DEF 14A 1 uthr3994981-def14a.htm DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT

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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

SCHEDULE 14A

Proxy Statement Pursuant to Section 14(a) of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Amendment No.  )

Filed by the Registrant

Filed by a Party other than the Registrant

Check the appropriate box:

Preliminary Proxy Statement
Confidential, for Use of the Commission Only (as permitted by Rule 14a-6(e)(2))
Definitive Proxy Statement
Definitive Additional Materials
Soliciting Material under §240.14a-12

United Therapeutics Corporation
(Name of Registrant as Specified In Its Charter)
(Name of Person(s) Filing Proxy Statement, if other than the Registrant)

Payment of Filing Fee (Check the appropriate box):

No fee required.
Fee paid previously with preliminary materials.
Fee computed on table in exhibit required by Item 25(b) per Exchange Act Rules 14a-6(i)(1) and 0-11.


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About United Therapeutics

Our company was founded over 25 years ago with the challenge of finding a way to cure or treat a rare, life-threatening illness suffered by our CEO's daughter. That mission continues today, has grown to encompass a variety of rare diseases, and drives everything that we do. Early on, we developed a roadmap to success based on five strategic objectives:

Develop the best medicines possible from our intellectual property

Conduct the most insightful clinical trials of our medicines

Achieve superior communication and awareness of our products among physicians

Grow our business to be in the top quintile of our peers

Achieve our goals by doing the right thing and using the highest ethical standards

Our Commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility             AWARDS AND
RECOGNITION
PATIENT-CENTRIC APPROACH
The parents of a child with pulmonary arterial hypertension founded United Therapeutics, so we take our commitment to patients personally. Through our relentless pursuit of life-changing therapies, medical devices, and transplantation technologies, and our patient support and assistance programs, we are striving to improve the lives of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and other life-threatening diseases.
Fortune’s 2021
Great Places to Work

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP
We take sustainability seriously, as we believe that reducing our carbon footprint is a responsibility shared by all. Through our focus on constructing site net zero energy and LEED-certified buildings, we are taking a leadership role in driving the use of sustainable technologies forward.
The Washington Post’s
2021 Top Places To Work

OUR PEOPLE
We couldn't be the creative company we are without attracting, enabling, and valuing diverse, hard-working, team-playing employees we call "Unitherians". We have a company-wide minimum living salary, on-site subsidized child care, and a suite of health and wellness benefits to take care of our Unitherians holistically. Our Board and management teams lead our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and initiatives.
Triangle Business Journal
2021 Best Places to Work

 



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NOMGOV COMMITTEE CHAIR LETTER

Dear patients, providers, Unitherians, and fellow shareholders,

Many—perhaps most—companies say they are creative, but how often do you see evidence of that in their structure, governance, facilities, people, practices, achievements, and disclosures? I’ll let you answer that for other companies, but let me answer it for United Therapeutics with a few examples:

A decade before climate concerns dominated Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives, we began to build and operate a portfolio of net-zero, LEED-certified facilities.

Similarly, years before the recent focus on human capital management (HCM) practices, we adopted a minimum living wage compensation package of $75,000 for our employees, on top of our leading benefits, education, and inclusion programs.

And, when some issuers were just starting ESG reporting and engagements and struggling to mesh ESG and business purposes, we were already:

engaging with seven stakeholder constituencies;

tracking 11 material business factors that drive ESG benefits;

providing detailed HCM disclosures; and

seeking our shareholders’ support to align our corporate charter with the public benefits that our formation, existence, and treatments naturally enhance.

Regarding the last point, my colleagues and I are very grateful for the support our shareholders gave us to amend our charter to become a public benefit corporation (PBC). I want to pause to highlight a subtle but, we think, important point about this choice.

We are led by a CEO seeking a cure for her own child’s rare and life-threatening condition. Think about that for a minute: conditions that are rare—especially those that are also life-threatening—may not appeal to companies focused only on potential revenue from treating widespread and chronic conditions. But we believe that inclusion should extend to medical conditions—including rare ones—and that exploring overlooked medical areas can produce medical life-changers and financial game changers. We see this commitment in our commercialization of Unituxin®, which was the first therapy approved by the FDA to treat the ultra-orphan population of about 600 babies and children with high-risk neuroblastoma, the deadliest form of pediatric cancer.

It is not accidental, in other words, that we are leaders in addressing the critical shortages of transplantable organs. We believe our work on 3-D organ bioprinting, regenerative medicine, and xenotransplantation is taking the fiction out of science fiction as we combine the strengths of financial, operational, human, environmental, and medical leadership.

We are well aware, however, that even a culture as famously innovative as ours can fade if not nurtured. So it is also not accidental that our Department of Innovative Technology (DO/IT—yes, we have one!) offers every employee regular opportunities to win $100,000 grants for ideas that lead to new product development—and some of these ideas are already in production. We’ll let you compare this to typical HCM programs and say no more. We are therefore unabashed in asking for your support—whether voting for, investing in, or working with, United Therapeutics—as we move forward.

Onward!

CHRISTOPHER CAUSEY, M.B.A.
Independent Director
Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee
We believe our work on 3D organ printing, regenerative medicine, and xenotransplantation is taking the fiction out of science fiction as we combine the strengths of financial, operational, human, environmental, and medical leadership.




















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United Therapeutics at a Glance

WHAT IS UNITED THERAPEUTICS?

Founded to save a daughter's life, United Therapeutics is a profitable, 25+ year old, $8B+ market cap, dare-to-be-different biotechnology company that is building on its expertise and success developing therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) to address other chronic, life-threatening medical conditions ranging from pulmonary fibrosis to pediatric cancer, through our pursuit of life-changing therapies, medical devices, organ manufacturing, and transplantation technologies. Our profit margins are among the strongest in the entire biotechnology industry.

WHAT DID WE DO IN 2021?

We continued to deliver strong operating results from our four PAH therapies and our pediatric cancer treatment, yielding revenues of ~$1.7 billion and net income of nearly $500 million. We ended 2021 with a record number of U.S. patients being treated with our treprostinil-based therapies. We also secured approval of a supplemental new drug application for Tyvaso® to treat patients with pulmonary hypertension due to interstitial lung disease (PH-ILD), following the results of an exciting study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in January 2021. This approval made Tyvaso the only medicine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat this life-threatening disease.

We also launched sales of the Remunity® Pump for Remodulin® in 2021, and continued our efforts to develop RemoPro™, a prodrug molecule. We expect these two new technologies to bring added convenience and tolerance benefits to patients, and help us maintain and grow revenues from our market-leading parenteral treprostinil business.

We continued to engage with our shareholders — twice reaching out to those that hold over 70% of our shares to offer conversations with our Board members — and steadily increased the detailed information we provide about our sustainability efforts, Board refreshment, and compensation practices.

HOW DID WE DO IN 2021?

Our solid 2021 results are a testament to the value of our focus on being a built-to-last, long-focused, and people-focused company. We continued our revenue growth trend in 2021, and strong revenues coupled with conservative budgeting generated substantial free cash flow, which contributed to our strong financial condition, including $3.6 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities as of December 31, 2021 ($2.8 billion net of $800 million in indebtedness).

This execution led to strong stock price performance. During 2021, our stock price grew by 42%, outperforming the 0.03% return generated by the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index.

Finally, with overwhelming shareholder approval, we amended our charter to become a Delaware public benefit corporation (PBC). This step has aligned our charter with our longstanding values and operating model, and we believe our PBC conversion puts us at the vanguard for running a responsible corporation.

WHERE ARE WE HEADED?

Following the recent launches of Tyvaso in PH-ILD and the Remunity Pump for Remodulin, we are striving toward an additional product approval for Tyvaso DPI™, a dry powder inhalation version of Tyvaso which is expected to significantly enhance patient convenience.

We expect to continue to grow revenue from our treprostinil-based therapies through label expansions, new indications, new formulations, and the introduction of new delivery devices. We are also working on a number of entirely new therapies to treat PAH and other rare diseases that we hope to launch over the next several years. Longer term, we have set the ambitious goal of solving the acute shortage of transplantable organs through our innovative organ manufacturing programs, including ex-vivo lung perfusion (EVLP), xenotransplantation, regenerative medicine, and organ printing.

We have set a goal to reach 25,000 patients with our prostacyclin-based therapies and EVLP services by the end of 2025, up from around 10,000 now. Along with continued growth in our core products, we expect this growth to come from our ongoing development programs. We have seven phase 3 studies underway:

PERFECT evaluating Tyvaso in pulmonary hypertension associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (PH-COPD)
TETON 1 and TETON 2 evaluating Tyvaso in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)
ADVANCE CAPACITY and ADVANCE OUTCOMES evaluating ralinepag in PAH
SAPPHIRE evaluating our Aurora-GT gene therapy for PAH in Canada
Our phase 3 program evaluating the Centralized Lung Evaluation System (CLES) for EVLP

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UNITED THERAPEUTICS CORPORATION

NOTICE OF 2022 ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS

DATE AND TIME        LOCATION               WHO CAN VOTE        
Monday, June 27, 2022
10:30 a.m. Eastern Time
    virtualshareholdermeeting.com/
UTHR2022
    Shareholders as of April 28, 2022 (the Record Date) are entitled to notice of, and to vote at, our 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders

Voting Items

Company Proposals Board Vote Recommendation For Further Details
1 Election of the nine directors named in this Proxy Statement “FOR” each director nominee Page 18
2 Advisory resolution to approve executive compensation “FOR” Page 38
3 Approval of the amendment and restatement of the United Therapeutics Corporation Amended and Restated 2015 Stock Incentive Plan       “FOR”       Page 67
4 Ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2022 “FOR” Page 76

Shareholders will also consider and act upon such other business as may properly come before the Annual Meeting of Shareholders and any adjournment or postponement thereof. Proxy materials or a Notice of Internet Availability are being distributed to shareholders on or about May 6, 2022. This year’s Annual Meeting will be conducted solely virtually via live audio webcast. Our Board reached this decision after careful consideration and in light of ongoing developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic. A virtual format will enable shareholders to participate from any location and at no cost, while safeguarding the health of our shareholders, management, and Board. To attend the meeting online, vote your shares electronically, or submit questions, go to the website listed above. The Annual Meeting will begin at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday, June 27, 2022, and you are encouraged to log in early to avoid any delay due to technical issues. Please review this Proxy Statement for additional information. Whether or not you expect to attend the meeting virtually, you are requested to vote your shares as promptly as possible so that your shares are represented at the meeting. All shareholders are extended a cordial invitation to attend this virtual meeting. Our list of shareholders as of the Record Date will also be available for inspection for the ten days prior to the Annual Meeting. To inspect the list, please email our Investor Relations department at IR@unither.com.

By Order of the Board of Directors,


PAUL A. MAHON
Corporate Secretary
April 29, 2022

How to Vote

INTERNET             TELEPHONE            MAIL                
Before the meeting, go to proxyvote.com
During the meeting, go to
virtualshareholdermeeting.com/UTHR2022
    (800) 690-6903     Mark, sign, date, and promptly mail the enclosed proxy card in the postage-paid envelope
Important Notice Regarding the Availability of Proxy Materials for United Therapeutics Corporation’s 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders to Be Held on Monday, June 27, 2022: United Therapeutics Corporation’s Proxy Statement and Annual Report on Form 10-K are available at: ir.unither.com/annual-and-proxy

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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Proxy Statement contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA). These statements, which are based on our beliefs and expectations as to future outcomes, include, among others, statements about our future operating results, business plans, objectives, pipeline advancements, benefits of our products, and any other statements that contain the words believe, seek, expect, anticipate, forecast, project, intend, estimate, should, could, may, will, plan, or similar expressions, and any other statements contained or incorporated by reference into this Proxy Statement that are not historical facts. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, such as those described in our periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as well as risks stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results. These statements may also be based on standards for measuring progress that are still developing and on assumptions that are subject to change in the future. Consequently, such forward-looking statements are qualified by the cautionary statements, cautionary language, and risk factors set forth in our periodic reports and documents filed with the SEC, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K. We claim the protection of the safe harbor contained in the PSLRA for forward-looking statements. We are providing this information as of April 29, 2022, and assume no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this Proxy Statement whether as a result of new information, future events, or any other reason.

WEBSITE REFERENCES

Website references included throughout this Proxy Statement are provided for convenience. The content on the referenced websites are not incorporated herein and are not part of this Proxy Statement.

NOMGOV COMMITTEE CHAIR LETTER         1
UNITED THERAPEUTICS AT A GLANCE 2
NOTICE OF 2022 ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS 3
BUSINESS OVERVIEW 6
Our Business 6
2021 Performance in Review 9
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY 10
Mission and Unitherian Culture 10
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 11
Support for Our Employees During the Pandemic 11
Creating a Sustainable Public Benefit Corporation 12
PROXY SUMMARY 13
Voting Matters 13
Governance Highlights 14
Executive Compensation Highlights 16
OUR CORPORATE GOVERNANCE 18
PROPOSAL 1: Election of Directors 18
Selecting Directors 18
How We Select Our Director Nominees 19
Board Diversity and Skills 20
Proxy Access 22
Majority Voting 22
Policy on Overboarding 22
Board Declassification 22
Stock Ownership Guidelines 22
Board of Directors and Nominees 23
Nominees for Election at our 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders 23
Class III Directors Continuing in Office with Terms Ending in 2023 28
Director Independence 29
Board Structure 30
Board Leadership 30
Committees of our Board of Directors 30
Corporate Governance Guidelines and Committee Charters 31
Board Roles and Responsibilities 32
Risk Oversight 32
Shareholder Engagement 33
Board Education 34
Board Meetings and Board Member Attendance at our Annual Meetings of Shareholders 34
Shareholder Communication with Directors 34
Non-Employee Director Compensation 35
Overview 35
Equity-Based Awards 36
2021 Non-Employee Director Compensation 37

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EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION         38
PROPOSAL 2: Advisory Resolution to Approve Executive Compensation 38
Compensation Discussion and Analysis 39
Overview 39
Our Named Executive Officers 40
2021 Performance Highlights 41
2021 Shareholder Outreach 41
Overview of our 2021 Executive Compensation Program 42
Pay Element Overview 43
2021 Compensation Decisions 44
2021 Compensation Program Design 50
Key Governance Features of our Executive Compensation Program 53
Other Executive Compensation Policies and Practices 53
Compensation Committee Report 55
Compensation Tables 56
Summary Compensation Table 56
Grants of Plan-Based Awards in 2021 57
Narratives to Summary Compensation Table and Grants of Plan-Based Awards in 2021 Table 57
Outstanding Equity Awards at 2021 Fiscal Year-End 58
Option Exercises and Stock Vested in 2021 61
Pension Benefits in 2021 61
Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan 61
Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control 63
Pay Ratio 65
PROPOSAL 3: Approval of The Amendment and Restatement of The United Therapeutics Corporation Amended and Restated 2015 Stock Incentive Plan 67
AUDIT MATTERS 76
PROPOSAL 4: Ratification of The Appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as United Therapeutics Corporation’s Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm for 2022 76
Report of our Audit Committee 76
Principal Accountant Fees and Services 77
Policy on Audit Committee Pre-Approval of Audit Services and Permissible Non-Audit Services of our Independent Auditors 77
OTHER MATTERS 78
Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions 78
Beneficial Ownership of Common Stock 79
Delinquent Section 16(a) Reports 80
Shareholder Proposals and Director Nominations 81
Other Business 82
Shareholders Sharing the Same Address 82
Annual Report 82
INFORMATION ABOUT THE MEETING, VOTING, AND PROXIES 83
Attending the Annual Meeting 83
General 83
Record Date and Outstanding Shares 83
Internet Availability of Proxy Materials 84
Solicitation 84
Voting Rights and Quorum 84
Proxy 84
ANNEX A - United Therapeutics Corporation Amended and Restated 2015 Stock Incentive Plan A-1
ANNEX B - Non-GAAP Financial Information B-1

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BUSINESS OVERVIEW

Our Business

We market four products for PAH and one product for pediatric high-risk neuroblastoma (NB). Our leading PAH product, Tyvaso, was approved in 2021 to treat PH-ILD, making it the only approved therapy to treat this life-threatening disease that we believe impacts at least 30,000 patients in the United States.

PAH Portfolio NB Product
     

Continued Innovation Leads to Revenue Growth

Three of our PAH products are prostacyclin analogues based on the molecule treprostinil: Remodulin (delivered parenterally, via intravenous (IV) or subcutaneous (subQ) pumps), Tyvaso (an inhaled product), and Orenitram® (an oral tablet). Our fourth PAH product is Adcirca®, a PDE-5 inhibitor. Unituxin® is a monoclonal antibody for treatment of pediatric high-risk NB.

Our total revenues grew 14% in 2021, compared to 2020. Following the approval and launch in PH-ILD in March 2021, Tyvaso revenue grew 26% year-over-year, making it our largest product. The number of patients being treated with Tyvaso grew by approximately 1,300 patients in 2021 (to 4,300 patients at year-end 2021), and we aim for the number of Tyvaso patients to reach 6,000 by the end of 2022. Orenitram continued its growth following the FREEDOM-EV label expansion in 2019.

In addition, even with continued generic competition in worldwide markets, Remodulin revenues remained steady. In 2021 we launched the Remunity Pump for Remodulin, and we continue to invest in new molecules and delivery systems to continue to help PAH patients using Remodulin.

Unituxin revenue grew 65% in 2021 compared to 2020, driven in part by the recent approval and launch of Unituxin in Japan, along with increased volumes in the United States.

We are actively working to improve the treprostinil molecule and each of its delivery systems to enhance convenience, safety, and patient outcomes. We are also actively studying additional indications for Tyvaso. We expect these efforts will result in revenue growth for our treprostinil-based products.

Tyvaso: PERFECT and TETON Studies in New Indications

We are conducting a pivotal study of Tyvaso in patients with PH-COPD called the PERFECT study, and recently commenced the TETON studies of Tyvaso in patients with IPF. We believe there are approximately 100,000 PH-COPD and 100,000 IPF patients in the United States. Presently, there are no FDA-approved therapies indicated to PH-COPD, and treatment options for IPF patients are extremely limited.

Recent and Future Treprostinil Label Expansion Efforts

Potential U.S.
Population
45,000 30,000 100,000 100,000
Data Read-Out Study ongoing Studies ongoing
FDA Approval TBD TBD

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Business Overview

Tyvaso DPI

We have developed a dry powder formulation of treprostinil called Tyvaso DPI for the treatment of PAH, under a license from MannKind Corporation. We believe this product, which is a small, pocket-sized inhaler that does not need electricity, will have significant convenience advantages over current inhaled prostacyclin alternatives. Following successful pivotal development studies that demonstrated biocomparability between Tyvaso DPI and Tyvaso Inhalation Solution, in April 2021 we submitted a new drug application (NDA) to the FDA to approve this new therapy to treat both PAH and PH-ILD. We resubmitted our NDA in December 2021 to address issues raised in a complete response letter from the FDA. We anticipate an FDA decision on our NDA by May 2022.

Remodulin: Prodrug and Next-Generation Parenteral Pump Systems

Along with our recently-launched Remunity Pump for Remodulin, we are conducting a series of phase 1 studies to develop a new prodrug of treprostinil called RemoPro, which is intended to enable subcutaneous delivery of treprostinil therapy without the site pain currently associated with subQ Remodulin. As a prodrug, RemoPro is designed to be inactive in the subQ tissue, which should decrease or eliminate site pain, and to metabolize into treprostinil once it is absorbed into the blood. Together, we believe Remunity and RemoPro would improve patient convenience and potentially serve some of the 30-40% of PAH patients who refuse parenteral therapy because of site pain, the inconvenience of current pump designs, or interference with lifestyle choices. We are also working with industry partners to develop additional next-generation IV and subQ treprostinil pump systems.

Orenitram: FREEDOM-EV Label Expansion

In October 2019, the FDA approved a label expansion for Orenitram that incorporated the results of our FREEDOM-EV study. The FREEDOM-EV study showed that Orenitram, when taken with an oral PAH background therapy, decreased the risk of a clinical worsening event versus placebo by 25% (p=0.0391), driven by a 61% decrease in the risk of disease progression for patients taking Orenitram, when compared to placebo (p=0.0002). Orenitram is now indicated to delay disease progression and improve exercise capacity. We believe this will drive continued growth in Orenitram revenues.

United Therapeutics Treprostinil Historical Annual Net Sales


We’re Moving Beyond Treprostinil…

We believe that treprostinil will be one of the standards of care in PAH for some time to come and anticipate significant growth through label expansions and new formulations and delivery devices. In addition, we are working on programs beyond treprostinil that we think could have an outsized impact on patients with PAH and other lung diseases.

Ralinepag in PAH. Ralinepag is a next-generation, oral, selective, and potent prostacyclin receptor agonist in development for the treatment of PAH. We are conducting two phase 3 studies of ralinepag. We believe ralinepag’s once-daily dosing will make it highly

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Business Overview

competitive with the existing approved oral prostacyclin agonist, selexipag, which is a competitor’s product that generated U.S. revenues of approximately $1.1 billion in 2021.

Aurora-GT™. We’re conducting a clinical study called SAPPHIRE of a gene therapy product called Aurora-GT, in which a PAH patient’s own endothelial progenitor cells are isolated, transfected with the gene for human endothelial nitric oxide synthase, expanded ex-vivo, and then delivered back to the same patient. This product is intended to rebuild the blood vessels in the lungs that are compromised by PAH. This is a registration-stage study in Canada sponsored by Northern Therapeutics, Inc., a Canadian entity in which we have a 49.7 percent voting stake and a 71.8 percent financial stake. We have the exclusive right to pursue this technology in the United States.

…and Seeking a Cure

We believe that the ultimate solution for PAH patients and patients with many other life-threatening diseases is a cure through transplantation. Each year, end-stage organ failure kills millions of people. A significant number of these patients could have benefited from an organ transplant. Unfortunately, the number of usable, donated organs available for transplantation has not grown significantly over the past half century, while the need has soared. Our long-term goals are aimed at addressing this shortage. With advances in technology, we believe that creating an unlimited supply of tolerable manufactured organs is now principally an engineering challenge, and we are dedicated to finding engineering solutions.

We are heavily engaged in research and development of a number of organ transplantation-related technologies including regenerative medicine, organ bio-printing, xenotransplantation, and EVLP.

Recently, we announced several key achievements in our organ manufacturing program:

First Successful Xenotransplantation of a Porcine Heart: In January 2022, University of Maryland School of Medicine surgeons successfully transplanted our experimental, genetically-modified UHeart™ into a living human under an expanded access authorization by the FDA. The patient ultimately survived for two months following the UHeart transplantation.

Successful UThymoKidney and UKidney Tests in Preclinical Human Models: In September 2021, collaborators at New York University Langone Medical Center and The University of Alabama at Birmingham tested our experimental, genetically-modified UThymoKidneys™ and UKidneys™, respectively, from our genetically modified pigs in brain-dead organ donors, providing preclinical evidence that genetically modified pig organs could transcend the most proximate immunological barriers to xenotransplantation. Results of the UAB experiment were published in the American Journal of Transplantation in January 2022.

