the lungs that afflicts about 30,000 Americans.

"Until two months ago, we were a single-product company," Fisher said, referring to Remodulin, its longtime treatment for the disorder. This summer, United began marketing Adcirca, an oral drug, and also recently began selling Tyvaso, an inhaled treatment, both for pulmonary arterial hypertension.

United has a history of solid funding and it pours "a vast amount" of its profits into clinical trials and research, Fisher said.

Its resources allow United to stage its clinical trials — more than eight currently — to have potential products in all phases at all times, he said. Joseph Schwartz, an analyst with Leerink Swann, said he expects United to outperform his estimates for sales based on its third-quarter report. He also noted that although expenses were "more than we or the Street expected," and United plans to spend more on selling, general and administrative costs and research and development to fund future growth, "sales should increase at faster pace."

Cash is key

"We have way more cash than it takes to conduct the trials," Fisher said. "It is not unusual to have a lot more cash than is needed for clinical trials. In the early days, prior to going public especially, we had to be more mindful of cash balances. But we were well-funded pre-IPO." United has maintained a steady cash level of $100 million to $200 million since 2000, according to its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company's market cap is $2.4 billion.

While many other biotechs in the region were launched by former pharmaceutical executives or scientists, United's founder, Martine A. Rothblatt, is a lawyer, author and satellite telecommunications veteran who co-founded Sirius Satellite Radio and WorldSpace.

She decided to enter the drug industry to find a cure or treatment for her 10-year-old daughter, Jenesis, who was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension in 1993.

Rothblatt purchased the compound that's now sold as Remodulin from GlaxoSmithKline for just $25,000 in 1997, and made initial investments to get United off the ground before it went public.

The company focuses on making life easier for patients, said Rothblatt, its CEO and chairman, in an Oct. 29 conference call with investors.

"Our goal is to continue to develop better and better products until we can confer pulmonary hypertension to a chronic lifetime manageable condition," she said.

This report originally appeared in The Business Gazette.