EVLP: In January 2022, we announced that more than 200 patients had received lung transplants following the use of our centralized EVLP service. EVLP technology increases the number of transplantable lungs by giving surgeons the ability to assess the function of marginal lungs to determine if the lungs are suitable for transplantation. This allows for the use of lungs that would have otherwise not been transplanted.

Drone Delivery of Organs: In October 2021, we successfully completed the first-ever delivery of a lung for transplant at Toronto General Hospital, demonstrating the feasibility of our goal of delivering our manufactured organs with zero carbon footprint aircraft.

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Business Overview

2021 Performance in Review

CONTINUED STRONG REVENUE PERFORMANCE INDUSTRY-LEADING PROFITABILITY
Revenue grew 14% in 2021 compared to 2020
U.S. treprostinil-based revenues reached an all-time high
The number of U.S. patients on our treprostinil-based therapies reached an all-time high
Tyvaso revenue grew by 26% in 2021 compared to 2020, driven by the PH-ILD label expansion
Net income exceeded $475 million in 2021
Net income margin was 28% and EBITDASO margin* was 47% in 2021, compared to 13% average net profit margin and 24% average EBITDASO margin for our compensation peer group**
$1.75 million in revenue per employee in 2021, which ranks 4th among the 25 companies in our compensation peer group
     
CONTINUED INNOVATION AND R&D PROGRESS STRONG BALANCE SHEET POISED FOR FUTURE INVESTMENT
Approval of PH-ILD indication for Tyvaso in March 2021
Completed clinical studies supporting Tyvaso DPI, leading to NDA submission to the FDA in 2021
Continued progress on seven phase 3 studies
$3.6 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable investments as of December 31, 2021
$800 million in debt outstanding as of December 31, 2021
Strong balance sheet well-positioned to endure economic instability, and pursue strategic R&D and business development initiatives
* EBITDASO margin is a non-GAAP measure. A reconciliation of this non-GAAP measure and other information relating to this measure can be found in Annex B.
** For a description of our compensation peer group, see Executive Compensation—Compensation Discussion Analysis—2021 Compensation Design—Compensation Peer Group.

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CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

Mission and Unitherian Culture

At United Therapeutics, we are crystal clear about our purpose and talk about it often — developing innovative therapies for unmet needs, with the ultimate objective of finding a cure for end-stage organ diseases by creating an unlimited supply of tolerable, transplantable organs. We maintain a vibrant, entrepreneurial culture, instilling our employees with a sense of ownership and meaning that we believe gives us a competitive advantage in achieving our mission.

Our Patients

Innovation: In 2021, we obtained FDA approval for Tyvaso to treat patients with PH-ILD, a condition that we believe impacts at least 30,000 patients in the U.S., making Tyvaso the only medicine approved to treat this life-threatening disease.

Patient Safety: Over 975 volunteers participated in 16 of our clinical trials in 2020. We are subject to external audits by health authorities who verify that we are complying with applicable laws, regulations, and ethical standards. No regulatory inspections of our clinical trials resulted in required, voluntary, or official actions or monetary fines in 2020.

Patient Support, Education, and Financial Assistance: We rolled out our first copay assistance care program for patients taking Adcirca in 2010. From 2010-2020, over 20,000 patients enrolled in our ASSIST programs and received help in filling over 240,000 dispensed prescriptions.


Our People

Diversity & Inclusion: We are fully committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion—see details below.

Communication: Recent surveys showed that 93% of our participating employees “have a high degree of trust and, are likely to be retained”—and 97% of respondents said that United Therapeutics is a Great Place to Work!

People Programs: Our people programs are designed to demonstrate how much we value our employees, and to enable all employees to participate in our financial success. For example, all full-time domestic employees have cash compensation targets of at least $75,000 annually (base salary + bonus target). We also provide meaningful opportunities for employees to share in our success by making every full-time employee a shareholder through our long-term incentive compensation programs. We offer market-leading benefit programs and provide access to a variety of health and wellness facilities and programs, such as on-site childcare centers and state-of-the-art fitness centers, along with access to 24/7 employee assistance programs.

COVID-19 Response: We have worked hard to support our employees during the pandemic, as discussed further below.


Our Planet and Communities

Environmental Stewardship: We operate solar arrays that generate a significant amount of the electricity that we consume on an annual basis. We also buy renewable energy credits; these credits offset 86% of our total 2020 electric consumption. We have constructed four net zero facilities, including our 135,000 square foot Unisphere in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland.

Historical Environmental Data: We provide information about our environmental footprint. As we expand our ESG reporting efforts, we remain committed to taking steps to diminish our climate impact and enhance our disclosures.

Our Community Programs: In 2021, in light of the continuing pandemic, we held another virtual company-wide Community Service Day, where each participating employee was provided a cash stipend to donate to the non-profit charity of their choosing. Employees shared the details of their chosen organizations and any related service activities on our internal social media platform.

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Corporate Responsibility

Our Principles

Ethics & Compliance: Our Compliance Principles, based on our key tenet of "Do the Right Thing," outline how we expect all Unitherians to conduct themselves.

Safe Work Environment: We had one OSHA recordable incident for our U.S. operations in 2021, with an overall incidence rate of 0.1 per 100 full-time workers. This is significantly below the average incidence rate of 1.7 per 100 full-time workers for our industry.

Supply Chain Reliability: We maintain a rigorous GxP Quality & Compliance program covering those aspects of our supply chain that could impact the quality and safety of our products. We use more than 700 pre-qualified raw material vendors and service providers to support clinical and commercial business operations.

For more details about our commitment to Corporate Responsibility, download our 2021 Corporate Responsibility report at corporateresponsibility.unither.com. The information on our sustainability website and in our 2021 Corporate Responsibility report are not incorporated by reference into, and do not form part of, this Proxy Statement.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Over the course of 2021, we continued to strengthen our focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) at the Board level and throughout our company. In 2020, we put our plan and framework together for where we want to take DE&I together as an organization, and in 2021 we all got to work. Our goal is to ensure that DE&I continues to be intrinsically woven into our day to day culture. To this end, in 2021 we:

Continued regular and ongoing engagement with our external consultant that specializes in fostering DE&I in workplaces.
Continued our DE&I learning journey, which included a combination of live and self-directed training designed to promote and enrich awareness of important DE&I topics. 100% of our employees participated in our DE&I training programs in 2021.
Our Inclusion Advisory Group and DE&I Executive Council, two working groups that provide input for and oversight of our ongoing DE&I initiatives, met regularly and contributed to our key accomplishments in 2021. As part of this work, we created guidelines for employee resource groups, which are voluntary, employee-led groups that seek to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace by creating comfortable and inclusive spaces that offer community and connection for underrepresented groups.

All Employees Management

Support for Our Employees During the Pandemic

Our commitment to the wellness of our employees, who are working hard to support a continuous supply of medicines to our patients, has been crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the past two years, we maintained consistent and clear communication with our employees on pandemic-, work-, and culture-related topics to help keep them safe and feeling connected. Early in the pandemic, we moved quickly to pivot all employees who could work remotely into a work-from-home model and focused on providing the safest possible working environment for those employees who were required to work in our facilities to ensure a continued supply of medicines to our patients. In spring 2021, we communicated our plans for a phased return to working in person well in advance of the return date to enable our employees to plan accordingly, and we continue to provide flexible options for hybrid work arrangements. As part of our continued effort to ensure the health and safety of our employees, we required all employees to be fully vaccinated before returning to in-person work in September 2021. We are also encouraging our employees to receive booster shots as they become eligible to do so. We continue to offer paid time off for those employees who need to quarantine or isolate for COVID-19 related reasons. We remain committed to ensuring the safest possible work environment and acknowledging our employees contributions during this unprecedented time.

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Corporate Responsibility

Creating a Sustainable Public Benefit Corporation

In 2021, with overwhelming shareholder support, we converted our company from a traditional Delaware corporation into a Delaware PBC. This change has aligned our legal form with our longstanding commitment to serve our patients, and we believe it will: (1) enhance our ability to recruit and retain top talent; (2) reinforce our standing and credibility with regulators and stakeholders; (3) attract more of the rapidly growing pools of duration, impact, and ESG-screened capital; and (4) enhance our ability to create excellent and sustainable value for our shareholders.

The fiduciaries of a PBC must identify the specific public benefit purpose they will pursue alongside their creation of shareholder value. They must also report on their promotion of this specific public benefit purpose. Our PBC purpose is to provide a brighter future for patients through (a) the development of novel pharmaceutical therapies; and (b) technologies that expand the availability of transplantable organs.

Our shareholders have expressed a keen interest in learning how United Therapeutics is working to create a sustainable company and to address our ESG objectives, and we are steadily increasing the amount and granularity of our disclosures to meet this interest. See corporateresponsibility.unither.com. With our PBC conversion, we became the first publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company organized as a PBC. As a PBC we will be required to post reports on our progress toward fulfilling our PBC mission, which we believe will further enhance our disclosures and relationships with employees, patients, shareholders, and other stakeholders.

What is a Public Benefit Corporation?

A Delaware PBC is a for-profit corporation. There are two primary differences between a PBC and a traditional Delaware for-profit corporation:

A corporation organized as a Delaware PBC identifies in its certificate of incorporation one or more specific public benefits that it will seek to promote in addition to shareholders' financial interests. The public benefits are actions or goals that are intended to have positive effects on a category of persons, entities, interests, or communities.
In making decisions, directors of a PBC have an obligation to balance the financial interests of shareholders, the interests of stakeholders materially affected by the PBC’s conduct, and pursuit of the corporation’s public benefit purpose.

A Delaware PBC must also provide its shareholders with a statement, at least every other year, as to the PBC’s assessment of the success of its efforts to promote its public benefit purpose and the best interests of those materially affected by the PBC's conduct.

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PROXY SUMMARY

Voting Matters

Shareholders will be asked to vote on the following matters at the Annual Meeting:

1 Election of Directors
This year at our Annual Meeting, Mr. Christopher Causey, Mr. Richard Giltner, Professor Katherine Klein, Mr. Ray Kurzweil, Dr. Linda Maxwell, Professor Nilda Mesa, Dr. Judy Olian, Dr. Martine Rothblatt, and Dr. Louis Sullivan are nominees for election as directors to serve one-year terms until our 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are duly elected and qualified or their office is otherwise vacated.
Our Board recommends a vote FOR each director nominee. See page 18

2 Advisory Resolution to Approve Executive Compensation
We are asking our shareholders to vote on an advisory resolution, commonly known as a “Say-on-Pay” proposal, to approve executive compensation as reported in this Proxy Statement.
Our Board recommends a vote FOR this proposal. See page 38

3 Approval of the Amendment and Restatement of The United Therapeutics Corporation Amended and Restated 2015 Stock Incentive Plan (the Plan)
The Amendment and Restatement makes the following changes to the Plan:
Increases the maximum number of shares of our common stock that may be issued under the Plan by 500,000 shares
Extends the expiration date of the Plan to April 25, 2032
Our Board recommends a vote FOR this proposal. See page 67

4 Ratification of the Appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as United Therapeutics Corporation’s Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm for 2022
The Audit Committee of our Board has appointed Ernst & Young LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for the year 2022. We ask that our shareholders vote to ratify this appointment.
Our Board recommends a vote FOR this proposal. See page 76

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Proxy Summary

Governance Highlights

Board of Directors

               Director
Since
Committee Membership
Name and Primary Occupation       Age       AC CC NGC


Christopher Causey, M.B.A. IND 59 2003
Former Consultant and Healthcare Executive
Richard Giltner IND 58 2009
Former Portfolio Manager, Lyxor Asset Management
Katherine Klein, Ph.D. IND 65 2014
Professor of Management, The Wharton School
Vice Dean, Wharton Social Impact Initiative
Ray Kurzweil IND 74 2002
A Director of Engineering, Google
Linda Maxwell, M.D., M.B.A. IND 48 2020
Head and Neck Surgeon, Private Practice
Founding and Executive Director, Biomedical Zone (Toronto)
                                          
Nilda Mesa, J.D. IND 62 2018
Adjunct Professor, Columbia University
Former Director, NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability
Judy Olian, Ph.D. IND 70 2015
President, Quinnipiac University
Former Dean, UCLA Anderson School of Management
Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D., J.D., M.B.A. 67 1996
Founder, Chairperson, and Chief Executive Officer,
United Therapeutics
Louis Sullivan, M.D. IND 88 2002
President Emeritus, Morehouse School of Medicine
Former Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
 
 
Raymond Dwek, C.B.E., F.R.S. IND 80 2002
Emeritus Director of the Glycobiology Institute,
University of Oxford
Christopher Patusky, J.D., M.G.A. IND 58 2002
Founder, Patusky Associates, LLC
Vice Chair and Lead Independent Director, United Therapeutics
Governor Tommy Thompson, J.D. IND 80 2010
Former Governor of Wisconsin
Former Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

AC – Audit Committee

     Member
CC – Compensation Committee Chair
NGC – Nominating and Governance Committee Independent

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Proxy Summary

Board Snapshot

Independence

Board Diversity


Public Company Board Experience (non-UT)       International
6/12 7/12
Executive Management Experience       Science / Medicine
8/12 6/12
Financial Expertise       Healthcare Industry Experience
10/12 7/12
Legal Environmental, Social, and Governance
4/12 11/12
Government / Regulatory Experience
5/12

Our Governance Best Practices

We have taken great strides over recent years to implement best corporate governance practices, often acting ahead of the curve in terms of our industry peers and the Russell 3000.

MAJORITY VOTING BOARD DESTAGGERING DIVERSITY AND REFRESHMENT
       

In 2015, we adopted a majority voting standard with a director resignation policy

In 2020, we amended our Certificate of Incorporation to commence a destaggering process. Going forward, directors are elected to one-year terms

Diversity and refreshment are also key areas of focus where we are largely in-line with our peers or ahead of the curve. For example, our Board is 42% female. Since 2014, we have added four new directors, all of whom are female and two of whom self-identify as members of a racial or ethnic minority


PROXY ACCESS SHAREHOLDER FEEDBACK ENHANCED DISCLOSURE
       

In 2015, we adopted a market-standard form of proxy access

 

Our Compensation and Nominating and Governance Committees take shareholder feedback on governance seriously—we have made numerous changes in direct response to shareholder feedback

In 2021, we issued our second corporate responsibility report and expanded our ESG disclosures. In this Proxy Statement, we are providing enhanced disclosure concerning our Board's skills and diversity

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Proxy Summary

Executive Compensation Highlights

Total Compensation Mix — Pay for Performance

United Therapeutics has a strong pay for performance philosophy, as a substantial majority of pay for our Chief Executive Officer and other Named Executive Officers (as defined below under Compensation Discussion and Analysis—Our Named Executive Officers) is performance based, and at-risk based on individual and company performance. Our 2021 performance drove home the strength of our executive compensation programs, reflecting attainment of a robust revenue goal while still maintaining top quintile profitability, making substantial progress on critical R&D programs, and ensuring our patients had an uninterrupted supply of medicines—all while delivering 42% share price growth to shareholders.

The following charts illustrate the extent to which pay for our Chief Executive Officer and our other Named Executive Officers is “at risk”, meaning payout levels are based entirely on performance due to the use of performance targets, in the case of our cash incentive program, or an inherent stock price performance criterion, in the case of stock options. For each chart, the amounts shown represent 2021 base salary (on an annualized basis, following the February 2021 salary increases), 2021 target cash bonus opportunity, and the annualized grant-date fair value of long-term incentive awards granted in March 2019, which was a four-year grant covering the period 2019-2022.

2021 CEO and Other NEOs Pay Mix

CEO
Other NEOs

No Equity Awards Granted to NEOs in 2021

We implemented a new long-term incentive compensation program in 2019, awarding a four-year equity grant to our Named Executive Officers, which was granted instead of annual equity awards for the performance years 2019 through 2022. The four-year awards were granted in March 2019 and were divided equally into the following two forms of stock options:

Premium-Priced Performance Stock Options. 50% of each Named Executive Officer’s equity award covering grants for 2019-2022 was granted with a premium-priced performance condition by virtue of an exercise price equal to 115% of our closing stock price on the date of the grant. Therefore, our stock price will have to grow by more than 15% above the share price on the grant date before our Named Executive Officers can realize any value from the award. These stock options will not vest until they vest in full on the fourth anniversary of the grant date (i.e., “cliff” vest), promoting retention and a long-term view.
Market-Priced Stock Options. 50% of each Named Executive Officer’s equity award covering grants for the period of 2019-2022 was granted with an exercise price equal to our closing stock price on the date of grant. These awards vest in equal thirds on the second, third, and fourth anniversaries of the date of the grant, as a retention incentive.

While only the premium-priced options may count as "performance based" according to some, we view both of these tranches as performance-based, as both require significant and sustained stock price growth in order to enable our Named Executive Officers to realize any value from them. Both tranches have an eight-year term, which means they will need to grow and sustain the stock price more quickly than would be the case for options with a more typical ten-year term.

These awards are intended to compensate our Named Executive Officers over the four-year period of our current business plan. In response to shareholder feedback, we committed to not making any additional equity grants during this four-year period (2019-2022) to our existing Named Executive Officers. As such, no equity was awarded to our Named Executive Officers in 2021. When viewed on an annualized basis, these awards meaningfully decreased overall compensation and decreased overall dilution when compared with the results if we had continued our previous program of making annual equity grants for four additional years. On an annualized basis, this program reduced our Chief Executive Officer’s total target direct compensation from the top quartile in 2018 to approximately the 50th percentile of our peer group in 2019.

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Proxy Summary

The four-year awards were designed to incentivize and retain our Named Executive Officers over this critical four-year period, which aligns with a four-year business plan intended to drive substantial revenue growth despite generic competition, while reducing compensation on an annualized basis in response to requests by our shareholders.

Because we did not grant any equity awards in 2021, compensation paid to our Chief Executive Officer in 2021 as reported in the Summary Compensation Table remains drastically reduced at $3.5 million—a 92% reduction in pay compared to 2019, the last year in which we granted an equity award to our CEO (which was intended to compensate our CEO over a four-year period).

Robust Goal-Setting

We continue to set difficult goals under our annual Company-Wide Milestone Program, which governs short-term cash bonuses for our Named Executive Officers. As one example, the chart below shows our revenue targets for the past three years, our actual revenue performance, and how this compares to the expectations of Wall Street analysts following our company, which is one of many factors considered when goals are set. For 2020, our revenue target was set above prior-year performance, as well as analyst consensus, and for 2021, our revenue threshold was set above prior-year performance, as well as analyst consensus.

Analyst Consensus Annual Cash Incentive Goals UT Actual Performance

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OUR CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

1 Election of Directors

Our Board consists of twelve members and is in the process of declassifying. Historically it was divided into three classes, with one class elected at each Annual Meeting to a three-year term. This year at our Annual Meeting, Mr. Christopher Causey, Mr. Richard Giltner, Professor Katherine Klein, Mr. Ray Kurzweil, Dr. Linda Maxwell, Professor Nilda Mesa, Dr. Judy Olian, Dr. Martine Rothblatt, and Dr. Louis Sullivan are nominees for election as director to serve one-year terms until our 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are duly elected and qualified or their office is otherwise vacated. Professor Klein, Mr. Kurzweil, and Drs. Maxwell, Rothblatt, and Sullivan were each previously elected by shareholders at our 2021 Annual Meeting to serve a one-year term. Mr. Causey, Mr. Giltner, and Professor Mesa were each previously elected by shareholders at our 2019 Annual Meeting to serve a three-year term as Class II directors. Please see Board Declassification below for further details regarding our declassification process.

Directors are elected by a majority of votes cast at our Annual Meeting. A majority of votes cast means that the number of votes cast for the director nominee’s election must exceed the number of votes cast against that director nominee’s election. Broker non-votes and abstentions are not considered votes cast and therefore have no impact on the election of directors. Cumulative voting is not permitted in the election of directors. Proxies may not be voted for more than nine nominees.

Each of our director nominees has consented to be named in this Proxy Statement and to continue to serve on our Board of Directors, if elected. We do not anticipate that any nominee will become unable or unwilling to accept their nomination or election. If such an event should occur, the persons named on the proxy card intend to vote for the election of such other person as is selected by our Board in such nominee’s stead. In the alternative, the persons named on the proxy card may simply vote for the remaining nominees, leaving a vacancy that may be filled at a later date by our Board of Directors, or our Board of Directors may reduce the size of our Board.

Our Board of Directors recommends that you vote FOR the election of each of the nominees.

Selecting Directors

We believe that our directors should possess the highest personal and professional ethics, integrity, and values, and should be committed to representing the best interests of our shareholders. We also endeavor to have a Board of Directors that, as a whole, represents a range of experiences in business, government, education, and technology and in other areas that are relevant to our business activities. As reflected in our Corporate Governance Guidelines, our Board and our Nominating and Governance Committee seek to achieve a diversity of occupational and personal backgrounds on the Board, including with respect to gender, race, and ethnic diversity. We assess the effectiveness of our efforts in this respect during the annual evaluation process conducted by our Nominating and Governance Committee. In addition, our Nominating and Governance Committee seeks to recommend director candidates who will enhance the quality of our Board’s deliberations and decisions, take their duties seriously, and promote the values and ethics to which we subscribe. Our Board also believes there are certain attributes every director should possess, which are described in the Director Nominations and Diversity section below. In evaluating incumbent directors for re-nomination to our Board, the members of our Nominating and Governance Committee consider a variety of factors. These include each director’s independence, financial literacy, personal and professional accomplishments, tenure on and contributions to our Board, and experience in light of our business goals.

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Our Corporate Governance

How We Select Our Director Nominees

Succession
Planning

   

Our Nominating and Governance Committee considers current and long-term needs of our evolving business and seeks potential director candidates in light of emerging needs, our current Board structure, tenure, skills, diversity, and experience

Identification of
Candidates

Our Nominating and Governance Committee engages in a search process for director candidates, led by its Chair

Our Nominating and Governance Committee considers candidates recommended by members of our Board, executive officers, shareholders, and other sources, and evaluates shareholder nominees using the same criteria as it uses to evaluate all other candidates

A shareholder who wishes to recommend a prospective nominee for our Nominating and Governance Committee’s consideration should submit the candidate’s name and qualifications to our Corporate Secretary at the address set forth under Shareholder Communication with Directors below

Qualifications
Sought

To be considered, each director candidate must meet the following minimum criteria:

Personal and professional integrity
A record of exceptional ability and judgment
Ability and willingness to participate fully and work constructively in Board activities, including active participation in meetings of our Board and any committees to which they are assigned
Interest, capacity, and willingness, in conjunction with the other members of our Board, to serve the interests of our shareholders
Reasonable knowledge of our field of operations, as well as familiarity with the principles of corporate governance
Expertise needed to serve on one or more committees of our Board
Independence, including the absence of any personal or professional relationships that would adversely affect the candidate's ability to serve our best interests and those of our shareholders

In addition, our Nominating and Governance Committee is interested in candidates who possess the following skills:

The ability to contribute to the variety of opinions, perspectives, personal and professional experiences and backgrounds, as well as other characteristics that differ among members of our Board
A desire to contribute positively to the existing tone and collaborative culture among our Board members
Professional and personal experiences and expertise relevant to achievement of our strategic objectives

Meeting with
Candidates

Once our Nominating and Governance Committee identifies a potential director nominee, it screens the candidate, performs reference checks, and conducts interviews with the assistance of our General Counsel and our Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer

If the outcome of that process is favorable, our Nominating and Governance Committee may recommend the candidate to our Board for consideration

Decision and
Nomination

Our Nominating and Governance Committee recommends, and our full Board approves, the director candidates who are best qualified to serve the interest of our shareholders. Our Nominating and Governance Committee’s evaluation of director nominees considers their ability to contribute these qualities and skills to our Board

Election

Each year, shareholders consider and elect directors at our Annual Meeting of Shareholders. In addition, our Board may appoint directors to fill vacancies upon the recommendation of our Nominating and Governance Committee during the year

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Our Corporate Governance

Re-Nomination Process

Our Nominating and Governance Committee appreciates the importance of critically evaluating individual directors and their contributions to our Board in connection with re-nomination decisions.

In considering whether to recommend re-nomination of a director for election at our Annual Meeting, our Nominating and Governance Committee conducts a detailed review, considering factors such as:

The extent to which the director’s judgment, skills, qualifications, and experience (including those gained due to tenure on our Board) continue to contribute to our Board’s success
Attendance and participation at, and preparation for, Board and committee meetings
Independence
Shareholder feedback, including the support received by those director nominees elected at our most recent Annual Meeting
Outside board and other affiliations, including any actual or perceived conflicts of interest
The extent to which the director continues to contribute to our Board’s diversity

Board Diversity and Skills

We believe it is important that our Board is composed of individuals reflecting the diversity represented by our employees, our patients, and our communities. In recent years, our Nominating and Governance Committee has taken this priority to heart in its nominations process, and the diversity of our Board has grown significantly. With the addition of Dr. Linda Maxwell in 2020, we have continued to expand the diversity of our Board, which is among the most diverse of our peers. In response to feedback from shareholders, we provide below enhanced disclosure regarding the diversity and skillset of our Board.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience
Public Board Experience*
Executive Management Experience
Financial Expertise
Legal
Government / Regulatory Experience
International
Science / Medicine
Healthcare Industry Experience
Environmental, Social, and Governance
Gender
Male
Female
Race / Ethnicity
African American or Black
Alaskan Native or American Indian
Asian
Hispanic or Latinx
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
White
LGBTQ+
* Denotes experience serving on the board of directors of one or more public companies other than United Therapeutics.

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Our Corporate Governance

Public Company Board Experience (non-UT)       International
6/12 7/12
Executive Management Experience       Science / Medicine
8/12 6/12
Financial Expertise       Healthcare Industry Experience
10/12 7/12
Legal Environmental, Social, and Governance
4/12 11/12
Government / Regulatory Experience
5/12

Board Skill Why This Skill is Important to Our Board
Public Company Board
Experience
      Public companies face heightened public scrutiny and legal, regulatory, and accounting requirements unlike those faced by private companies
Executive Management
Experience
Management of large organizations such as United Therapeutics can be extremely complex and challenging, and experience with executive management can help provide the context needed for overseeing our executive officers
Financial Expertise It is extremely important that we manage our company in a fiscally conservative manner, and present our financial results in a clear, accurate, and reliable manner, navigating the complexity of evolving accounting standards and regulatory requirements
Legal In our business we encounter extremely complex legal issues and challenges, including threatened and actual litigation, and compliance with a myriad of laws and regulations
Government /
Regulatory Experience
There are fewer industries more heavily regulated than the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries. Regulatory expertise helps ensure appropriate oversight of our compliance and regulatory functions, which are critical to our success
International While most of our operations are U.S.-based, we conduct clinical trials and commercial distribution of our products worldwide
Science / Medicine Our success is heavily dependent on our ability to successfully conduct insightful research and development efforts often involving cutting-edge technologies, and to manufacture our products using highly complex technologies
Healthcare Industry
Experience
The healthcare sector presents unique challenges, and given our patient-centric mission experience in the healthcare field is extremely valuable
Environmental, Social,
and Governance
We believe that ESG issues present important challenges, as well as the opportunity to build sustainable value for shareholders and other key stakeholders. We are committed to pursuing critically important ESG goals, while also delivering excellent financial performance for our shareholders

The following chart provides diversity information related to our Board in accordance with Nasdaq requirements.

Board Diversity Matrix (as of April 29, 2022)
Board Size:
Total Number of Directors 12
Gender:       Male       Female       Non-Binary       Gender
Undisclosed
Number of directors based on gender identity 7 5 0 0
Number of directors who identify in any of the categories below:  
African American or Black 1 1 0 0
Alaskan Native or American Indian 0 0 0 0
Asian 0 0 0 0
Hispanic or Latinx 0 1 0 0
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander 0 0 0 0
White 6 5 0 0
Two or More Races or Ethnicities 0 2 0 0
LGBTQ+ 1
Undisclosed 0

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Our Corporate Governance

Proxy Access

We amended our bylaws in 2015 to implement proxy access, which allows shareholders to nominate and include in our Proxy Statement their own director nominees, provided that the shareholder(s) and the nominee(s) satisfy the requirements in our bylaws. Our Board carefully considered feedback we received from our shareholders in creating a thoughtfully designed and balanced approach to proxy access that mitigates the risk of abuse and protects the interests of all of our shareholders, while affording a meaningful proxy access right. Shareholders who wish to nominate directors for inclusion in our Proxy Statement in accordance with the procedures in our bylaws should follow the instructions under Other Matters—Shareholder Proposals and Director Nominations in this Proxy Statement.

Majority Voting

In June 2015, as part of our Board’s ongoing review of our corporate governance policies, we amended our bylaws to provide that director nominees are elected by a majority of votes cast in uncontested director elections. A majority of votes cast means that the number of votes cast for the director nominee’s election must exceed the number of votes cast against that director nominee’s election. In connection with this bylaw amendment, our Board also adopted the director resignation policy set forth in our Corporate Governance Guidelines, providing that any director who is not elected by a majority of the votes cast is expected to tender their resignation to our Nominating and Governance Committee. Our Nominating and Governance Committee will recommend to our Board whether to accept or reject the resignation offer, or whether other action should be taken, considering all factors that our Nominating and Governance Committee believes are relevant. Our Board will act on our Nominating and Governance Committee’s recommendation within 90 days following certification of the election results. Any director who tenders their resignation pursuant to our director resignation policy will not participate in the proceedings of either our Nominating and Governance Committee or our Board with respect to their own resignation offer.

Policy on Overboarding

In 2020, we updated our Corporate Governance Guidelines to reduce our overboarding limit, such that directors are not permitted to serve on more than four public company boards (including our Board). This limit is below the limit of five boards contained in the guidelines of major proxy advisory firms, and satisfies the proxy voting criteria of our largest shareholders. In fact, this action was taken in direct response to feedback received during our shareholder outreach process in 2019. All of our directors satisfy our updated overboarding policy.

Board Declassification

At our 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, our shareholders approved an amendment to our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation to eliminate the classification of our Board. As a result, the classified nature of our Board is being phased out. As the term of each class of directors expires, they will be subject to re-election (if re-nominated by our Board) to a one-year term, instead of a three-year term. This year, nine of our twelve directors have been nominated for re-election to one-year terms. At our 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, all of our directors will be subject to annual election for one-year terms.

Stock Ownership Guidelines

In 2011, our Board adopted Stock Ownership Guidelines applicable to our directors and our Named Executive Officers in order to further align the financial interests of our directors and Named Executive Officers with those of our shareholders, to foster a long-term management orientation, and to promote sound corporate governance. For non-employee members of our Board, our Stock Ownership Guidelines provide an ownership target equal to the lesser of 5,000 shares or a value equivalent to five times the annual cash Board retainer. The policy includes procedures for granting exemptions in the case of hardship. Ownership targets for our Named Executive Officers (including those serving on our Board) are described below under Compensation Discussion and Analysis—Other Executive Compensation Policies and Practices—Stock Ownership Guidelines.

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Our Corporate Governance

Board of Directors and Nominees

The following presents information concerning persons nominated for election as directors at our Annual Meeting and for those of our directors whose terms of office will continue after our Annual Meeting, including their age as of the date of this Proxy Statement, membership on committees of our Board, principal occupations or affiliations during the last five years or more, director qualifications, and certain other directorships held. For additional information concerning the director nominees, including stock ownership and compensation, see the section entitled Non-Employee Director Compensation and the Other Matters—Beneficial Ownership of Common Stock table below.

Nominees for Election at our 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders

Professor Klein, Mr. Kurzweil, and Drs. Maxwell, Rothblatt, and Sullivan were each previously elected by shareholders at our 2021 Annual Meeting to serve a one-year term. Mr. Causey, Mr. Giltner, and Professor Mesa were each previously elected by shareholders at our 2019 Annual Meeting to serve a three-year term as Class II directors.

      Christopher Causey, M.B.A.
Age: 59 Committees:
  Director Since: 2003


Nominating and Governance (Chair)
Audit

Background

Mr. Causey served as the Principal of the Causey Consortium, a professional services organization providing business strategy and marketing counsel to the healthcare industry, from 2002 until his retirement in 2021. Previously, Mr. Causey served as a senior marketing officer for a variety of healthcare companies. From 2001 to 2002, Mr. Causey served as Chief Marketing Officer for Definity Health Incorporated. He was also a member of the board of directors of Data Sciences International, Inc., a private company that develops wireless physiological monitoring solutions, from 2008 to 2013. Mr. Causey currently serves on the Board of Trustees of The College of Wooster.

Director Qualifications

Drawing upon nearly 30 years of experience in strategic planning and marketing for health care delivery, financing, and biotechnology organizations, including as Principal of Causey Consortium, Mr. Causey brings to our Board substantial experience in the health care and biotech industries. Our Board benefits from Mr. Causey’s extensive leadership experience as a senior health care marketing executive. Our Board has determined that Mr. Causey meets the financial sophistication requirements of Nasdaq’s listing standards for Audit Committee members.


      Richard Giltner
Age: 58 Committees:
  Director Since: 2009


Audit (Chair)
Nominating and Governance

Background

From 2009 until his retirement in 2010, Mr. Giltner was a portfolio manager at Lyxor Asset Management, an asset management group at the French bank Société Générale. From 2006 until 2009, he served as a managing director of Société Générale Asset Management, an international fund management firm, and head of the European office for its fund of hedge funds group. From 2003 to 2006, Mr. Giltner was the global head of foreign exchange options for the investment banking arm of Société Générale. He also held various other managerial positions within Société Générale from 1991 until 2003. Mr. Giltner has been a private investor since his retirement from Société Générale in 2010.

Director Qualifications

Mr. Giltner brings to our Board decades of experience in the financial sector, including international financial markets, financial derivatives, alternative investments, and asset management. As our business continues to grow and expand, our Board benefits from Mr. Giltner’s global business and financial experience and his perspective as an institutional investor, as well as his leadership experience in international finance from his service in various management roles at Société Générale. Our Board has determined that Mr. Giltner is an audit committee financial expert as defined under the rules and regulations of the SEC and meets the financial sophistication requirements of Nasdaq’s listing standards for Audit Committee members.

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Our Corporate Governance

      Katherine Klein, Ph.D.
Age: 65 Committees:
  Director Since: 2014


None

Background

Professor Klein has served as the Vice Dean of the Wharton Social Impact Initiative since July 2012, and as The Wharton School’s Edward H. Bowman Professor of Management since 2005. She also served as Professor of Management of The Wharton School from 2004 to 2005. Prior to joining Wharton, Professor Klein was on the faculty of the University of Maryland and a visiting professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She received her B.A. from Yale University, and her Ph.D. in Community Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. An award-winning organizational psychologist, Professor Klein has conducted extensive field research regarding a range of topics including team leadership, climate, conflict, social networks, and effectiveness; organizational change and technology implementation; employee diversity; and employee responses to stock ownership. She has taught executive education and consulted with and studied a variety of for profit and non-profit organizations including Charles Schwab, Rohm and Haas, North American Scientific, Medtronic, The Baltimore Shock Trauma Center, Penn Vet, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Korean Management Association. Her research has been published in numerous top journals including Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, the Academy of Management Journal, and the Academy of Management Review. She is also a former associate editor of the Journal of Applied Psychology and Administrative Science Quarterly. Professor Klein is a Fellow of the Academy of Management, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science.

Director Qualifications

As a professor and Vice Dean at one of the world’s leading business schools, Professor Klein brings valuable expertise in organizational behavior, social impact, and employee ownership culture, topics that are of vital importance to a growing biotech company like United Therapeutics. As we adapt to the needs of a larger company while balancing our goal of maintaining an entrepreneurial culture designed to foster continued high growth and innovation, Professor Klein provides valuable insight to our Board. Additionally, as Vice Dean of the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, Professor Klein is highly qualified to help guide United Therapeutics’ thinking about the social impact of its business operations.


      Ray Kurzweil
Age: 74 Committees:
  Director Since: 2002


None

Background

Mr. Kurzweil is an inventor, entrepreneur, and author, and has created several important technologies in the artificial intelligence field. He has received the National Medal of Technology, the MIT Lemelson Prize, twenty-one honorary doctorates, a Grammy award for his contributions to music technology, and honors from three U.S. Presidents. In 2002, Mr. Kurzweil was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Since 1995, Mr. Kurzweil has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Kurzweil Technologies, Inc., a technology development firm. Since January 2013, he has also served as a Director of Engineering for Google, a global technology and Internet search company. Mr. Kurzweil previously served on the boards of directors of Inforte Corp. and Medical Manager Corporation, both of which were publicly-traded.

Director Qualifications

Mr. Kurzweil brings to our Board extensive technological experience as an inventor and technology developer. His technical experience in the areas of artificial intelligence, telemedicine, and pharmaceutical research and development, and his experience in building businesses around his inventions, provide our Board with perspective in evaluating current and proposed technologies and business opportunities. Mr. Kurzweil also brings to our Board substantial corporate leadership experience from his role as Chief Executive Officer of Kurzweil Technologies, Inc., as well as public company governance experience through previous directorships.

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Our Corporate Governance

      Linda Maxwell, M.D., M.B.A.
Age: 48 Committees:
  Director Since: 2020


Audit

Background

Dr. Maxwell has been a head and neck surgeon in private practice since 2006, and is a medical educator, a published scientific author, and a health technology entrepreneur and innovator. Dr. Maxwell is Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto, Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson University, and Associate Scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute in Toronto. She served as Founding and Executive Director of the Biomedical Zone in 2015—Canada’s only hospital-embedded, physician-led business incubator for emerging health technology companies—and has guided a wide variety of startup companies through clinical development, capitalization, and commercialization. Dr. Maxwell also managed a life sciences tech transfer portfolio at the University of Oxford and the UK National Health Service, executing patent strategy, spin-out company formation, and early stage capital raising. She has also served as a healthcare innovation expert to various Canadian federal, provincial, and local government entities, as a member of the Department Audit Committee of the Public Health Agency of Canada, and as an advisor to the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Space Agency. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Medical School, and holds an MBA from Oxford University. Dr. Maxwell completed surgical training at the University of Toronto and is double board certified in Otolaryngology-Head Neck Surgery and Facial Plastic Reconstructive Surgery. She holds an ICD.D designation, awarded by the Institute of Corporate Directors, University of Toronto, School of Management. She previously served as a member of the board of directors of Profound Medical Inc., a publicly-traded company. In March 2021, she became an Operating Partner of DCVC, a Silicon Valley-based based venture capital firm, where she focuses on portfolio company governance and due diligence. xxx

Other Current Public Company Board

ImmuneBio, Inc.

Director Qualifications

Dr. Maxwell brings to our Board important expertise as a medical doctor, as a health technology entrepreneur and innovator, and as an expert in corporate governance. Her experience in guiding emerging health technology companies through clinical development and commercialization is highly valued to an entrepreneurial biotech company like United Therapeutics. In addition, our Canadian operations have become increasingly important in recent years, so Dr. Maxwell's knowledge of the Canadian regulatory environment is very valuable to us. Our Board has determined that Dr. Maxwell meets the financial sophistication requirements of Nasdaq’s listing standards for Audit Committee members.


      Nilda Mesa, J.D.
Age: 62 Committees:
  Director Since: 2018


Compensation
Nominating and Governance

Background

Professor Mesa has had a long and innovative career in environment, energy, and sustainability at the city, state, national, and global levels, and now writes and presents extensively on climate, energy, equity, and urban systems relating to them. From 2014 to 2016, Professor Mesa served as Director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, where she led the pathbreaking OneNYC long-term sustainability plan for the city. As chief sustainability officer for New York City, she oversaw programs in climate, energy, sustainability, air quality and public health, waste, green buildings, transportation, public education, and other initiatives. In 2016, she returned to Columbia University as an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, as well as Director of the Urban Sustainability and Equity Planning Program with Columbia’s Center for Sustainable Urban Development at the Earth Institute. She is currently Adjunct Professor in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. In 2006, she founded Columbia’s Office of Environmental Stewardship, one of the first in the United States for a university. She also served as Chief Administrative Officer at the Columbia Journalism School from 2012 to 2014. Before joining Columbia, Professor Mesa served in environmental leadership roles at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the California Attorney General’s office, and practiced law in both the public and private sectors. Her work has involved extensive international experience, including most recently a 2018 to 2021 appointment as a visiting professor and lecturer at the Paris School of International Affairs at SciencesPo (Paris Institute of Political Studies), an international research university in France. She is the co-author of Collaborating for Climate Resilience (Routledge, 2021), and a contributor to Smarter New York City: How City Agencies Innovate (Columbia University Press, 2019). She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Northwestern University.

Director Qualifications

Professor Mesa brings to our Board extensive executive leadership experience, particularly in the area of environmental stewardship, energy, and sustainability. As we continue to operate and grow our business in an environmentally sustainable fashion, we expect Professor Mesa’s insights to be extremely valuable. In addition, our Board benefits from her experience working in a variety of scientific, academic, government, legal, and international settings.

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Our Corporate Governance

     

Judy Olian, Ph.D.

Age: 70 Committees:
  Director Since: 2015



Audit

Background

Dr. Olian has served as President of Quinnipiac University since July 2018. Previously, she served as dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management and the John E. Anderson Chair in Management from 2006 to 2018. Her research and business expertise centers on aligning organizational strategies and design with human resource systems and incentives, and managing top management teams. She began her UCLA appointment after serving as dean and professor of management at the Smeal College of Business Administration at Pennsylvania State University. Earlier, she served in various faculty and executive roles at the University of Maryland and its Robert H. Smith School of Business. Dr. Olian serves or has been a member of various advisory boards (including the U.S. Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Peking University Business School’s International Advisory Board, the Connecticut Governor’s Workforce Council, the Business-Higher Education Forum, New Haven Promise, and Catalyst, a leading global think tank for women in business) and served as Chair of the Loeb Awards for Business Journalism. Born and raised in Australia, Dr. Olian received her B.S. in Psychology from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Relations from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She was the Chair of AACSB International, the premier thought leadership and accreditation organization for leading global business schools, and currently serves on the board of directors of Ares Management, L.P., a publicly-traded global alternative asset management firm, and Mattel, Inc., a publicly-traded multinational toy manufacturing company.

Other Current Public Company Boards

Ares Management, L.P.
Mattel, Inc.

Director Qualifications

As the president of a prestigious university and former dean of one of the world’s leading business schools, Dr. Olian brings valuable expertise in managing and leading a large organization. Her academic expertise, which centers on the alignment of organizational strategies with human resource systems and incentives, provides valuable insight to a growing biotech company like United Therapeutics. In addition, her service as a director of Ares Management and Mattel provides valuable public company board experience. Our Board has determined that Dr. Olian meets the financial sophistication requirements of Nasdaq’s listing standards for Audit Committee members.


     

Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D., J.D., M.B.A.

Age: 67 Committees:
  Director Since: 1996
Chairperson of the Board
Chief Executive Officer
None

Background

Dr. Rothblatt founded United Therapeutics in 1996 and has served as Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer since its inception. Previously, she created the satellite radio company SiriusXM. She is an inventor or co-inventor on nine U.S. patents, with additional patents pending. Her pioneering book, Your Life or Mine: How Geoethics Can Resolve the Conflict Between Private and Public Interests in Xenotransplantation, anticipated the need both for global virus bio-surveillance and a greatly expanded supply of transplantable organs.

Director Qualifications

Dr. Rothblatt brings to our Board extensive leadership and business experience at technology companies, as well as in depth knowledge of our company from her service as our founder, Chairperson, and Chief Executive Officer. She also has substantial knowledge of medical ethics, having obtained her Ph.D. in medical ethics from the University of London.


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Our Corporate Governance

     

Louis Sullivan, M.D.

Age: 88 Committees:
  Director Since: 2002



Compensation
Nominating and Governance

Background

Dr. Sullivan was the founding President of Morehouse School of Medicine, from 1981 to 1989, served as President again from 1993 to 2002, and has served as President Emeritus since 2002. Dr. Sullivan was also one of the founders and served as Chair of Medical Education for South African Blacks, Inc., a member of the National Executive Council for the Boy Scouts of America, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Little League of America. Dr. Sullivan served as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1989 to 1993. He is a physician certified in internal medicine with a sub-specialty certification in hematology. Dr. Sullivan currently serves on the board of directors of Emergent BioSolutions, Inc. (since 2005), a publicly-traded company. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Henry Schein Cares Foundation. Dr. Sullivan previously served on the boards of directors of a wide range of public companies, including General Motors Company, BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Bristol Myers Squibb Company, Cigna Corporation, 3M Company, Henry Schein, Inc., Household International (now HSBC), Equifax, and Georgia Pacific Corporation.

Other Current Public Company Board

Emergent BioSolutions, Inc.

Director Qualifications

Dr. Sullivan brings to our Board extensive experience in the healthcare industry as a public official from his service as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a physician certified in internal medicine, and a professor and an administrator at Morehouse School of Medicine. He also has substantial public company board experience gained from his service as a director of Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., as well as his extensive previous public company board service.

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Our Corporate Governance

Class III Directors Continuing in Office with Terms Ending in 2023

Each Class III director was previously elected by shareholders at the 2020 Annual Meeting.

     

Raymond Dwek, C.B.E., F.R.S.

Age: 80 Committees:
Director Since: 2002



Compensation

Background

Professor Dwek is a Fellow of the Royal Society, London, and served as Director of the Glycobiology Institute at the University of Oxford from 1988 to 2021. He also served as Professor of Glycobiology at the University of Oxford from 1988 through 2009, and currently serves as Professor Emeritus. He was President of the Institute of Biology (a professional organization) from 2008 through 2010. From 2000 to 2006, Professor Dwek served as head of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford. Professor Dwek has been serving in various positions at the University of Oxford since 1966. In 1988, Professor Dwek was the scientific founder of Oxford GlycoSciences PLC, which was publicly-traded on the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, and he served as a member of its board of directors until its sale in 2003. He was the 2007 Kluge Chair of Technology and Society at the U.S. Library of Congress. Professor Dwek is the founder of glycobiology, the study of the structure, biosynthesis, and biology of sugar chains attached to proteins.

Director Qualifications

Professor Dwek has extensive scientific experience as both the head of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, one of the world’s largest biochemistry departments, and as a biotechnology innovator at organizations such as the Glycobiology Institute and Oxford GlycoSciences PLC. In evaluating existing and potential new programs, our Board benefits from his scientific insight and experience in pharmaceutical research and development.


     

Christopher Patusky, J.D., M.G.A.

Age: 58 Committees:
Director Since: 2002
Vice Chair of the Board
Lead Independent Director
Compensation (Chair)
Nominating and Governance

Background

Mr. Patusky has more than 30 years of experience in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he clerked and practiced law from 1988 to 2000, focusing on litigation, intellectual property, and business startups. His legal work included co-leading a team that obtained the first approval from the Federal Communications Commission and the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union of the use of stratospheric stations for delivery of telecommunication services worldwide. After receiving a master’s degree in governmental administration from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, Mr. Patusky served from 2002 to 2007 as the Executive Director and member of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government. At Fels, he directed the implementation of a first of its kind performance management system for the 270 schools of the Philadelphia School District, which received an IBM Business of Government Award. From 2007 to 2011, Mr. Patusky was the Director of the Office of Real Estate and a member of the Senior Policy Team at the Maryland Department of Transportation where he served on the Secretary's sustainability committee while focusing his efforts on the Governor's Transit Oriented Development (TOD) policy initiative, including drafting and overseeing passage of the Maryland TOD law and then using the newly-created authority under that law to advance real estate developments adjacent to Maryland's transit stations. Since 2012, Mr. Patusky has served as the founding principal of Patusky Associates, LLC, which serves as a personal investment vehicle, and as an executive manager of Slater Run Vineyards, LLC, his family’s farm-based vineyard and winery.

Director Qualifications

Mr. Patusky brings to our Board extensive legal, regulatory, business, governance, financial, and international experience from his varied career. Our Board has determined that Mr. Patusky meets the financial sophistication requirements of Nasdaq’s listing standards for Audit Committee members.


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Our Corporate Governance

     

Tommy Thompson, J.D.

Age: 80 Committees:
Director Since: 2010



Audit

Background

Before entering the private sector in 2005, Governor Thompson enjoyed a long and distinguished career in public service. As Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2001 to 2005, he was a leading advocate for the health and welfare of all Americans. He also served four terms as Governor of Wisconsin from 1987 to 2001. Governor Thompson served as Interim President of the University of Wisconsin System from July 2020 through March 2022. Governor Thompson served as a partner at the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Washington, D.C. from 2005 until January 2012, and as an Adjunct Senior Advisor from 2017 to 2020. From 2005 to 2009, he also served as the Independent Chair of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, which researches and develops solutions to some of our nation’s most pressing health care and public health related challenges. He currently serves as Chair of the boards of directors of Physicians Realty Trust and TherapeuticsMD, Inc., both of which are publicly-traded. He previously served on the boards of various other public companies, including Cancer Genetics Inc., CareView Communications, Inc., Centene Corporation, CNS Response, Inc., C.R. Bard, Inc., Cytori Therapeutics, Inc., SpectraScience, Tyme Technologies, Inc., and X Shares Advisors, and as the Chair of the board of directors of AGA Medical Holdings, Inc. from 2005 to 2010.

Other Current Public Company Boards

Physicians Realty Trust
TherapeuticsMD, Inc.

Director Qualifications

Governor Thompson brings to our Board significant experience in the healthcare industry, both as a public official (former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) and in the private sector (Deloitte Center for Health Solutions), as well as public company board experience and knowledge of legislative affairs. Governor Thompson’s legal experience from his private practice at Akin Gump also is useful in our Board’s oversight of our legal and regulatory compliance. Our Board has determined that Governor Thompson meets the financial sophistication requirements of Nasdaq’s listing standards for Audit Committee members.

Director Independence

Our Board has made the following independence determinations:

General Independence: Christopher Causey, Raymond Dwek, Richard Giltner, Katherine Klein, Ray Kurzweil, Linda Maxwell, Nilda Mesa, Judy Olian, Christopher Patusky, Louis Sullivan, and Tommy Thompson are independent in accordance with the Nasdaq listing standards
Management Director: Martine Rothblatt is not independent due to her employment as our Chief Executive Officer
Audit Committee Standards: Christopher Causey, Richard Giltner, Linda Maxwell, Judy Olian, and Tommy Thompson meet the heightened independence standards for audit committee members set forth in rules promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act)
Compensation Committee Standards: Raymond Dwek, Nilda Mesa, Christopher Patusky, and Louis Sullivan meet the heightened independence standards for compensation committee members under the Nasdaq listing standards
Nominating and Governance Committee Standards: Christopher Causey, Richard Giltner, Nilda Mesa, Christopher Patusky, and Louis Sullivan meet the independence standards for nominating committee members under the Nasdaq listing standards

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Our Corporate Governance

Board Structure

Board Leadership

Our Board believes that it is important to evaluate and determine the most appropriate Board leadership structure so that our Board can both provide effective, independent oversight of management and facilitate its understanding of our business. To carry out this responsibility, our Corporate Governance Guidelines empower our Board to periodically evaluate and determine the appropriate leadership structure for our Board. In doing so, our Board has the flexibility to consider our specific circumstances and evolving needs at any given time.

Our Board has determined that at this time, the leadership structure best suited to support the dynamic demands of our business is to have Dr. Rothblatt, who founded our company, serve as Chairperson of our Board and Chief Executive Officer, and to appoint a Lead Independent Director with robust, well-defined responsibilities. Our Board believes that Dr. Rothblatt serving in the combined roles of Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer provides an efficient and effective leadership model for a growing entrepreneurial company like ours, as it fosters clear accountability, effective decision-making, and alignment on corporate strategy. In addition, because our Board works closely with our executive officers and members of senior management, there is a natural synergy in the combined Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer roles that facilitates our Board’s guidance of management. The Board will continue to monitor the appropriateness of this structure.

Our Board also believes that independent leadership is an important aspect of our Board’s leadership structure. As a result, the independent directors on our Board have designated Mr. Patusky as Lead Independent Director.

Lead Independent Director

Our Lead Independent Director is selected annually by the independent directors
Among other responsibilities, our Lead Independent Director:
coordinates the activities of our independent directors;
approves Board meeting schedules and agendas;
chairs all meetings of our Board when the Chairperson is not present, including executive sessions of our independent directors; and
serves as principal liaison between our independent directors and our Chairperson and senior management
Our Lead Independent Director also has the authority to call executive sessions of the independent directors and is available for consultation and communication with major shareholders

A more detailed description of the responsibilities of the Lead Independent Director is included in our Corporate Governance Guidelines, which are available on our website at ir.unither.com/corporate-governance

Committees of our Board of Directors

Our Board has three standing committees. A summary of each committee’s duties and each committee’s current composition can be found below. Additional detail on each committee’s duties can be found in each committee’s charter. Each committee’s charter provides that it may delegate responsibilities to subcommittees if it determines such a delegation would be in the best interest of our company. Committee charters can be found on our website at ir.unither.com/corporate-governance.

Audit Committee

Members:

Richard Giltner (Chair)
Christopher Causey
Linda Maxwell
Judy Olian
Tommy Thompson

Meetings in 2021: 5

     

Primary Responsibilities

Representing and assisting our Board in its oversight responsibilities regarding our accounting and financial reporting processes, the audits of our financial statements, and system of internal controls over financial reporting, including the integrity of our financial statements, and the qualifications and independence of Ernst & Young LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm
Retaining and terminating our independent auditors
Approving in advance all audit and non-audit services to be performed by our independent auditors
Approving related party transactions
General oversight of risks related to our financial statements, internal controls, financial reporting processes, information technology, cybersecurity, and compliance with federal securities laws

For additional information regarding the processes and procedures used by our Audit Committee, see the section entitled Report of our Audit Committee below.

     

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Our Corporate Governance

Compensation Committee

Members:

Christopher Patusky (Chair)
Raymond Dwek
Nilda Mesa
Louis Sullivan

Meetings in 2021: 4

     

Our Compensation Committee oversees our compensation plans and policies, reviews and approves compensation for our executive officers, oversees the administration of our equity incentive and share tracking awards plans and our Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan, and reviews and approves grants of stock options to our executive officers and the methodology and formulae for granting stock options and restricted stock units to other employees.

Primary Responsibilities

Creating a system for awarding long-term and short-term performance-oriented incentive compensation to attract and retain senior management, and reviewing our compensation plans to confirm that they are appropriate, competitive, and properly reflect our goals and objectives while managing risk
Assisting our Board in discharging its responsibilities regarding compensation of our executive officers
Evaluating our CEO and setting our CEO's compensation
Overseeing human capital management and diversity, equity, and inclusion matters

For additional information regarding the processes and procedures used by our Compensation Committee, see the section entitled Compensation Discussion and Analysis below.

     

Nominating and Governance Committee

Members:

Christopher Causey (Chair)
Christopher Patusky
Richard Giltner
Nilda Mesa
Louis Sullivan

Meetings in 2021: 7

     

Primary Responsibilities

In addition to the responsibilities described in the section entitled How We Select Our Director Nominees above, our Nominating and Governance Committee’s primary responsibilities include:

Proposing nominees for election to our Board
Proposing nominees to fill vacancies on our Board and newly created directorships
Reviewing candidates for election to our Board recommended to us by our shareholders
Recommending committee membership and committee chairs
Reviewing management succession plans
Evaluating and overseeing issues and developments with respect to corporate governance, and making recommendations to our Board regarding corporate governance
Overseeing our compliance program and our enterprise risk management program
Overseeing our ESG disclosure program, and PBC oversight and reporting
Overseeing company policies and practices regarding political contributions
Overseeing compliance with stock ownership guidelines
     

Corporate Governance Guidelines and Committee Charters

Upon the recommendation of our Nominating and Governance Committee, our Board maintains Corporate Governance Guidelines as a framework for the governance of our company. These guidelines are reviewed annually by our Nominating and Governance Committee, which recommends any changes to be submitted to the full Board for approval. Most recently, in 2021, our Corporate Governance Guidelines were updated to, among other things: (1) address PBC-specific obligations; and (2) make clear that our Nominating and Governance Committee actively seeks out women and minority candidates in the pool from which new Board members are chosen. Our Corporate Governance Guidelines, along with the charter for each Board committee, are available electronically in the Corporate Governance section of the Investors page of our website, located at ir.unither.com/corporate-governance, or by writing to us at United Therapeutics Corporation, Attention: Corporate Secretary, 1735 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009.

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Our Corporate Governance

Board Roles and Responsibilities

Risk Oversight

Our Board is responsible for overseeing the risks facing our company. Our Board works directly with our executive officers and other members of our senior management team in carrying out its risk oversight function. Our directors take a proactive, interested, and detailed approach to their service on our Board and set expectations to promote our success through the achievement of business objectives while maintaining high standards of responsibility and ethics.

BOARD
At its regularly scheduled meetings, our Board receives reports from our Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and General Counsel, and may also receive reports from the Committee Chairs, outside consultants, and other members of senior management, among others. These presentations often include identification and assessment of risks our company currently faces or may face in the future
Our Board asks questions, discusses and provides guidance to management on the risks presented, as well as any risks that our Board identifies
Our Board implements its risk oversight function both as a whole and through delegation to various committees. These committees meet regularly and report back to the full Board
AUDIT COMMITTEE
Our Audit Committee’s responsibilities include general oversight of our company’s risks related to matters involving or impacting financial statements, internal controls, federal securities laws, financial reporting processes, information technology, and cybersecurity. Our Audit Committee coordinates with our Nominating and Governance Committee concerning oversight of risk assessment and risk management
COMPENSATION COMMITTEE
Our Compensation Committee’s duties include overseeing an assessment of the incentives and risks arising from or related to our compensation policies and practices, including but not limited to those applicable to our executive officers, and evaluating whether those incentives and risks are appropriate (see Compensation Risk Assessment below)
NOMINATING AND GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE
Our Nominating and Governance Committee’s responsibilities include oversight of our company’s practices with respect to legal and regulatory compliance risk, as well as oversight of our enterprise risk management program
MANAGEMENT
Our senior management team is responsible for assessing risk on a daily basis. Our Board expects that our senior management team continually identifies, assesses, and manages the short-term and long-term risks faced by our company. If members of our senior management team identify risks that are material to United Therapeutics, our Board may convene a special meeting to discuss, assess, and address such risks

Compensation Risk Assessment

In April 2022, our Compensation Committee reviewed a risk assessment conducted by management and our Compensation Committee’s independent compensation consultant to determine whether the design of our employee compensation programs and the amounts and components of employee compensation might create incentives for excessive risk taking by our employees. Based on this review, our Compensation Committee concluded that the risks arising from our employee compensation programs are not reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on our company. Our Compensation Committee believes that our compensation programs encourage employees, including our executives, to remain focused on an appropriate balance of the short-term and long-term operational and financial goals of our company, thereby reducing the potential for actions that involve an excessive level of risk. See the section entitled Compensation Discussion and Analysis below for information regarding certain risk mitigating features of our compensation programs.

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Our Corporate Governance

Shareholder Engagement

How We Engage

Investor Relations and Senior Management
We provide investors with many opportunities to provide feedback to our Board and senior management. We participate in investor conferences throughout the year, and regularly meet with our shareholders.
     
Board Involvement
Directors regularly and actively engage with our shareholders. For several years, our Compensation Committee Chair has actively sought to engage with our top 25+ shareholders at least once, and usually twice, per year. Our Nominating and Governance Committee Chair also engages with our shareholders on other governance topics.
2021 Engagement
We offered to meet with shareholders before our 2021 Annual Meeting, reaching out to 36 of our largest shareholders that collectively held over 70% of our outstanding shares. Most investors declined a conversation at that time, because they had already confirmed satisfaction with our response to their 2020 feedback during our fall shareholder outreach campaign, and had no further questions upon review of our 2021 Proxy Statement. Only one shareholder (holding 9% of our outstanding shares) accepted our engagement offer, and that conversation was focused on our contemplated PBC conversion.
We also sought to engage with our shareholders following the 2021 Annual Meeting, again offering to meet with shareholders that collectively held over 70% of our outstanding shares (37 of our largest shareholders) and holding discussions with the five shareholders that accepted our offer and collectively held approximately 26% of our outstanding shares. These conversations were focused on the PBC proposal presented at our special meeting of shareholders in September 2021.
Outcomes from Shareholder Engagement
Each year, we consider shareholder feedback carefully, and have modified our governance practices, executive compensation program, and disclosures in light of this feedback. Some of the actions we have taken in response to shareholder feedback over the past several years include:
Governance
Adoption of majority voting (2015)
Adoption of proxy access (2015)
Board declassification (2020)
Stricter overboarding limits for directors (2020)
ESG
Commenced ESG disclosure program, resulting in the creation of our corporate responsibility website and our first annual corporate responsibility report (2020)
Launched effort to become the first-ever public biopharmaceutical company organized as a public benefit corporation (2021)
Executive Compensation
Renegotiated our Chief Executive Officer’s employment agreement to eliminate her entitlement to an annual stock option grant based on a market capitalization formula, and to eliminate an excise tax gross-up provision (2015)
Shifted to 100% performance-based equity compensation program for our Named Executive Officers (2017)
Reduced annualized total direct compensation for our CEO to approximately the 50th percentile of our peer group (2019)
Reduced compensation for our CEO by 89% in 2020, compared to 2019 (2020) and by 92% in 2021, when compared to 2019 (2021)
Addressed 2020 Say-on-Pay voting result through responsive changes and disclosures (2021)
Enhanced Disclosure
Complete revamp of our proxy statement, to enhance readability (2020)
Added significant additional disclosure concerning our executive compensation decisions, and how they tie into our business strategy (2020 and 2021)
Added disclosure concerning Board skills and diversity (2021 and 2022)

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Our Corporate Governance

Board Education

Our Board participates in a number of educational activities. Key members of management regularly provide scientific and business presentations to our Board to increase its understanding of the science behind our pipeline and our business activities. Experts regularly provide training sessions on key topics, particularly in complex legal, regulatory, and compliance areas. We provide directors memberships with the National Association of Corporate Directors, and encourage our Board members to take advantage of its numerous educational resources and programs.

Board Meetings and Board Member Attendance at our Annual Meetings of Shareholders

Our full Board held five meetings during 2021. In addition, during 2021, our Audit Committee held five meetings, our Compensation Committee held four meetings, and our Nominating and Governance Committee held seven meetings. Every director attended more than 75% of the total number of meetings of our Board and the committees on which they served during 2021, an average of over 98% attendance. In accordance with applicable Nasdaq listing standards, the independent members of our Board met without management present four times during 2021.

Our Board encourages all of its members to attend our Annual Meeting of Shareholders, although attendance is not mandatory. All of our directors attended our 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

Shareholder Communication with Directors

Shareholders are encouraged to address any director communications to our Corporate Secretary by overnight or certified mail, signature acceptance or return receipt required, at: United Therapeutics Corporation, Attention: Corporate Secretary, 1735 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009. Our Corporate Secretary has the authority to disregard or take other reasonable action with respect to any inappropriate shareholder communications. After confirming the stock ownership of the author of the communication, our Corporate Secretary will review the appropriateness of a shareholder communication based on the relevance of the communication to Board duties and responsibilities. If deemed an appropriate communication, our Corporate Secretary will submit the shareholder communication to our Lead Independent Director, who may share it with our Nominating and Governance Committee or our full Board.

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Our Corporate Governance

Non-Employee Director Compensation

Overview

In 2021, our non-employee director compensation program was comprised of three main elements:

an annual cash retainer (payable quarterly) for service as a member of our Board

additional annual cash retainers (payable quarterly) for service on Board committees and for service as Lead Independent Director

stock options or restricted stock units (in either case, granted initially upon joining our Board, and thereafter on an annual basis) for service as a member of our Board Directors may also be compensated for special assignments from our Board.

Directors may also be compensated for special assignments from our Board. From July 2019 through July 2021, at our request, Christopher Causey served on the board of directors of a private company in which we owned a minority equity interest. United Therapeutics paid him a stipend of $35,000 per year for this special assignment, which was approved by our Compensation Committee without his participation. Employee directors do not receive any compensation for service on our Board in addition to their regular compensation as employees.

Our Compensation Committee generally reviews non-employee director compensation levels approximately once every two years, and final decisions with respect to any changes in non-employee director compensation levels are made by our Board upon the recommendation of our Compensation Committee. In 2021, our Compensation Committee’s independent consultant reviewed the market competitiveness of our non-employee director compensation program relative to our compensation peer group and did not recommend any changes. Our current non-employee director compensation levels were established by our Board in February 2016. The following table outlines the non-employee director compensation levels in effect for 2021:

Value of Equity
Based Awards
(3)
      Annual Cash       Initial       Annual
Board Membership $60,000 $400,000 $400,000
Lead Independent Director(1) $35,000
Committee Chair(2):
Audit Committee $25,000
Compensation Committee $25,000
Nominating and Governance Committee $25,000
Committee Membership(2):
Audit Committee $15,000
Compensation Committee $15,000
Nominating and Governance Committee $15,000
(1) Compensation for service as Lead Independent Director is paid in addition to amounts paid for membership on our Board and for any committee chair or membership
(2) Committee chairs receive the compensation indicated for committee chair in lieu of the compensation for committee membership. Compensation for committee chair and committee membership is paid in addition to amounts paid for Board membership
(3) Annual awards are generally granted once per year on the date of the first meeting of our Board following our Annual Meeting of Shareholders or for newly appointed directors, on or shortly following appointment to our Board

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Our Corporate Governance

Equity-Based Awards

Non-employee directors are eligible to receive equity-based awards under the United Therapeutics Corporation Amended and Restated 2015 Stock Incentive Plan (the 2015 SIP), as follows:

Form of Awards: Initial grants and annual grants are paid in the form of stock options, restricted stock units (RSUs), or a combination of the two. For each grant, directors may elect to receive awards in any one of the following forms:

100% stock options

100% RSUs

50% stock options / 50% RSUs

Value of Awards: The aggregate value of each director’s annual equity-based award is $400,000. The aggregate value of an initial equity-based award upon joining our Board is $400,000, plus a pro rata portion of the annual equity-based award value based on the number of months remaining in our Board service year at the date of grant.

Deferral for RSUs: For directors who elect to receive RSUs, our Compensation Committee has implemented a deferral program enabling directors to defer delivery of shares of common stock until a date of their choosing following vesting of the RSUs in accordance with the terms and conditions of the program.

Calculation Methodology: Our Compensation Committee also sets the methodology for determining the precise numbers of stock options and/or RSUs for each grant. For the annual grants, which are generally made in June or July of each year, the following applies (subject to modification by our Compensation Committee in its discretion):

Stock Options: The number of stock options is calculated by dividing the equity value ($400,000, or $200,000, if the director has elected to receive 50% options and 50% RSUs) by the fair value of each stock option, calculated in accordance with the Black-Scholes-Merton methodology utilized in calculating share-based compensation for financial reporting purposes. Black-Scholes-Merton inputs are the same as those used in our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q, except that the stock price input is the average closing price of our common stock over a recent time period prior to the date of grant.

RSUs: The number of RSUs is calculated by dividing the equity value ($400,000, or $200,000, if the director has elected to receive 50% options and 50% RSUs) by the average closing price of our common stock over a recent time period prior to the date of grant.

Rounding: The resulting number of stock options or RSUs, calculated as above, is rounded to the nearest 10 shares.

The grant-date fair value of RSUs and stock options reported in the Non-Employee Director Compensation table each year often varies from the $400,000 target for each director, because the methodology used to calculate the number of RSUs and/or stock options delivered is based on an average stock price over a specified, predetermined one-month period prior to the date of grant, whereas the amount reported in the table represents the grant date fair value of the RSUs and stock options on the date of grant. See 2021 Non-Employee Director Compensation below.

Exercise Price: Stock options granted to non-employee directors have an exercise price equal to the closing price of our common stock as reported on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on the date of grant, or on the preceding trading day if the award is granted on a date when the Nasdaq is not open.

Grant Timing:

The date of grant for a new non-employee director’s initial award, consisting of the initial membership award and a prorated amount of the annual award for the remainder of the board service year, is the date of a director’s appointment or election to our Board.

The date of grant for annual awards is the date of the first meeting of our Board following our Annual Meeting of Shareholders in the year of grant.

Vesting: Non-employee director awards fully vest on the one year anniversary of the grant date, but only if the director attends at least 75% of the regularly scheduled meetings of our Board and their committee meetings from the date of grant until the date of our next Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

Previously, non-employee directors were also eligible to receive awards under the 2011 United Therapeutics Corporation Share Tracking Awards Plan (collectively with its predecessor plan adopted in 2008, the STAP), which settle only in cash. However, since the approval of the 2015 SIP in June 2015, all equity-based awards for non-employee directors have been granted in the form of stock options and RSUs.

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Our Corporate Governance

2021 Non-Employee Director Compensation

The following table lists the compensation earned in 2021 by each non-employee director:

Name       Fees
Earned or
Paid in
Cash
(1)
      Restricted
Stock
Units(2)
      Stock
Options(2)
      All Other
Compensation
      Total
Christopher Causey $117,500 $397,397 $— $2,948(3) $517,845
Raymond Dwek $75,000 $397,397 $— $472,397
Richard Giltner $100,000 $397,397 $— $497,397
Katherine Klein $60,000 $198,698 $186,468 $445,166
Ray Kurzweil $60,000 $198,698 $186,468 $445,166
Linda Maxwell $67,215 $— $372,359 $439,574
Nilda Mesa $90,000 $198,698 $186,468 $475,166
Judy Olian $75,000 $397,397 $— $472,397
Christopher Patusky $142,785 $— $372,359 $515,144
Louis Sullivan $90,000 $198,698 $186,468 $475,166
Tommy Thompson $75,000 $198,698 $186,468 $460,166
(1) Includes (as applicable) annual cash retainer and fees for serving on our Board, the committees of our Board, as a committee chair, and as Lead Independent Director
(2) On July 8, 2021, each of our non-employee directors was granted stock options and/or RSUs. Each stock option had an exercise price of $183.98 per share and a grant date fair value of $57.73 per share, and each RSU had a grant date fair value of $183.98 per share. Amounts shown in these columns represent the aggregate grant date fair value of the stock options and RSUs granted in 2021, which were the only awards granted to non-employee directors in 2021, computed in accordance with applicable accounting standards. For a discussion of the valuation assumptions for stock options, see Note 8—Share-Based Compensation to the consolidated financial statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021
The grant-date fair value of RSUs and stock options presented in this table differs from the $400,000 target for each director due to the methodology used to calculate the number of RSUs and/or stock options delivered, which is based on an average stock price over a specified one-month period prior to the date of grant
(3) Consists of compensation paid to Mr. Causey in 2021 for his service on the board of directors of a private company in which we maintained a minority equity interest. We no longer maintain a minority equity interest in this company and Mr. Causey's service on its board has ended. He received no further compensation for his service on this board after his service ended

Each non-employee director held the following number of stock options, STAPs, and RSUs as of December 31, 2021:

Name       Stock
Options
      STAP
Awards
      RSUs
Christopher Causey 48,770 2,160
Raymond Dwek 15,000 40,000 2,160
Richard Giltner 15,000 30,000 2,160
Katherine Klein 63,470 29,375 1,080
Ray Kurzweil 43,440 30,000 1,080
Linda Maxwell 27,130
Nilda Mesa 21,260 1,080
Judy Olian 39,620 2,160
Christopher Patusky 51,280 20,500
Louis Sullivan 38,820 1,080
Tommy Thompson 49,740 40,709 1,080

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EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

2 Advisory Resolution to Approve Executive Compensation

We are asking our shareholders to vote on an advisory resolution, commonly known as a “Say-on-Pay” proposal, to approve executive compensation as reported in this Proxy Statement. Our Compensation Committee, which is responsible for designing and administering our executive compensation program, has designed our executive compensation program to provide a competitive and internally equitable compensation and benefits package that reflects company performance, job complexity, and the value provided, while also promoting long term retention, motivation, and alignment with the long-term interests of our shareholders.

As described elsewhere in this Proxy Statement, we have evolved our compensation practices significantly in recent years, in large part in response to shareholder feedback. We were therefore very pleased with the overwhelming shareholder support received for our 2021 Say-on-Pay proposal.

In connection with your vote on this proposal, we urge you to read the Compensation Discussion and Analysis section of this Proxy Statement, the Summary Compensation Table, and other related compensation tables and narratives that follow, which provide detailed information on the compensation of our Named Executive Officers. Our Compensation Committee and our Board of Directors believe that the policies and procedures articulated in these sections of this Proxy Statement are effective in achieving our goals, and that the compensation of our Named Executive Officers reported in this Proxy Statement has supported and contributed to both our recent and long term success.

In accordance with Section 14A of the Exchange Act, and as a matter of good corporate governance, we are asking shareholders to approve the following advisory resolution at the Annual Meeting:

RESOLVED, that the shareholders of United Therapeutics Corporation (our “Company”) approve, on an advisory basis, the compensation of our Company’s Named Executive Officers disclosed in the Compensation Discussion and Analysis, the Summary Compensation Table and the related compensation tables, notes and narrative in the Proxy Statement for our Company’s 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

This advisory resolution is non-binding on our Board of Directors. Although non-binding, our Board and our Compensation Committee will review and consider the voting results when making future decisions regarding our executive compensation program. Based on the results of our 2017 shareholder advisory vote on the preferred frequency of holding future advisory votes to approve executive compensation, our Board of Directors has adopted a policy providing for an annual advisory resolution to approve executive compensation. Unless our Board modifies its policy on the frequency of future “Say-on-Pay” advisory votes, the next “Say-on-Pay” advisory vote will be held at our 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock present, online or by proxy, at our Annual Meeting, and entitled to vote on the matter, is required for approval of this proposal. Abstentions have the same effect as an “against” vote. Broker non-votes, if any, have no impact on the vote.

Our Board of Directors recommends that you vote FOR the advisory resolution to approve executive compensation.

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Compensation Discussion and Analysis

This Compensation Discussion and Analysis describes the compensation objectives and policies set by our Compensation Committee for our Named Executive Officers, including executive pay decisions and processes and all elements of our executive compensation program. In this Compensation Discussion and Analysis and elsewhere in this Proxy Statement, the term Compensation Committee refers to the Compensation Committee of our Board of Directors, and the terms we and our refer to United Therapeutics.

Overview

Below is a summary of introductory highlights regarding key 2021 compensation outcomes, performance metrics, and other achievements.

Industry-Leading TSR
2021 total shareholder return (TSR) of 42%
Compared to 2021 Nasdaq Biotechnology Index (NBI) TSR of only 0.03%
Continued revenue growth trajectory
14% growth overall
26% growth for Tyvaso
4% growth for Orenitram
Continued to exceed analyst consensus revenue estimates
Record number of U.S. treprostinil patients on therapy
Industry-leading profitability
28% net income margin, 47% EBITDASO margin*
EBITDASO margin was third among our compensation peer group
$1.75 million revenue per employee
Fourth highest in our compensation peer group
     
Pipeline execution
Successfully expanded Tyvaso label to include PH-ILD, a new indication which previously had no approved therapies
Filed NDA for Tyvaso DPI
Progressed seven phase 3 studies
Strong performance despite COVID-19-related challenges
No pandemic-based layoffs, furloughs, or pay reductions; provided generous time-off programs to support our employees
Expanded and strengthened our commitment to diversity and inclusion at the Board level and throughout our company, with leadership by our Compensation Committee
Board-level diversity — five of 12 directors are women; three of 12 identify as under-represented minorities
Continued to evolve the ESG transparency program, and converted into the first public biotech company organized as a PBC
No discretionary adjustments to executive compensation program as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
Shareholder Engagement & Results
Extensive shareholder outreach before and after the 2021 Annual Meeting (reached out to holders of 70% of our outstanding shares)
Compared to 2019, the last year in which we granted an equity award to our CEO (which was intended to compensate our CEO over a four-year period), 92% reduction in reported CEO compensation
Annualized CEO total target direct compensation remained at approximately the 50th percentile of our peer group (when the 2019 four-year equity grant is annualized)
Firm commitment not to make any additional NEO equity awards until 2023

* EBITDASO margin is a non-GAAP measure. A reconciliation of this non-GAAP measure and other information relating to this measure can be found in Annex B.

CEO Compensation at a Glance

Our CEO's target total direct compensation is predominantly at-risk, performance-based (89.6%), when the 2019 four-year equity grant is viewed on an annualized basis

Actual reported CEO compensation was reduced by approximately 92% for 2021, when compared to 2019, the last year in which we made an equity grant to our CEO and which was intended to compensate our CEO over a four-year period

2021 total target direct compensation remained positioned at the 50th percentile, when the value of the four-year grant awarded in 2019 is viewed on an annualized basis

During 2021, our CEO received:

A modest increase in base salary (3.4%), below the average salary increase for the rest of our Company

An increase in her cash incentive target, as a percentage of her salary, from 110% in 2020 to 125% in 2021

No equity grants

No COVID-19 pandemic-related adjustments to incentive program targets

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Executive Compensation

Our Named Executive Officers

Our 2021 Named Executive Officers (or NEOs) are:

Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D., J.D., M.B.A.
67, Founder Chairperson, Chief Executive Officer, and Director

Dr. Rothblatt founded United Therapeutics in 1996 and has served as Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer since its inception. Previously, she created the satellite radio company SiriusXM. She is an inventor or co-inventor on nine U.S. patents, with additional applications pending. Her pioneering book, Your Life or Mine: How Geoethics Can Resolve the Conflict Between Private and Public Interests in Xenotransplantation, anticipated the need both for global virus bio-surveillance and a greatly expanded supply of transplantable organs.

Michael Benkowitz
50, President and Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Benkowitz joined United Therapeutics in 2011 as our Executive Vice President, Organizational Development, and was promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer in 2016. He is responsible for all of our commercial, medical affairs, and corporate compliance activities, most Company-wide administrative functions, including human resources and information technology, many of our business development efforts, and several of our key business alliances and partnerships.

James C. Edgemond
54, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Mr. Edgemond joined United Therapeutics in January 2013 as Treasurer and Vice President, Strategic Financial Planning. Mr. Edgemond was promoted to Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer in March 2015. Prior to joining United Therapeutics, he was Vice President, Corporate Controller and Treasurer of Clark Construction Group from 2008 through January 2013. He also served in a variety of roles at The Corporate Executive Board Company from 1998 to 2008, including as Executive Director, Finance from 2005 to 2008. He began his career as a public accountant at KPMG Peat Marwick LLP, from 1990 through 1998, where he served in a variety of roles, including as a Senior Manager prior to his departure.

Paul A. Mahon, J.D.
58, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

Mr. Mahon has served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of United Therapeutics since its inception in 1996. In 2001, Mr. Mahon joined United Therapeutics full-time as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. In 2003, Mr. Mahon was promoted to Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Prior to 2001, he served United Therapeutics, beginning with its formation in 1996, in his capacity as principal and managing partner of a law firm specializing in technology and media law.

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2021 Performance Highlights

2021 continued the strategic transformation for United Therapeutics with several important milestones for our patients and our shareholders, including:

$1.685 billion in revenues, continuing a trend of revenue growth despite generic competition and COVID-19 $1.75 million in revenue per employee, which ranked fourth out of companies in our compensation peer group

We advanced our key pipeline programs during 2021, including:
Launched the Remunity Pump for Remodulin
Obtained FDA approval for, and successfully launched, Tyvaso in patients with PH-ILD
Filed a new drug application for Tyvaso DPI
Progressed seven phase 3 clinical studies:
PERFECT study of Tyvaso in PH-COPD (an indication with no approved therapies)
TETON 1 and TETON 2 studies of Tyvaso in IPF
ADVANCE OUTCOMES and ADVANCE CAPACITY studies of ralinepag in PAH
SAPPHIRE study of Aurora-GT gene therapy in PAH
Phase 3 study of CLES EVLP service

We reached record numbers of PAH patients in the United States being treated with our treprostinil-based therapies — once again reaching more patients than ever before

42% TSR, compared to 0.03% TSR for the NBI

2021 Shareholder Outreach

At our 2021 Annual Meeting, our shareholders overwhelmingly approved our Say-on-Pay proposal, with nearly 95% of the votes cast in favor of the proposal. This clearly demonstrated responsiveness to issues that had given rise to our negative Say-on-Pay outcome in 2020. We therefore did not make any changes to our compensation programs directly as a result of our 2021 Say-on-Pay vote.

In the spring of 2021, we reached out to 36 shareholders that collectively held approximately 70% of our outstanding shares, but only one shareholder, holding approximately 9% of our outstanding shares, accepted our invitation. Most shareholders declined our invitation, in large part because actions taken with respect to our compensation program had been very responsive to concerns underlying our negative 2020 Say-on-Pay outcome, and no further discussion was warranted at that time. The one shareholder that did speak with us was largely interested in discussing our contemplated proposal to convert to a PBC.

Following our 2021 Annual Meeting, we also offered to engage with shareholders that collectively held approximately 71% of our outstanding shares (37 shareholders), and had discussions with shareholders that collectively held approximately 26% of our outstanding shares (five shareholders), to discuss our proposal to convert to a PBC at a September 2021 Special Meeting of Shareholders.

Meetings with shareholders in 2021 were led by Christopher Patusky, our Lead Independent Director and Compensation Committee Chair, and Christopher Causey, our Nominating and Governance Committee Chair. Where appropriate, participants also included representatives of our human resources, investor relations, and legal departments. The purpose of these meetings was to gather feedback regarding our executive compensation and general governance policies, and to discuss our proposed PBC conversion. We also invited the two largest proxy advisory firms to meet with us in the fall of 2021, to discuss our PBC conversion proposal, and held a discussion with one of them.

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Executive Compensation

Overview of our 2021 Executive Compensation Program

Compensation Program Objectives

Our executive compensation program is designed to retain and motivate our executive team, while achieving four critical objectives: pay-for-performance (with at-risk pay representing approximately 90% of overall Chief Executive Officer pay and approximately 82% of our other Named Executive Officers’ pay, when the 2019 four-year grant is viewed on an annualized basis); incentivize alignment with shareholder interests based on delivering operating performance and stock appreciation; balancing incentives over the short-term and long-term; and market competitiveness.

Sustainable, Long-Term Shareholder Value Creation
Pay-for-Performance      Shareholder Alignment      Balance Short- and
Long-Term Perspectives
      Market Competitiveness

Pay Program Elements

We accomplish these objectives through the following compensation elements, as summarized below:

Objective
Compensation Element       Pay-for-
Performance
      Shareholder
Alignment
      Balance Short-
and Long-Term
Perspectives
      Market
Competitiveness
Base Salary
Cash Incentive Awards
Long-Term Incentives (Stock Options)
Benefits/Perquisites
Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan
Severance/Change-of-Control Benefits
Stock Ownership Guidelines

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Pay Element Overview

Our compensation program is comprised of three elements: base salary, annual short-term incentive (cash bonus), and a long-term incentive program. A significant portion of target total compensation for our CEO and other NEOs is structured as “at risk” compensation, comprised of the annual short-term incentive cash bonus and long-term incentives in the form of stock options. In March 2019, our CEO and other NEOs were granted a one-time, four-year equity award which covered all equity awards for the years 2019-2022. The Compensation Committee will not grant any additional equity to our current NEOs during this four-year period. As such, our NEOs were not granted any equity in 2021. The below chart displays the breakdown of fixed and at-risk pay based on the annualized value of the four-year stock award granted in March 2019.

Element / Percent of TDC Why We Pay This Element Key Characteristics How We Determine Amount
      Base Salary      
Provides market competitive levels of fixed pay to attract and retain our NEOs
     
Cash
Annual
     
Market rate, internal pay equity, experience and critical skills


CEO

     


Other NEOs

Bonus
Provides competitive incentives to achieve difficult, annual company-wide performance criteria
Pay-for-Performance
Shareholder Alignment
Strategic alignment balancing a focus on patients through manufacturing and inventory performance, and advancement of clinical programs with driving revenue and profitability
Cash
Performance-Based
Annual
50% Financial
25% Cash Profits
25% Revenues
50% Operational
25% Manufacturing
25% R&D
Payout 0-150% of target


CEO


Other NEOs

Stock Options
Strategic alignment incentivizing achievement of four-year business plan toward multiple-fold increase in revenues, driving shareholder value.
Pay-for-Performance
Shareholder Alignment
At-Risk
Performance-Based
Four-Year Grant covering 2019-2022, with no other equity awarded during this period
50% premium-priced cliff vesting at year 4
50% market-priced ratable vesting at years 2, 3 and 4
No intrinsic value unless stock price grows
Market rate, internal pay equity, experience and critical skills
Substantial reduction in market positioning on an annualized basis


CEO


Other NEOs

The following charts illustrate the extent to which pay for our Chief Executive Officer and our other Named Executive Officers is at risk, as payout levels are based entirely on performance. For each chart, the amounts shown represent 2021 base salary (on an annualized basis, following the February 2021 salary increases), 2021 target cash bonus, and the annualized grant-date fair value of long-term incentive awards granted in March 2019, which were granted 50% in the form of premium-priced performance stock options and 50% in the form of market-priced stock options.

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CEO Target Pay Mix       Other NEO Target Pay Mix

2021 Compensation Decisions

Summary of 2021 Compensation

The components of our Named Executive Officers’ target total direct compensation are base salary and variable compensation, including cash incentives and long-term incentive compensation in the form of stock options. In 2021, we kept our commitment not to grant any additional equity to our CEO or other NEOs, based on the March 2019 grant which was designed to cover the 2019-2022 time period (a four-year equity grant).

Summary of 2021 Target Total Direct Compensation

NEO       2021 Base
Salary
(1)
      % Increase
Over
2020
Base
Salary
      2021 Cash
Incentive
Bonus Target
as % of Base
Salary
      Change in
Cash
Incentive
Bonus
Target %(2)
      2021
Long-Term
Incentive
Award Target(3)
      2021
Total Target
Direct
Compensation
Martine Rothblatt $1,365,000 3.4% 125% 15% $— $3,071,250
James Edgemond $725,000 3.6% 75% 0% $— $1,268,750
Michael Benkowitz $945,000 3.3% 85% 0% $— $1,748,250
Paul Mahon $910,000 3.4% 65% 0% $— $1,501,500
(1) Reflects increases in annual base salaries effective February 22, 2021 and first reflected in pay on March 12, 2021
(2) Represents the difference in cash incentive award target as a percentage of salary, between 2020 and 2021
(3) Reflects the fact that no equity was awarded in 2021 to our Named Executive Officers

Base Salary

Base salary is the fixed element of the compensation packages for our Named Executive Officers. Our Compensation Committee reviews and establishes base salary levels for our Named Executive Officers each year taking into consideration one or more of the following factors, depending on the circumstances: (1) a qualitative evaluation of individual performance, including contribution to the advancement of corporate objectives, impact on financial results, and strategic accomplishments; (2) our overall performance, financial condition, and prospects; (3) the annual compensation received by executives holding comparable positions at our peers; (4) our annual company-wide budget for salary increases; and (5) the input of our Chief Executive Officer (in the case of the other Named Executive Officers). Base salaries are also typically reviewed when there is a material change in the executive’s responsibilities during the year.

In early 2021, our Compensation Committee approved salary increases for our Named Executive Officers, as shown in the table above, effective February 2021. Salary increases were determined based on a review of competitive pay positioning, taking into consideration internal pay equity among Named Executive Officers, and approximate the company-wide salary increases for our employees.

Cash Incentive Award Program

Each year, our Compensation Committee establishes cash incentive award targets for each of our Named Executive Officers, taking into consideration the same factors it uses to determine base salaries (other than our company-wide budget for salary increases). For 2021, our Compensation Committee established cash incentive award targets for our Named Executive Officers as a percentage of base salary, at the levels shown in the Summary of 2021 Target Total Direct Compensation table above. For 2021, we increased our CEO's cash

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incentive bonus target from 110% of base salary to 125% of base salary. This was based on an evaluation of market peer data, and recognition of performance, level of responsibility, experience, expertise, and contribution. For our other Named Executive Officers, bonus target percentages were unchanged from 2020.

These stated incentive targets are comparable to those of executives holding similar roles and levels of responsibility at our peer group companies. Cash incentives are earned for achieving our Company-Wide Milestones (described below) and three of our four Milestones are subject to a threshold, or minimum, level of performance before earning credit for those Milestones. In addition, each of our Named Executive Officers had the opportunity to earn up to 150% of their respective target cash incentive award for 2021, based on above-target performance on our cash profit and revenue-based Milestones. We believe that by setting a threshold level of performance as well as a maximum under the plan we have aligned these policies with market norms and have also responded to feedback from our shareholders.

2021 Company-Wide Milestone Program

The Milestones (or performance goals) under our 2021 Company-Wide Milestone Program are intended to create company-wide incentives relating to significant corporate objectives, falling into two categories: (1) financial metrics, consisting of revenue and profitability targets; and (2) operational metrics, tied to manufacturing and research and development (R&D) objectives. Our Compensation Committee approved the specific goals and weightings based on management input at the beginning of the year and a desire to reflect core performance measures and priorities for the business for the fiscal year, including our commitment to compliance, and to set goals that translate most directly into short-, medium- and long-term value growth.

The goal-setting process for 2021 was rigorous, involving lengthy discussions and a review of multiple data points, including analyst consensus, product expectations, and overall market potential. The Milestone performance targets are difficult to meet and require significant leadership and execution excellence on the part of our Named Executive Officers. Based on these factors, our Compensation Committee established the following Company-Wide Milestones and weightings for 2021:

2021 Company-Wide Milestones       Weighting
Milestone 1—Financial Performance-Cash Profits*: Achieve cash profits in the top quintile of our peer group as measured by a 50% cash profit margin 25%
Milestone 2—Financial Performance-Revenue: Superior financial performance as evidenced by achieving the net revenues for 2021 included in our long-range business plan (a target range of $1.55 billion to $1.71 billion) 25%
Milestone 3—Manufacturing: Adequate manufacturing capabilities, evidenced by a two-year inventory of Remodulin, Tyvaso, and Orenitram finished drug product and passing all GMP-related FDA inspections at our facilities without any issues that prevent the use or approval of any of our drug products 25%
Milestone 4—Research & Development: Conduct insightful research and development programs, taking into account regulatory approvals, label extensions and the quantity and quality of trials that support our business goals 25%
* Cash profit margin is defined as cash profit divided by net revenues. Cash profit is defined as net income for 2021 as reported in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, adjusted to add the following expenses, net of relevant benefits (or subtracted, to the extent the expense item is a net benefit):
Interest expense
Non-cash charges (including, without limitation, amortization, and depreciation)
Tax expense (including penalties and interest)
Extraordinary, non-recurring and unusual items (including without limitation, license fees, milestone payments, gains/losses on acquisition/ disposal of assets, asset impairments, restructuring costs, foreign currency adjustments, and discontinued operations)
Legal expenses related to (1) intellectual property prosecution and defense; (2) litigation and government investigation and enforcement proceedings; and (3) amounts paid to settle/resolve legal disputes, litigation and government investigations and enforcement proceedings
Share-based compensation expense

Our Compensation Committee carefully crafted these Milestones, which represent rigorous, objective standards by which to measure company and executive officer performance. Our Compensation Committee believes that all four Milestones are strategically important to our continued success and therefore should be weighted equally in determining incentive awards. Cash profits and revenue objectives are important to maintaining industry-leading financial performance. Our 2021 goals are tied to our long-term strategic objectives, which include aggressive revenue targets over near-term, medium-term and long-term time horizons, and are designed to achieve profitability at the top quintile of our peers. Our financial performance goal was established based on many factors, including market opportunity for each product, analyst expectations, and historical individual product performance. Our Compensation Committee also considered the continued impact of generic competition for Adcirca and Remodulin in setting revenue goals. Our total revenue goal for 2021 was set as a target range, rather than an absolute number, to ensure the goal was rigorous and took into account an expected FDA decision on Tyvaso for PH-ILD in March of 2021. As such, the goal was $1.63 billion, plus or minus 5%, or $1.55 billion to $1.71 billion as our revenue target range. This approach was determined by our Compensation Committee to be challenging, and was set at a level that was above analyst consensus expectations and above our 2020 net revenue performance. In fact, our threshold level of revenue performance for 2021 was set at $1.5 billion, which was above our 2020 actual revenue performance. This meant our executives would not receive any bonus from revenue performance in 2021 unless our revenues exceeded 2020 actual revenue performance. Our cash profit margin performance

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Milestone is set at a very high bar, incentivizing top-quintile performance relative to our peers and ensuring thoughtful and disciplined budget and spend management. Our manufacturing Milestone is intended to ensure a continuous supply of our treprostinil-based therapies, which generate the vast majority of our revenues. Our R&D Milestone was intended to ensure that we have a robust pipeline of products capable of delivering future revenues sufficient to drive industry-leading growth.

The details of our framework for determining 2021 Milestone performance are provided below. As a general matter, under the terms of our Company-Wide Milestone Program, our Compensation Committee has the authority to exercise negative (downward) discretion in the event of partial attainment under any of the Milestones. The financial targets (cash profits and revenues) are set considering the market opportunity for our existing products, potential entrance of generic competition into the market during the performance period, analyst expectations, and our broader business plans. No mid-year adjustments were made to these targets during the 2021 performance year, despite continued unexpected challenges and obstacles related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Financial Performance — Cash Profit Margin

Financial Performance — Revenues

* Stretch goal to provide additional credit for above profit performance is applied based as discussed under Financial Multiplier below

Manufacturing

We award pro rata credit based on the number of quarters for which: (1) pre-specified inventory levels are achieved (i.e., two-year supply of Orenitram, Remodulin, and Tyvaso); and (2) we pass any GMP-related FDA inspections at our facilities without any issues that prevent the use or approval of any of our drug products. Meeting the goals for a minimum of two quarters is a threshold condition for any credit under this Milestone. Achievement of this Milestone requires operational and manufacturing excellence across multiple interrelated functions. Notably, our objective of maintaining a two-year supply of our PAH therapies has emerged as a critical competency as we successfully navigated the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the patients we serve did not experience a disruption in drug supply.

Research & Development

Performance under the research and development Milestone is based on a system of R&D points, where expected points (i.e., the goal) are determined at the beginning of the year based on our pipeline, and progress is measured at the end of the year.

Award pro rata credit       100% credit (at target)
< 100% of Goal 100%+ of Goal

Financial Multiplier

For 2021, above-target cash incentive awards were possible (up to 150% of target) through the application of a Financial Multiplier, which is based only on the achievement of financial performance against the pre-established revenue and cash profit margin target and stretch/ maximum goals, as follows:

      Range (Target to Stretch/Maximum)
Cash Profit Margin Performance 50%       55%
Revenue Performance $1.63 billion (+/- 5%) $1.75 billion
Multiplier for each Metric* 0% 25%
* The Financial Multiplier is calculated independently for each metric, using linear interpolation between performance levels. Aggregate multiplier of up to 50% is applied to the entirety of the Milestone program attainment after determining individual performance for each individual Milestone.

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2021 Milestone Performance

For 2021, our Compensation Committee determined that 100% of the Milestones were achieved, plus an additional 25% multiplier for above-maximum performance under our cash profit Milestone, as shown below:

Milestone       Performance       Attainment
Level %
(A)
      Weighting
(B)
      % of Award
Earned
(A × B)

1
(Cash
Profit)


2021 cash profit margin was 63%, representing 126% performance against the target of 50%. Because performance also exceeded the maximum 55% threshold, the full milestone achievement was awarded including a 25% financial multiplier.

100%

25%

25%

2
(Revenue)


2021 net revenues were $1.686 billion, within but not exceeding our target range of $1.55 - $1.71 billion. As a result, full credit was awarded for the milestone, but no financial multiplier credit was awarded.

100%

25%

25%

3
(Mfg)

Maintained greater than two-year inventory of all strengths of Remodulin, Tyvaso, and Orenitram and passed all FDA inspections at our facilities without any issues that prevent the use or approval of any of our drug products. Full Milestone achievement was awarded.

100%

25%

25%

4
(R&D)

Achieved 38 R&D points against a goal of 25 (details provided below).

100%

25%

25%

Total

100%

Financial Multiplier (based on above-maximum cash profit Milestone performance)

25%

Total (including multiplier)

125%

A word about our financial performance goals

Revenue. Our revenue goal for 2021 was set above 2020 revenue performance. In fact, the revenue goal threshold, set at $1.5 billion, was set above our 2020 revenue performance. As a result, our executives would not receive any bonus for 2021 revenue performance unless our revenues were higher in 2021 than in 2020. At the time we established our 2021 Company-Wide Milestones, we were awaiting a decision from the FDA on Tyvaso for PH-ILD, so our Compensation Committee carefully crafted a revenue goal that would be rigorous and challenging, regardless of that FDA decision. The revenue target was set at $1.63 billion, plus or minus five percent, which created a target revenue range of $1.55 billion to $1.71 billion. This meant that if Tyvaso for PH-ILD was approved by the FDA (happily, we received approval on April 1, 2021) the revenue goal would be rigorous and challenging, while still offering opportunity for stretch performance with a stretch/maximum revenue goal set at $1.75 billion, which, if met, would have been an 18% increase in revenue over 2020. In 2021, our team stepped up to this challenge, even with continuing operational and logistical challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and continuing pressure from generic competition for both Adcirca and Remodulin. Even with these obstacles, our team continued to meet the challenge with innovation and determination, achieving a 14% increase in revenue over 2020.

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Cash Profit. We have always focused on market- and peer-leading profitability. Our strength in these areas has shined in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, as our strong free cash flow ensured that we maintained a healthy balance sheet even in the face of the challenges brought by the pandemic. Our cash profit margin is a somewhat unique metric, in that it is designed to ensure we adhere closely to a carefully-crafted budgeting algorithm whereby our cash budget each year is set at no more than 50 percent of the prior year’s net revenue. This algorithm helps ensure a disciplined approach to setting R&D and other priorities at our company. This correlates to our 50 percent cash profit margin goal set for 2021. This budgeting algorithm has historically led to top-quintile profitability. For comparative purposes, we have included the chart below to show how our budget discipline translated into top-quintile profitability in 2021. Because not all companies report the same non-GAAP financial measures, the chart below shows how our cash profit performance led to top-quintile performance in 2021 based on a uniform profitability metric: EBITDASO margin, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and share-based compensation expense, divided by revenues. The chart below shows EBITDASO margin for all companies within our compensation peer group except for three companies, one whose EBITDASO margin was a negative number and two who were acquired in 2021.


Additional detail regarding our research and development performance

In evaluating performance under Milestone 4 (Research and Development), our Compensation Committee reviewed the clinical and registration-stage products being developed within our pipeline, the unmet medical needs they are intended to address, and the significance of potential revenues if approved. For 2021, we measured performance against our R&D milestone by awarding a set number

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of points for each accomplishment (eight points for each approval or label expansion, four points for each phase 3 or phase 4 study commenced or progressed, two points for each phase 1 or phase 2 study commenced or progressed, and one point for each IND filed on a new product candidate or indication). The following is a list of these programs, several of which represent multi-billion-dollar revenue opportunities, and in some cases address potential indications for which there are no FDA-approved therapies:

FDA Approvals: Eight points awarded for achieving one key FDA approval, the approval of Tyvaso for a new indication (PH-ILD)

Late-Stage Clinical Programs: 28 points awarded for progressing seven registration-stage programs, listed below:

BREEZE, a registration study of Tyvaso DPI

PERFECT, a phase 3 study of Tyvaso for WHO Group 3 pulmonary hypertension associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

TETON, a phase 3 study of Tyvaso for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

ADVANCE OUTCOMES, a phase 3 event-based study of ralinepag in PAH patients

ADVANCE CAPACITY, a phase 3 study of the effect of ralinepag on exercise capacity in PAH patients

Registration study of ex-vivo lung perfusion technology to increase the utilization of donated lungs for transplantation

SAPPHIRE, a registration study to establish the efficacy and safety of repeat dosing autologous endothelial progenitor cells in patients with PAH

Earlier-Stage Clinical Program: Two points awarded for progressing one early stage development program:

OreniPro, a once-daily prodrug form of Orenitram

New Product Candidates: No points were awarded as we did not file any investigational new drug applications in 2021

2021 Cash Incentive Awards under the Company-Wide Milestone Program

The cash incentive awards earned by our Named Executive Officers and approved by our Compensation Committee for the 2021 performance year were as follows:

NEO       2021
Base Salary
(A)
      2021 Cash
Incentive Award
Target as % of
Base Salary
(B)
      2021 Milestone
Attainment
(C)
      2021 Financial
Multiplier
(D)
      Total Cash
Incentive
Bonus Earned
(A × B × (C + D))
Martine Rothblatt $1,365,000 125% 100% 25% $2,132,813
James Edgemond $725,000 75% 100% 25% $679,688
Michael Benkowitz $945,000 85% 100% 25% $1,004,063
Paul Mahon $910,000 65% 100% 25% $739,375

Long-Term Incentive Compensation

2021 Long-Term Incentive Compensation

In light of the equity grants awarded in March 2019 intended to provide long-term equity incentive compensation to our NEOs for the period from 2019-2022, no equity was awarded to our CEO or other NEOs in 2021.

2019-2022 Long-Term Incentive Compensation

Our long-term incentive compensation program is structured to support our pay-for-performance and shareholder alignment objectives. As previously disclosed, we implemented a new long-term incentive compensation program in 2019 designed to motivate and retain our executive leadership team, while carefully and thoughtfully integrating shareholder feedback and alignment. We awarded a four-year grant of stock options to our Named Executive Officers, intended to cover four years of equity awards for the performance years 2019 through 2022, aligning with our then-current four-year business plan, execution of which was expected to yield significant revenue growth.

With the four-year grant in 2019, we are firmly committed to not granting additional equity to our CEO or other current NEOs during the time period this grant is intended to cover (2019-2022), and our next equity grant to these executives will not occur before 2023.

The four-year grant consisted of two forms of stock options under the United Therapeutics Corporation Amended and Restated 2015 Stock Incentive Plan (the 2015 SIP). One-half of these awards was in the form of premium-priced performance stock options, with an exercise price equal to 115% of our closing stock price on the date of grant. The vesting of the four-year awards was heavily weighted toward the end of the four-year period covered by the grant, with no vesting occurring during 2019 or 2020.

A Look Ahead: 2023 Equity Incentive Compensation Program

Based on feedback provided by shareholders during our 2020 shareholder engagements both before and after our 2020 Annual Meeting, in 2021 we committed that our equity incentive program will have the following features in 2023 to address concerns raised by shareholders regarding our 2019 four-year equity grant:

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A return to annual equity award granting practices, granting one year of equity in 2023 rather than a front-loaded, multi-year grant

At least 50% of the award will be performance-based

Performance-based awards will include one or more performance metrics other than stock price appreciation

The 2023 equity program will include a mix of equity vehicles, including the use of performance shares

2021 Compensation Program Design

Roles of Management, Compensation Committee, and Compensation Consultant

Role of Our Compensation Committee and Management

Our Compensation Committee is composed entirely of independent directors, as defined by Rule 6505(a)(2) of the Nasdaq listing standards. Our Compensation Committee meets as often as it determines necessary to carry out its duties and responsibilities through regularly scheduled meetings and, if necessary, special meetings. Our Compensation Committee also has the authority to take certain actions by written consent of all members. In 2021, our Compensation Committee met four times. Our Compensation Committee reviews and oversees our compensation policies, plans, and programs and reviews and determines the compensation to be paid to our Named Executive Officers, with the input and advice from its independent compensation consultant. Our Compensation Committee also considers the input of our Chief Executive Officer in making compensation decisions related to our other Named Executive Officers.

Role of Independent Compensation Consultant

Our Compensation Committee has the authority to engage advisors to assist it in carrying out its responsibilities. In accordance with this authority, our Compensation Committee directly engaged Aon's Human Capital Solutions practice, a division of Aon plc (Aon) (formerly referred to as Radford), as its compensation consultant during 2021 to provide advice to our Compensation Committee on our executive and non-employee director compensation practices and policies. Our Compensation Committee, in its discretion, may replace its independent compensation consultant or hire additional consultants at any time. Aon performed additional services during 2021, namely consulting services for non-executive employee compensation matters and broad-based compensation survey data, and was paid fees for these services totaling approximately $19,900. In addition, Aon affiliates (Aon plc and its related entities) performed actuarial services relating to our SERP, insurance advisory services, and retirement plan advisory services, along with risk management consulting and insurance brokerage services for United Therapeutics during 2021, for which we paid approximately $492,102 during 2021. Additional insurance premiums and related fees were paid to Aon plc and passed through to insurance companies not affiliated with Aon plc. Our Compensation Committee approved these services and determined that they did not impair Aon’s independence. Our Compensation Committee considered the independence of Aon in light of SEC rules regarding conflicts of interest involving compensation consultants and Nasdaq listing standards regarding compensation consultant independence. Based on its review, our Compensation Committee determined that Aon was independent, and that Aon's work did not raise any conflicts of interest. In making the foregoing determination, our Compensation Committee considered the following six factors, as well as other factors it deemed relevant: (1) the provision of other services to us by Aon; (2) the amount of fees Aon received from us, as a percentage of their total revenue; (3) the policies and procedures of Aon that are designed to prevent conflicts of interest; (4) the absence of any business or personal relationships of the Aon consultants with any member of our Compensation Committee; (5) the absence of any United Therapeutics stock owned by the Aon consultants performing services for our Compensation Committee; and (6) the absence of any business or personal relationships of the Aon consultants or Aon itself with any of our executive officers. During 2021, we paid Aon $288,255 in fees for determining or recommending the amount and form of compensation to our directors and executive officers.

Our Compensation Committee engaged Aon during 2021 to review and advise our Compensation Committee on all principal aspects of executive and non-employee director compensation. This included base salaries, cash incentive awards, and long-term incentive awards for our executive officers. Aon performed the following tasks for our Compensation Committee in 2021, among others:

Reviewing and advising on the structure of our compensation arrangements for our Chief Executive Officer and our other NEOs

Reviewing and advising on the structure of our compensation arrangements for our non-employee directors

Providing recommendations regarding the composition of our peer group

Analyzing publicly available proxy data for companies within our peer group and survey data relating to executive compensation

Conducting pay and performance analyses relative to our peer group

Updating our Compensation Committee on industry trends and best practices with respect to executive long-term incentive compensation program design, including types of long-term incentive compensation awards, size of long-term incentive compensation grants, and aggregate long-term incentive compensation grant usage

Reviewing our equity incentive awards against our design/cost targets and against industry norms

Reviewing the Compensation Discussion and Analysis and other compensation-related disclosures in this Proxy Statement

Advising our Compensation Committee in connection with its risk assessment relating to our compensation programs

Preparing for and attending shareholder engagement sessions

Working on special or ad hoc projects for, or at the request of, our Compensation Committee as they arose

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In the course of fulfilling these responsibilities, Aon regularly communicated with our Compensation Committee Chair outside of and prior to most Compensation Committee meetings. Our Compensation Committee regularly invites its independent compensation consultant to attend its meetings. In 2021, Aon representatives attended each of our Compensation Committee’s four meetings.

While our Compensation Committee considered its independent consultant’s recommendations in 2021, our Compensation Committee’s decisions, including the specific amounts paid to our executive officers and directors, were its own and may reflect factors and considerations in addition to the information and recommendations provided by its independent consultant.

Compensation Peer Group

On an annual basis, our Compensation Committee reviews Named Executive Officer compensation levels relative to a peer group of industry and labor market competitors. For 2021, we defined our peer group as the top 25 companies other than United Therapeutics, ranked by revenue, in the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index which is consistent with the peer group selection methodology used for 2020. Our 2021 peer group was selected in June 2020, and was used to develop market data as an input into our compensation program for 2021. This peer group includes only companies that are U.S.-based or based in jurisdictions with similar compensation disclosure requirements as U.S. companies. Our methodology for selecting compensation peers uses an objective metric, which our Compensation Committee believes results in a peer group that includes biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that are similar to us in terms of financial performance, shareholder value creation, and drug development and commercialization, and generally reflects the universe of companies from which we recruit, and against which we retain, executive talent.

Each year, a number of peers are added or removed from the list and replaced with other companies for various reasons, including merger and acquisition activities. We have provided below for reference the profile of our compensation peer group for 2021, showing changes made from our 2020 peer group. For clarity, the 2020 peer group was selected in 2019 and used for setting 2020 compensation policies. The 2021 peer group was selected in 2020 and used for setting 2021 compensation policies.

       
2020 PEER GROUP

ADDITIONS FOR 2021

Akorn
Alexion Pharmaceuticals
Alkermes
Amgen
Biogen
BioMarin Pharmaceutical
Bio-Techne
Celgene
Endo International
Exelixis
Gilead Sciences
Horizon Therapeutics
Illumina

Incyte
Ionis Pharmaceuticals
Jazz Pharmaceuticals
Mylan N.V.
Myriad Genetics
Nektar Therapeutics
Opko Health
PRA Health Sciences
Regeneron
Seattle Genetics
Syneos Health
Vertex

Amarin
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

Neurocrine Biosciences
Pacira Biosciences

 

DELETIONS FOR 2021

Akorn
Celgene

Mylan N.V.
Nektar Therapeutics

 


   

2021 PEER GROUP
Alexion Pharmaceuticals       Endo International       Ironwood Pharmaceuticals       Regeneron
Alkermes Exelixis Jazz Pharmaceuticals Seattle Genetics
Amarin Gilead Sciences Myriad Genetics Syneos Health
Amgen Horizon Therapeutics Neurocrine Biosciences Vertex
Biogen Illumina Opko Health
BioMarin Pharmaceutical Incyte Pacira Biosciences
Bio-Techne Ionis Pharmaceuticals PRA Health Sciences

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The following chart shows how United Therapeutics ranks within its 2021 peer group on a variety of metrics. These metrics were based on available data at the time the peer group was approved, generally reflecting the trailing twelve-month period ending March 31, 2020.

      United Therapeutics
($ in millions)
      Percentile       Rank

Revenue

$1,442.5

14th of 26

Operating Income

$635.0

9th of 26

Adjusted Operating Income(1)

$645.0

10th of 26

Net Income

$527.8

9th of 26

ROIC(1)

11.3%

8th of 26

Return on Equity

20.0%

11th of 26

Return on Assets(1)

10.4%

7th of 26

Market Cap Per Employee(2)

$4.5

17th of 26

(1)

Adjusted Operating Income is a non-GAAP figure, which in the case of United Therapeutics was calculated by adjusting operating income (the most closely comparable GAAP figure) to (i) add back an $8.8 million in-process research and development (IPR&D) impairment; and (ii) add back $1.2 million of SERP-related expenses. We do not use Adjusted Operating Income for operational purposes, but we do think it provides our Compensation Committee and our shareholders useful information in evaluating the reasonableness of our peer group selection criteria. ROIC and Return on Assets have been calculated using Adjusted Operating Income.

(2)

Market capitalization per employee as of March 31, 2020 when the peer group was approved

Our Compensation Committee’s approach to peer group selection is to apply an objective external measure for selecting companies. This results in a number of peers being larger than United Therapeutics based on revenue as well as a number of peers being smaller. Our goal each year is to place our company within the peer group statistics of the 25th to 75th percentile for revenue as close to the median as possible while managing changes each year due to sector volatility, industry consolidation, and differences in business and organization models. Furthermore, our Compensation Committee views it as critical to measure ourselves against industry-leading peers (including those that are both larger and smaller than we are) because, in addition to being companies with which we compete for talent, many of these larger and smaller companies are also our business competitors. By placing our company at around the 50th percentile of our peer group for revenue, we believe our peer group reflects companies of similar scope and complexity.

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Key Governance Features of our Executive Compensation Program

Our Compensation Committee periodically assesses the effectiveness of our compensation policies and practices in achieving its pay-for-performance objective while aligning the interests of executive officers with those of shareholders, balancing short-term and long-term elements, and maintaining market competitiveness. Our Compensation Committee also reviews risk mitigation and governance items, which are designed to help ensure that our compensation programs are functioning to achieve such objectives. In conjunction with this assessment and review, we have adopted the following best practices:

      WHAT WE DO             WHAT WE DON’T DO
Design our executive compensation program to align pay and performance
Maintain an appropriate balance between short-term and long-term compensation, which discourages short-term risk taking at the expense of long-term results
Grant performance-based long-term incentive awards
Maintain stock ownership guidelines to align executive officer and share ownership with that of our directors and our shareholders
Prohibit hedging and pledging by executives and directors*
Employ a compensation recovery, or clawback, policy**
Conduct annual risk assessments of our compensation policies and practices
Hold Compensation Committee executive sessions without management
Engage an independent compensation consultant who reports directly to the compensation committee
No backdating of stock options
No repricing of stock options without shareholder approval
No liberal share recycling under 2015 Stock Incentive Plan
No vesting prior to the first anniversary of grant, subject to limited exceptions
No discounted or reloaded stock options
No excessive perquisites
No excise tax gross ups
No guaranteed bonus payments
*

Pursuant to our insider trading policy, directors, officers, and employees are prohibited from purchasing our securities on margin, engaging in “short” sales of our common stock, or buying or selling puts, calls, futures contracts, or other forms of derivative securities relating to our securities. In addition, our Board has adopted a policy prohibiting our directors and executive officers from pledging of shares of our common stock.

**

Our Board has the authority, to the extent permitted by governing law, to make retroactive adjustments to any cash award or equity award-based incentive compensation paid to our Named Executive Officers and certain other senior managers where the payment was predicated upon the achievement of certain financial results that were subsequently the subject of a restatement.

Other Executive Compensation Policies and Practices

Equity Incentive Awards Grant Timing Policy

Our equity incentive award grant timing is designed so that equity-based awards are granted after the market has had an opportunity to react to our announcement of annual earnings. As such, as a general matter, equity-based awards to our employees and Named Executive Officers are typically granted on March 15th each calendar year (or the preceding trading day if markets are not open on March 15th). We also believe this timing helps us avoid broad internal communication of highly confidential financial results prior to public announcement of our annual financial results. Our Compensation Committee may also approve equity-based awards at other times, in connection with significant personnel events, such as new hire, promotion, new directorship, achievement of a significant corporate objective, or appointment to a Board committee. In addition, our Compensation Committee has the flexibility to grant awards on the 15th day of any month (or the preceding trading day if markets are not open on the 15th).

All equity incentive awards granted to our Named Executive Officers and other employees have an exercise price equal to at least the closing price of our common stock on the Nasdaq on the date of grant or, if the award is granted on a date when the Nasdaq is not open, an exercise price equal to at least the closing price of our common stock on the Nasdaq on the preceding trading day.

Benefits and Perquisites

The benefits offered to our Named Executive Officers are substantially the same as those offered to all employees, with the exception of the supplemental executive retirement plan (SERP) discussed in the section entitled Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan below. We provide a tax-qualified retirement plan (a 401(k) plan) and medical and other benefits to executives that are generally available to other full-time employees. Under our 401(k) plan, all employees are permitted to contribute up to the maximum amount allowable under applicable law (i.e., $19,500 in 2021 or $26,000 for eligible participants who are age 50 or older). We make matching contributions equal to 40% of eligible employee contributions with such matching contributions vesting 33 1/3% per year based on years of service, not the amount of time an employee has participated in the 401(k) plan. Therefore, once an employee completes three years of service, their

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account is fully vested, and any future matching funds will vest immediately. The 401(k) plan and other generally available benefits programs allow us to remain competitive for executive talent. We also provide limited perquisites to our Named Executive Officers, including participation in either our vehicle lease program, which covers the monthly lease payment and cost of insurance and maintenance on vehicles, or a monthly car allowance of up to $1,000. Our Compensation Committee believes that the availability of these benefit programs generally enhances executive recruitment, retention, productivity, and loyalty to us.

For additional details on certain benefits and perquisites received by our Named Executive Officers, see the Summary Compensation Table below.

Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan

We maintain our SERP for select executives to enhance the long-term retention of individuals who have been and will continue to be vital to our success. Currently, only our Named Executive Officers and two other members of senior management participate in the SERP. The SERP provides participants with a lifetime annual payment after retirement (or at their election, a lump-sum payment) of up to 100% of final average three-year gross salary less estimated social security benefit, provided that they are employed by us or one of our affiliates until age 60. Participants in the SERP are prohibited from competing with us or soliciting our employees for a period of twelve months following their termination of employment or, if earlier, upon attainment of age 65. Violation of this covenant will result in forfeiture of all benefits under the SERP.

Additional details regarding the SERP, including provisions in connection with a participant’s death or disability or change in control, are provided under the Pension Benefits in 2021 table below.

Post-Employment Obligations to Named Executive Officers

Each of our Named Executive Officers is eligible for certain severance payments in the event their employment terminates under specified circumstances, including in connection with a change in control, as provided in their employment agreements as well as the terms of the SERP, the 1997 United Therapeutics Corporation Amended and Restated Equity Incentive Plan (EIP), the 2015 SIP, and the STAP. These payments vary based on the type of termination but may include cash severance, stock option and STAP vesting acceleration, SERP vesting acceleration, and/or continuation of health and other benefits.

Our Compensation Committee approved these arrangements in order to promote the loyalty and productivity of our Named Executive Officers and to align executive and shareholder interests by enabling executives to consider corporate transactions that are in the best interests of our shareholders and our other constituents without undue concern about whether the transaction may jeopardize their employment. Our Compensation Committee wants our Named Executive Officers to be free to think creatively and promote the best interests of our company without worrying about the impact of those decisions on their employment.

Details regarding severance and change in control arrangements for our Named Executive Officers are contained in the text following the Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control table below.

Stock Ownership Guidelines

As noted above under Our Corporate Governance—Selecting Directors—Stock Ownership Guidelines, in 2011, our Board adopted Stock Ownership Guidelines in order to further align the financial interests of our directors and Named Executive Officers with those of our shareholders, to foster a long-term management orientation, and to promote sound corporate governance. Our Stock Ownership Guidelines set targets for each Named Executive Officer according to the lesser of a multiple of base salary or fixed number of shares of common stock as follows:

Title of NEO       Ownership Target
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer Lesser of 6x base salary or 100,000 shares
President and Chief Operating Officer Lesser of 3x base salary or 30,000 shares
Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Lesser of 3x base salary or 20,000 shares
Executive Vice President and General Counsel Lesser of 3x base salary or 30,000 shares

The policy provides procedures for granting exemptions in the case of hardship.

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Policy Regarding Tax Deductibility of Executive Compensation

Under Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code (the Code), a limitation exists on the deductibility of compensation paid to certain "covered employees", including all of our Named Executive Officers, in excess of $1 million per year and thus, we are unable to deduct compensation payable to Named Executive Officers in excess of such limit.

While our Compensation Committee considers the impact of this tax treatment, the primary factor influencing program design is the support of our business objectives. Accordingly, our Compensation Committee retains flexibility to structure our compensation programs in a manner that is not tax-deductible in order to achieve a strategic result that our Compensation Committee determines to be more appropriate.

Compensation Committee Report

The Compensation Committee of our Board of Directors has reviewed and discussed the Compensation Discussion and Analysis contained within this Proxy Statement with management and, based on such review and discussions, our Compensation Committee recommended to our Board of Directors that the Compensation Discussion and Analysis be included in this Proxy Statement and incorporated into United Therapeutics’ Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.

Submitted by the Compensation Committee:

CHRISTOPHER PATUSKY (Chair)
RAYMOND DWEK
NILDA MESA
LOUIS SULLIVAN

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Executive Compensation

Compensation Tables

Summary Compensation Table

The following table shows compensation information for 2019, 2020, and 2021 for our Named Executive Officers, calculated in accordance with SEC regulations.

Name and Principal Position     Year     Salary(1)
($)
        Stock Options(2)
($)
    Non-Equity
Incentive Plan
Compensation(3)
($)
    Change in
Pension
Value and
Nonqualified
Deferred
Compensation
Earnings(4)
($)
    All Other
Compensation(5)
($)
    Total
($)
Martine Rothblatt
Chairperson and Chief
Executive Officer
2021 1,367,858   (7) 2,132,813 10,400 3,511,071
2020 1,352,435 (6)(7) 1,873,080 1,575,757 10,400 4,811,672
2019 1,218,038 (7) 40,010,000 1,753,125 2,643,874 10,000 45,635,037
James Edgemond
Chief Financial Officer
and Treasurer
2021 721,154 679,688 481,573 20,800 1,903,215
2020 722,115 (6) 677,250 1,790,415 20,000 3,209,780
2019 645,192 13,003,250 632,813 1,668,041 19,600 15,968,896
Michael Benkowitz
President and Chief
Operating Officer
2021 940,385 1,004,063 355,353 16,691 2,316,492
2020 944,423 (6) 1,003,298 3,160,903 16,994 5,125,618
2019 845,577 15,003,750 940,313 2,829,195 17,171 19,636,006
Paul Mahon
Executive Vice President
and General Counsel
2021 905,385 739,375 22,400 1,667,160
2020 908,077 (6) 737,880 2,432,869 22,400 4,101,226
2019 812,692 12,003,000 690,625 3,038,484 22,000 16,566,801
(1) Increases in base salaries for each of our Named Executive Officers became effective on February 25, 2019, February 24, 2020, and February 22, 2021.
(2) Amounts shown represent the aggregate grant date fair value of stock options granted in each reported year, computed in accordance with applicable accounting standards. For a discussion of valuation assumptions for stock options, see Note 8—Share Based Compensation to the consolidated financial statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021. The stock options were awarded under our 2015 SIP.
(3) Amounts shown for each year represent the total cash awards earned by each Named Executive Officer under our Company-Wide Milestone Program for the respective year, although the awards were not paid until March of the following year. The payouts were determined based on our attainment of specific, pre-established performance Milestones. For example, the amounts reported for 2021 reflect cash earned in respect of 2021 performance but paid in March 2022. For information on the amounts earned for 2021, see the section entitled Cash Incentive Award Program in the Compensation Discussion and Analysis above.
(4) Amounts shown represent the change in the actuarial present value of retirement benefits under the SERP calculated in accordance with GAAP under SEC requirements. The assumptions used in calculating the change in the actuarial present value of SERP benefits are described in the footnotes to the Pension Benefits in 2021 table below. The change in pension value from year to year as reported in the table will vary based on these assumptions and may not represent the value that a Named Executive Officer will accrue or receive under the SERP. For Dr. Rothblatt and Mr. Mahon, the value in the table is reported as zero in accordance with SEC rules. The actual change for Dr. Rothblatt was ($873,368) and for Mr. Mahon was ($315,983).
(5) The amounts shown represent the aggregate incremental cost that can be attributed to lease, insurance, and maintenance payments made on vehicles used by a Named Executive Officer or for monthly automobile allowances, travel expenses for family members to our functions (collectively, the perquisites), and “matching contributions” under our 401(k) Plan equal to 40% of each participant’s qualifying salary contributions. The 2021 amounts shown include a 401(k) match of $10,400 for each of Dr. Rothblatt, Mr. Edgemond, Mr Benkowitz, and Mr. Mahon. Additionally, the 2021 amounts include personal usage of a company leased vehicle of $10,400 and $6,291 for Mr. Edgemond and Mr. Benkowitz, respectively, and a car allowance of $12,000 for Mr. Mahon.
(6) We changed pay timing and pay periods in 2019 (from semi-monthly and paying current to bi-weekly and paying one week in arrears). This resulted in less pay actually received in 2019 (there were only 25 pay dates in calendar year 2019 with the change in timing) and with the timing of pay dates in 2020, there are 27 actual pay dates in 2020 rather than 26, which resulted in an increase in reported wages.
(7) Our Canadian subsidiary paid a portion of Dr. Rothblatt’s total base salary in Canadian dollars. The value of this portion in U.S. dollars has been estimated for the purposes of disclosure by using the average exchange rate for each respective year. In 2019, 2020, and 2021, our Canadian subsidiary paid the equivalent of US $90,436, US $281,984, and US $238,274 of Dr. Rothblatt’s total base salary, respectively.

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Grants of Plan-Based Awards in 2021




Estimated Future Payouts Under
Non-Equity Incentive Plan Awards

All Other
Option Awards:
Number of
Securities
Underlying
Options(2)
(#)

Exercise or
Base Price
of Stock
Option
Awards(2)
($/Sh)
Grant Date
Fair Value
of Stock
Option
Awards(2)
($)
Name      Grant Date      Threshold(1)
($)
     Target(1)
($)
     Maximum(1)
($)
              
Martine Rothblatt     N/A (1) 639,844 1,706,250 2,559,375 N/A N/A
James Edgemond N/A (1) 203,906 543,750 815,625 N/A N/A
Michael Benkowitz N/A (1) 301,219 803,250 1,204,875 N/A N/A
Paul Mahon N/A (1) 221,813 591,500 887,250 N/A N/A
(1) Actual cash incentive awards earned under the program in 2021 are reported in the Summary Compensation Table under the column entitled “Non-Equity Incentive Plan Compensation.” While there are threshold performance criteria and payout levels for 75% of the cash incentive program (based on the Milestones related to cash profits, revenues, and manufacturing), the R&D Milestone does not contain threshold / minimum performance criteria. The amount reported under the column entitled "Threshold" shows the amount that would be earned if no credit was awarded under the R&D Milestone and the remaining three Milestones were achieved at threshold / minimum levels.
(2) In light of the four-year equity grant of stock options in March 2019 covering the 2019-2022 period, no equity-based awards were granted to the Named Executive Officers in 2021.

Narratives to Summary Compensation Table and Grants of Plan-Based Awards in 2021 Table

Named Executive Officer Employment Agreements

The material terms of each Named Executive Officer’s employment agreement are described below.

Dr. Rothblatt

In April 1999, we entered into an employment agreement with Dr. Rothblatt. This agreement was amended from time to time and we entered into an Amended and Restated Executive Employment Agreement with Dr. Rothblatt effective January 1, 2009, in order to clarify the effectiveness of certain prior amendments, and to make other immaterial amendments. This agreement was further amended effective January 1, 2015, to remove her entitlement to an annual grant of stock options based on a market capitalization growth formula and to provide us flexibility to grant her incentive-based compensation in a variety of forms at our Compensation Committee’s discretion. The amendment also eliminated Dr. Rothblatt’s right to an Internal Revenue Code Section 280G excise tax gross up payment, among other changes.

Dr. Rothblatt’s employment agreement provides for an initial five-year term, which is automatically extended for an additional year at the end of each year unless either party gives at least six months’ notice of termination. If either party provided such a notice of termination, it would result in a four-year remaining term. We note that this rolling five-year term has no bearing on potential severance payments upon termination, which are described under Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control.

Dr. Rothblatt’s compensation in 2021 was paid pursuant to this employment agreement, which entitles her to a minimum base salary of $180,000, annual cash and long-term incentive compensation and participation in employee benefits generally available to other executives. The level of Dr. Rothblatt’s base salary is subject to annual review and increase by our Compensation Committee. Her annual salary was reviewed in early 2021, and beginning February 22, 2021, was set at $1,365,000. Her employment agreement also requires us to pay the cost of leasing, maintaining, and insuring an automobile for Dr. Rothblatt.

Dr. Rothblatt’s employment agreement prohibits her from engaging in activities competitive with us for five years following her last receipt of compensation from us. She is also subject to a permanent confidentiality obligation. For information regarding severance and change in control arrangements for Dr. Rothblatt, see the text following the Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control table below.

Mr. Edgemond, Mr. Benkowitz, and Mr. Mahon

We have entered into employment agreements with each of Messrs. Edgemond, Benkowitz, and Mahon. The agreement for Mr. Mahon provides for an initial five-year term, which is automatically extended for an additional year at the end of each year. Either party may terminate the agreement a certain time period prior to an annual renewal, which would result in a four-year remaining term. The agreements for Messrs. Benkowitz and Edgemond provide an initial term of three years, following which the agreement continues from year to year for one-year terms unless either party provides written notice to terminate a certain time period prior to the end of the then current term. Each employment agreement provides for an annual minimum base salary, which is subject to annual review and increase by our Compensation Committee. Annual salaries for each of these executives were reviewed in early 2021, with raises becoming effective February 22, 2021. The following table outlines these details for each executive:

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Name       Month/Year of
Agreement
      Minimum Base Salary
under Agreement
      Base Salary as of
February 22, 2021
James Edgemond March 2015 $400,000 $725,000
Michael Benkowitz June 2016 $650,000 $945,000
Paul Mahon June 2001 $300,000 $910,000

Under these agreements, each executive is eligible to participate in our broad-based employee benefit plans. In accordance with our executive automobile policy, Messrs. Edgemond, Benkowitz, and Mahon each receives either a monthly car allowance of $1,000 per month or the use of a company owned or leased vehicle.

Each of these employment agreements prohibits the executive from accepting employment, consultancy, or any other business relationships with an entity that directly competes with us or from engaging in the solicitation of our employees on behalf of a competitor for a period of time following his last receipt of compensation from us (two years in the case of Mr. Mahon and one year in the case of Mr. Edgemond and Mr. Benkowitz). Each agreement includes an obligation of confidentiality for three years after termination of the executive’s employment.

Messrs. Edgemond and Benkowitz are each party to a change in control severance agreement providing benefits in the event of his termination following a change in control. In particular, these benefits include a cash severance payment equal to two times base salary, plus two times the highest of (1) the cash incentive award paid to the individual for the year immediately preceding the year in which the change in control occurs; (2) the cash incentive award payable to the individual for the year immediately preceding the year in which the termination of employment occurs; or (3) the individual’s annual target cash incentive award. This cash severance would become payable in lieu of any severance payment under the respective employment agreements unless severance under the employment agreement would result in a greater benefit. The change in control severance agreement also provides for continuation of medical benefits for 24 months following termination, and outplacement benefits with a value of $10,000.

For further information regarding severance and change in control arrangements for these Named Executive Officers, see the text following the Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control table below.

Summary of Terms of Plan-Based Awards

Stock Options under the 2015 SIP

In March 2019, our Named Executive Officers were granted stock options under our 2015 SIP. No equity-based awards were granted to our Named Executive Officers in 2020 or 2021.

Stock options granted under the 2015 SIP in 2019 cover four years of equity compensation (2019 through 2022), and have been designed such that: (1) overall equity compensation expense on an annualized basis, and overall dilution, are both expected to be lower than if we had continued with the previous equity compensation program for four additional years; (2) the Named Executive Officer will be incented to achieve our business objectives over the four-year period; and (3) vesting is heavily weighted toward the end of the four-year period, in order to aid in retention over that timeframe. 50% of the 2019 option grant was granted with an exercise price equal to the closing price of our common stock on the date of grant, and vests in equal installments on March 15, 2021, 2022 and 2023. The other 50% has an exercise price equal to 115% of the closing price of our common stock on the date of grant, and cliff vests (100%) on March 15, 2023. All of the 2019 stock options have an expiration date of the eighth anniversary of the date of grant. For information regarding acceleration of vesting upon certain employment termination events, see the text following the Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control table below.

Outstanding Equity Awards at 2021 Fiscal Year-End

The following table sets forth information regarding unexercised stock options or STAP awards held by each of our Named Executive Officers as of December 31, 2021.

Number of Securities
Underlying Unexercised
Options or STAP Awards
Option or
STAP Award
Exercise
Price ($)
      Option or
STAP Award
Expiration
Date
Name and Grant Date       Award Type       (#)
Exercisable
      (#)
Unexercisable
     
Martine Rothblatt
12/31/2012 Stock Option (1) 21,579 53.42 12/31/2022
12/31/2013 Stock Option (1) 1,000,000 113.08 12/31/2023
12/31/2014 Stock Option (1) 723,869 129.49 12/31/2024
03/15/2016 Stock Option (2) 294,000 120.26 03/15/2026

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Number of Securities
Underlying Unexercised
Options or STAP Awards
Option or
STAP Award
Exercise
Price ($)
Option or
STAP Award
Expiration
Date
Name and Grant Date       Award Type       (#)
Exercisable
      (#)
Unexercisable
           
03/15/2017 Stock Option (3) 240,000 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2017 Stock Option (4) 100,000 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2017 Stock Option (6) 150,288 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2017 Stock Option (4) 244,122 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2018 Stock Option (5) 285,103 111.00 03/15/2028
03/15/2018 Stock Option (6) 213,827 111.00 03/15/2028
03/15/2019 Stock Option (8) 500,000 135.42 03/15/2027
03/15/2019 Stock Option (9) 166,666 333,334 117.76 03/15/2027
James Edgemond
01/14/2013 STAP Award (7) 5,000 52.12 01/14/2023
03/14/2014 STAP Award (2) 2,411 94.96 03/14/2024
03/13/2015 STAP Award (2) 25,000 163.30 03/13/2025
03/13/2015 STAP Award (2) 15,160 163.30 03/13/2025
03/15/2016 Stock Option (2) 49,000 120.26 03/15/2026
03/15/2017 Stock Option (3) 45,000 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2017 Stock Option (4) 18,750 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2017 Stock Option (6) 32,205 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2017 Stock Option (4) 52,312 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2018 Stock Option (5) 75,349 111.00 03/15/2028
03/15/2018 Stock Option (6) 56,512 111.00 03/15/2028
03/15/2019 Stock Option (8) 162,500 135.42 03/15/2027
03/15/2019 Stock Option (9) 54,166 108,334 117.76 03/15/2027
Michael Benkowitz
03/14/2014 STAP Award (2) 40,000 94.96 03/14/2024
03/13/2015 STAP Award (2) 37,200 163.30 03/13/2025
03/15/2016 Stock Option (2) 39,200 120.26 03/15/2026
06/24/2016 Stock Option (2) 52,500 102.11 06/24/2026
03/15/2017 Stock Option (3) 63,000 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2017 Stock Option (4) 26,250 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2017 Stock Option (6) 42,940 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2017 Stock Option (4) 69,750 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2018 Stock Option (5) 85,531 111.00 03/15/2028
03/15/2018 Stock Option (6) 64,148 111.00 03/15/2028
03/15/2019 Stock Option (8) 187,500 135.42 03/15/2027
03/15/2019 Stock Option (9) 62,500 125,000 117.76 03/15/2027
Paul Mahon
03/13/2015 STAP Award (2) 116,250 163.30 03/13/2025
03/15/2016 Stock Option (2) 122,500 120.26 03/15/2026
03/15/2017 Stock Option (3) 75,000 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2017 Stock Option (4) 31,250 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2017 Stock Option (6) 42,940 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2017 Stock Option (4) 69,750 146.03 03/15/2027
03/15/2018 Stock Option (5) 81,458 111.00 03/15/2028

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Number of Securities
Underlying Unexercised
Options or STAP Awards
      Option or
STAP Award
Exercise
Price ($)
      Option or
STAP Award
Expiration
Date
Name and Grant Date       Award Type       (#)
Exercisable
      (#)
Unexercisable
03/15/2018 Stock Option (6) 7,094 111.00 03/15/2028
03/15/2019 Stock Option (8) 150,000 135.42 03/15/2027
03/15/2019 Stock Option (9) 50,000 100,000 117.76 03/15/2027
(1) These stock options were fully vested upon grant pursuant to Dr. Rothblatt’s employment agreement.
(2) These stock options or STAP awards vested in one-fourth increments on each of the first four anniversaries of the date of grant.
(3) These stock options vested in one-third increments on each of the first three anniversaries of the date of grant.
(4) These stock options were subject to a three-year (2017-2019) performance threshold tied to average cash profit margin. These stock options were fully earned as of December 31, 2019 and vested at March 15, 2020.
(5) These stock options were subject to a three-year (2018-2020) performance threshold tied to average cash profit margin. These stock options were fully earned as of December 31, 2020 and vested at March 15, 2021.
(6) These stock options were subject to a one-year performance threshold tied to Company-Wide Milestone Performance. Once earned, shares vested in equal installments over a three-year period. The number of shares shown reflects the number of shares earned based on actual performance.
(7) One-time STAP award granted upon Mr. Edgemond’s commencement of employment, which vested in full on February 28, 2015.
(8) These stock options cliff vest (100%) on the fourth anniversary of the date of grant.
(9) These stock options vest in one-third increments on the second, third, and fourth anniversaries of the date of grant.

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Option Exercises and Stock Vested in 2021

The following table shows (1) the number of shares of our common stock acquired upon exercise of stock options; and (2) the number of STAP awards exercised by each of our Named Executive Officers during the year ended December 31, 2021. We did not have any stock awards that vested in 2021.

Option Awards STAP Awards
Name       Number of
Shares
Acquired
on Exercise
(#)
      Value
Realized
on Exercise
($)
(1)
      Number of
STAP
Awards
Exercised
(#)
      Value
Realized on
Exercise
($)(1)
Martine Rothblatt 33,909 5,080,077
James Edgemond
Michael Benkowitz 118,400 17,338,544
Paul Mahon 54,000 4,727,666 89,500 7,665,210
(1) Represents the difference between the exercise price of the stock options or STAP awards and the fair market value of our common stock on the date of exercise, multiplied by the number of options or STAP awards exercised. STAP awards convey the right to receive an amount in cash equal to the positive difference between the exercise price and the closing price of our common stock on the date of exercise.

Pension Benefits in 2021

The table below describes the present value of the accumulated benefit for our Named Executive Officers under the SERP. No payments were made under the SERP to our Named Executive Officers during 2021.

Name       Plan Name       Number of Years
of Credited
Service
(1)
      Actual Years of
Service(2)
      Present Value of
Accumulated
Benefit ($)(3)
Martine Rothblatt SERP 15.0 25.5 18,206,599
James Edgemond SERP 9.0 9.0 6,301,612
Michael Benkowitz SERP 10.8 10.7 9,526,895
Paul Mahon SERP 15.0 20.6 14,741,737
(1) Reflects the number of years (up to the maximum of 15 years under the terms of the SERP) since each Named Executive Officer commenced employment with us, through December 31, 2021.
(2) Reflects the number of years since each Named Executive Officer commenced employment with us, through December 31, 2021.
(3) The present values of accumulated benefits are based on assumptions used in the financial disclosures for the year ended December 31, 2021 including a discount rate of 2.05% and a lump sum interest rate of 2.75%. The present value represents the lump sum value of the accrued benefit which is based on service and earnings as of December 31, 2021, and assumes payment at age 60, the normal retirement date under the SERP. No preretirement death, disability, or termination is assumed. For a discussion of valuation assumptions, see Note 11—Employee Benefit Plans to the consolidated financial statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.

Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan

In 2006, our Compensation Committee approved our SERP, which is a non-qualified supplemental defined benefit retirement plan for select key executives intended to enhance the long-term retention of individuals that have been and will continue to be vital to our success. Participants in the SERP generally must remain in the employ of United Therapeutics or one of its affiliates until age 60 to receive a benefit except in the event of death, disability or a change in control. If a participant terminates employment with us for any reason prior to age 60 (other than due to death or disability or following a change in control), no benefit will be paid. The benefit to be paid under the plan is based on when an executive commenced participation in the plan. In general, a participant will be eligible for an unreduced benefit under the plan after 15 years of service. Upon a change in control before a participant reaches age 60, they will immediately vest in and receive a prorated benefit based on years of service to date.

The SERP is administered by our Compensation Committee. Currently, our Named Executive Officers and two other members of our senior management participate in the SERP. Each of our Named Executive Officers is eligible, upon retirement after the age of 60, to receive monthly payments equal to the monthly average of the total gross base salary received by the participant over their last 36 months of active employment (the Final Average Compensation), reduced by the participant’s estimated social security benefit (determined as provided under the SERP), for the remainder of the participant’s life (the aggregate amount of such payments, the Normal Retirement Benefit), commencing on the first day of the sixth month after retirement. For executives who began participating in the plan after July 1, 2006, the retirement benefit is generally calculated as 100% of the final three year average gross base salary reduced by the estimated social security benefit they would receive in retirement, multiplied by a fraction (not to exceed one) the numerator of which is their years of

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service and the denominator of which is 15 (the Normal Retirement Benefit). This means that for participants who have less than 15 years of service with us, the retirement benefit is prorated by the number of years of actual service divided by 15 years. By age 60, all current participants will have had 15 years of service if they remain employed by us. In the event of termination of employment due to disability prior to the age of 60 or death prior to retirement, a participant or the participant’s beneficiary, as applicable, will be entitled to a percentage of the Normal Retirement Benefit, as determined under the SERP (the aggregate amount of such payments referred to as the Disability Retirement Benefit), commencing on the first day of the sixth month after termination of employment in the event of a Disability and as soon as administratively practicable in the event of death. All of our Named Executive Officers have elected to receive their benefit in the form of a lump sum, although they were also offered a choice of a single life annuity or an actuarially equivalent joint or survivor annuity.

In the event of a change in control, as defined in the SERP, a participant who is actively employed on the date of the change in control will be entitled to a lump sum payment equal to the actuarial equivalent present value of a monthly single life annuity equal to (1) the participant’s Final Average Compensation, reduced by the participant’s estimated future social security benefit (determined as provided under the SERP), multiplied by (2) a fraction (no greater than one), the numerator of which equals the participant’s years of service and the denominator of which equals 15, to be paid as soon as administratively practicable following the change in control. In the event that a participant is entitled to a Normal Retirement Benefit or Disability Retirement Benefit at the time of a change in control, all such payments (or any remaining payments, with respect to any participant who is receiving payments under the SERP at the time of the change in control) will be made in a lump sum as soon as administratively practicable following such change in control. Participants in the SERP will be prohibited from competing with us or soliciting its employees for a period of twelve months following their termination of employment (or, if earlier upon attainment of age 65). Violation of this covenant will result in forfeiture of all benefits under the SERP.

Rabbi Trust

In December 2007, our Compensation Committee adopted the United Therapeutics Corporation Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan Rabbi Trust Document (Rabbi Trust Document), providing for the establishment of a trust (Rabbi Trust), the assets of which will be contributed by us and used to pay benefits under the SERP. We entered into the Rabbi Trust Document with Wilmington Trust Company, which serves as trustee of the Rabbi Trust. The Rabbi Trust is irrevocable, and SERP participants will have no preferred claim on, nor any beneficial ownership interest in, any assets of the Rabbi Trust.

Currently, the Rabbi Trust does not contain any assets. Generally, we may contribute additional assets to the Rabbi Trust at our sole discretion. However, pursuant to the terms of the Rabbi Trust Document, within five days following the occurrence of a potential change in control (as defined in the Rabbi Trust Document), or if earlier, at least five days prior to the occurrence of a change in control (as defined in the Rabbi Trust Document), we will be obligated to make an irrevocable contribution to the Rabbi Trust in an amount sufficient to pay each SERP participant or beneficiary the benefits to which they would be entitled pursuant to the terms of the SERP on the date on which the change in control occurred. The Rabbi Trust will not terminate until the date on which SERP participants or their beneficiaries are no longer entitled to benefits pursuant to the terms of the SERP.

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Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control

Each of our Named Executive Officers is eligible to receive certain payments and benefits if their employment is involuntarily terminated without “Cause”, terminated by the executive for “Good Reason”, terminated by the executive voluntarily with continued status as a “Senior Advisor” to us, terminated due to disability or death, or terminated in connection with a “Change in Control” of our company in accordance with the applicable terms of their respective employment agreements, change in control severance agreements, the SERP, our equity compensation plans (the EIP and 2015 SIP) and related stock option agreements, as reported in the Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control table below and described in the narrative table that follows. The summary of these benefits is qualified in its entirety by the specific language of the various agreements and plans that have been filed with the SEC. The amounts shown in the Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control table below are estimates of the value of these payments and benefits, assuming that such termination or triggering event was effective as of December 31, 2021 (except as otherwise noted below with respect to those Named Executive Officers who terminated during the year). The actual compensation to be paid to a Named Executive Officer can only be determined at the time such Named Executive Officer’s employment is terminated and may vary based on factors such as the timing during the year of any such event, our stock price, the Named Executive Officer’s age, and any changes to our benefit arrangements and policies. In addition to the benefits described below, our Named Executive Officers will be eligible to receive any benefits accrued under our broad-based benefit plans, such as distributions under life insurance and disability benefit plans.

Executive Benefits and
Payments Upon Separation
      Involuntary
Termination Without
Cause/Resignation
for Good Reason/
Resignation While
Continuing as
Senior Advisor
(1)
      Disability       Death       Termination upon a
Change in Control
      Change In
Control without
Termination of
Employment
Martine Rothblatt  
Salary and cash incentive $11,587,320   $1,365,000 $1,365,000 $11,587,320 $—
Stock option vesting acceleration(2) $73,103,399   $73,103,399 $73,103,399 $73,103,399 $73,103,399
Supplemental Executive
Retirement Plan
$18,206,599 (3) $18,206,599 $12,340,924 $18,206,599 $18,206,599
Health and other benefits(4) $157,281   $— $— $157,281 $—
Total $103,054,599   $92,674,998 $86,809,323 $103,054,599 $91,309,998
James Edgemond  
Salary and cash incentive $143,014   $— $— $2,804,500 $—
Stock option
vesting acceleration(2)
$—   $23,758,649 $23,758,649 $23,758,649 $23,758,649
Supplemental Executive
Retirement Plan
$—   $6,225,804 $4,169,360 $6,199,561 $6,199,561
Health and other benefits(5) $—   $— $— $74,828 $—
Total $143,014   $29,984,453 $27,928,009 $32,837,538 $29,958,210
Michael Benkowitz  
Salary and cash incentive $458,260   $— $— $3,896,596 $—
Stock option
vesting acceleration(2)
$—   $27,413,750 $27,413,750 $27,413,750 $27,413,750
Supplemental Executive
Retirement Plan
$—   $6,335,662 $3,818,304 $8,624,979 $8,624,979
Health and other benefits(5) $—   $— $— $74,828 $—
Total $458,260   $33,749,412 $31,232,054 $40,010,153 $36,038,729
Paul Mahon  
Salary and cash incentive $3,295,760   $— $— $3,295,760 $—
Stock option
vesting acceleration(2)
$21,931,000   $21,931,000 $21,931,000 $21,931,000 $21,931,000
Supplemental Executive
Retirement Plan
$—   $13,537,056 $8,867,612 $14,562,127 $14,562,127
Total $25,226,760   $35,468,056 $30,798,612 $39,788,887 $36,493,127
(1) Benefits upon termination while continuing as a senior advisor are applicable only to employment agreements with Dr. Rothblatt and Mr. Mahon.

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(2) The value shown is based on the positive difference between the aggregate exercise price of all accelerated stock options and/or STAP awards and the aggregate market value of the underlying shares calculated based on the closing market price of our common stock on December 31, 2021, $216.08. With respect to the four-year stock option grants in March 2019, both Dr. Rothblatt and Mr. Mahon have waived their contractual provision providing for stock option vesting acceleration if they resign while continuing as a senior advisor.
(3) Dr. Rothblatt’s employment agreement provides for SERP benefits upon reaching age 65, including three additional years of service. Given Dr. Rothblatt has attained retirement age and has already reached the maximum number of years of service under the SERP, this additional benefit is no longer applicable. As a result, the value included in this table represents the normal benefits Dr. Rothblatt would receive upon retirement, in accordance with the terms of the SERP.
(4) Represents the estimated value of continued health care benefits for a three-year period after termination, outplacement services for 12 months, and the fair value of one currently leased vehicle.
(5) Represents the estimated value of continued health care benefits for a two-year period after termination and outplacement services equal to $10,000.

Severance and Change in Control Payments to Named Executive Officers

Provision Terms Applicable to Chairperson and CEO Terms Applicable to Mr. Mahon
Payments Upon Involuntary
Termination without Cause, or
Resignation for Good Reason,
or Resignation while
Continuing as Senior Advisor
Lump sum prorated cash incentive and incentive payment*
Lump sum payment equal to 3.0 times base salary + 3.0 times annual cash incentive award*
Continuation of health care benefits for 36 months, outplacement services for 12 months and the transfer of one currently leased vehicle
Immediate vesting of unvested stock options**
Lump sum payment equal to 2.0 times: (1) current base salary; plus (2) annual cash incentive award*
Immediate vesting of unvested stock options and STAP awards**
Payments Upon Disability
Continued payment of current base salary through the end of the calendar year following such disability
Acceleration of SERP benefits
Immediate vesting of unvested stock options
Immediate vesting of unvested stock options and STAP awards
Acceleration of SERP benefits
Payments Upon Death
Continued payment of current base salary through the end of the calendar year following such death to Executive’s legal representatives
Acceleration of SERP benefits
Immediate vesting of unvested stock options
Immediate vesting of unvested stock options and STAP awards
Acceleration of SERP benefits
Payments Upon Termination
Following Change in Control
Same as Payments Upon Involuntary Termination, etc., except that payment of SERP benefits occurs immediately, and is calculated as described above under Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan
Same as Payments Upon Involuntary Termination, etc.
Acceleration of SERP benefits
Payments Upon Change in
Control without Termination
Acceleration of SERP benefits
Immediate vesting of unvested stock options (if not assumed)
Immediate vesting of unvested stock options and STAP awards (if not assumed)
Acceleration of SERP benefits
* Payment is equal to greater of payment for the prior year, or the average of such payments for the prior two years
** Provision has been waived with respect to the 2019-2022 four-year stock options granted to Dr. Rothblatt and Mr. Mahon

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Provision Terms Applicable to Mr. Edgemond and Mr. Benkowitz
Payments Upon Involuntary
Termination without Cause
Lump sum payment equal to base salary through the remainder of the agreement term
Payments Upon Disability
Continued payment of current base salary through date of termination
Immediate vesting of unvested stock options and STAP awards
Acceleration of SERP benefits
Payments Upon Death
Immediate vesting of unvested stock options and STAP awards
Acceleration of SERP benefits
Payments Upon Termination
Following Change in Control
Payment of a lump sum cash amount equal to 2.0 times the sum of (x) base salary plus (y) the highest of (1) the cash incentive paid to the individual for the year immediately preceding the year in which the change in control occurs; (2) the cash incentive award payable to the individual for the year immediately preceding the year in which the termination of employment occurs; or (3) the individual’s annual target cash incentive award
Immediate vesting of unvested stock options and STAP awards
Acceleration of SERP benefits
Continuation of medical benefits for 24 months
Outplacement benefits with a value of $10,000
Payments Upon Change in
Control without Termination
Acceleration of SERP benefits
Immediate vesting of unvested stock options and STAP awards (if not assumed)
* Payment is equal to greater of payment for the prior year, or the average of such payments for the prior two years

As used in the tables above, the following terms are generally defined as follows:

Cause:

In the case of Dr. Rothblatt, her willful and continued failure to substantially perform her duties, or willfully engaging in gross misconduct that is materially injurious to us
In the case of the other Named Executive Officers, (1) failure to perform any of the material terms or provisions of his employment agreement; (2) negligent or unsatisfactory performance of duties, after notice and the opportunity to correct such performance; (3) employment- or profession-related misconduct; (4) conviction of a crime involving a felony, fraud, or embezzlement; or (5) misappropriation of our funds or misuse of assets

Good Reason:

In the case of Dr. Rothblatt, the occurrence of any of the following without her consent: (1) the assignment of any duties that are inconsistent with her position as Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer; (2) a material adverse change in her reporting responsibilities, titles, or offices; (3) failure to re-elect her to any position she held with us; (4) a reduction in her base salary or failure to increase her salary consistent with certain other executive salary increases; (5) relocation of 25 miles or more or additional substantially more burdensome travel requirements; (6) failure to continue her as a participant in any bonus or other incentive plans in which she was participating; (7) failure to keep in effect certain benefit plans and arrangements; (8) failure to obtain a successor entity’s assumption of the employment agreement; (9) failure to abide by certain provisions in the employment agreement; or (10) any other material breach of the employment agreement
In the case of Mr. Mahon, the material diminishment of his authority and responsibilities without cause

Change in Control: Transfer of control of our company (generally, as a result of an acquisition, merger, hostile takeover, or any other reason)

Pay Ratio

As required by Section 953(b) of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K, we are required to disclose the ratio of the 2021 compensation of our principal executive officer to that of our median compensated employee.

During 2021, our principal executive officer was our Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Martine Rothblatt. For purposes of this pay ratio disclosure, Dr. Rothblatt’s 2021 annual total compensation was $3,528,217, and the 2021 total annual compensation for our median employee, identified as discussed below, was $189,023, resulting in a pay ratio of approximately 19:1. Dr. Rothblatt’s total compensation for purposes of this disclosure differs from the total annual compensation reflected in the Summary Compensation Table because we included the value of employer paid non-discriminatory health and welfare benefits and basic life insurance premiums, which are not required to be disclosed in the Summary Compensation Table, but which we include here to give a more complete picture of our median employee’s total rewards compensation.

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The median employee whose compensation is reported above is the same median employee whose compensation was reported in our prior year pay ratio disclosure, who was identified as of October 1, 2020 in order to calculate the 2020 pay ratio. There have been no changes in our employee population or employee compensation arrangements that we believe would significantly impact the calculations of this pay ratio. In accordance with Item 402(u) of Regulation S K, we identified our employee population as of October 1, 2020 and determined the median employee by (1) aggregating for each applicable employee (a) annual base salary determined as of October 1, 2020 for salaried employees (or hourly rate as of the same date, multiplied by estimated hours worked in 2020, for hourly employees); and (b) the target cash incentive, commissions, and overtime earned in 2020; and (2) ranking this compensation measure for our employees from lowest to highest. This calculation was performed for all employees except as disclosed in the following paragraph, excluding Dr. Rothblatt, whether employed on a full time, part time, or seasonal basis.

For purposes of identifying the median employee, all employees located outside of the United States as of October 1, 2020, totaling 16 individuals, were excluded from the determination of the median employee pursuant to the so-called de minimis exemption, which permits us to exclude foreign employees, up to 5% of our total employee population of 948, on a whole country basis. As of October 1, 2020, these employees were located in the following countries: Canada (9), Germany (2) and United Kingdom (5). Applying this de minimis exemption, as of October 1, 2020, we considered a total of 931 US based employees (excluding our CEO) and no employees located outside of the United States. Irrespective of the de minimis exemption, on this same date we had 931 U.S. based employees (excluding our CEO) and 16 employees located outside of the United States.

The pay ratio reported above is a reasonable estimate calculated in a manner consistent with SEC rules based on our internal records and the methodology described above. The SEC rules for identifying the median compensated employee and calculating the pay ratio based on that employee’s annual total compensation, allows companies to adopt a variety of methodologies, to apply certain exclusions, and to make reasonable estimates and assumptions that reflect their employee populations and compensation practices. Therefore, the pay ratio reported by other companies may not be comparable to the pay ratio reported above, as other companies have different employee populations and compensation practices and may utilize different methodologies, exclusions, estimates, and assumptions in calculating their own pay ratios.

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3 Approval of The Amendment and Restatement of The United Therapeutics Corporation Amended and Restated 2015 Stock Incentive Plan

We are asking our shareholders to approve an amendment and restatement (the 2022 Restatement) of the United Therapeutics Corporation Amended and Restated 2015 Stock Incentive Plan (the Plan). On April 29, 2015, our Board of Directors unanimously adopted and approved the Plan. Our shareholders subsequently approved the Plan at our 2015 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Our shareholders subsequently approved an amendment and restatement of the Plan at each of our 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 Annual Meetings of Shareholders. We refer to the 2021 amendment and restatement of the Plan as the 2021 Restatement.

Our Board of Directors adopted and approved the Plan to stimulate the efforts of non-employee directors, officers, employees, and other service providers, in each case who are selected to be participants in the Plan, by heightening the desire of such persons to continue working toward and contributing to our success and progress. The Plan allows grants of stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units, and stock awards, any of which may be performance-based, and for cash incentives.

We believe that a comprehensive equity compensation program serves as a necessary and powerful tool to attract, retain, and incentivize individuals essential to our financial success and accordingly benefits all of our shareholders by allowing us to retain individuals who are expected to make significant contributions to the creation of shareholder value.

The 2022 Restatement makes the following changes to the 2021 Restatement of the Plan:

Increases the maximum number of shares of our common stock that may be issued under the Plan by 500,000 shares
Extends the expiration date of the Plan to April 25, 2032

Approval of the 2022 Restatement requires the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the outstanding shares present, online or by proxy, at our Annual Meeting and entitled to vote on this proposal. Abstentions have the same effect as an “against” vote. Broker non-votes, if any, have no impact on the vote.

Our Board of Directors recommends that you vote FOR the approval of the amendment and restatement of the United Therapeutics Corporation Amended and Restated 2015 Stock Incentive Plan.

Why You Should Vote For the 2022 Restatement of the Plan

Our Board of Directors recommends that our shareholders approve the 2022 Restatement of the Plan.

Reasonable Share Request. At the current burn rate for our equity awards, we expect that the existing limit of 11,000,000 shares available for issuance under the 2021 Restatement of the Plan may be insufficient to fund the annual issuance of awards to our employees and executives in March 2025.
Market Competitiveness and Broad-Based Usage. We offer equity-based compensation to all of our full-time employees, executive officers, and non-employee directors. Like other similarly-situated biotech and pharmaceutical companies, many of which we compete with for talent, equity is an important part of our compensation program. Our ability to continue granting equity-based awards is crucial to ensure that we can attract, retain, motivate, and reward key talent so that we can continue to deliver exceptional performance.

If the 2022 Restatement is not approved, we may need to grant cash-based or other awards in order to remain competitive; these awards may not align the interests of our key employees and non-employee directors as closely with those of our shareholders as equity awards. In addition, the use of cash resources to deliver competitive pay would divert cash from use in running other aspects of our business and investing in future product development.

Promotion of Good Corporate Governance Practices

Our company and our Board of Directors have designed the Plan to include a number of provisions that we believe promote best practices by reinforcing the alignment between equity compensation arrangements for non-employee directors, officers, employees, and other service providers and shareholders’ interests. These provisions include, but are not limited to:

the Plan allows for awards to be granted with performance-based vesting conditions;
stock options and stock appreciation rights may not be granted with exercise prices lower than the fair market value of the underlying shares on the grant date;
no award may vest prior to the first anniversary of grant, subject to limited exceptions for death, disability, or a change in control;
the share pool under the Plan is not subject to liberal “recycling” provisions (among other things, shares used to pay the exercise price for stock options do not again become available for grant under the Plan);
at any time when the exercise price of a stock option or stock appreciation right is above the market value of our common stock, we cannot, without shareholder approval, directly or indirectly “reprice” those awards;

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stock options granted under the Plan cannot be subject to a “reload” feature;
we have the authority under the Plan to cancel outstanding awards (vested or unvested) in the event the applicable plan participant engages in an “act of misconduct” (as such term is defined in the Plan);
no participant may receive dividends in respect of an unvested award; and
the Plan specifies limits on cash and equity compensation that may be provided annually to our non-employee directors.

Key Data

The following table includes information regarding all of our outstanding equity awards (under all of our equity-based compensation plans under which shares of common stock may be issued, other than our Employee Stock Purchase Plan) and shares available for future awards under the Plan as of March 16, 2022:

Total shares underlying all outstanding stock options       7,302,975
Weighted average exercise price of outstanding stock options $126.92
Weighted average remaining contractual life of outstanding stock options 4.41 years
Total shares of common stock outstanding 45,279,000
Total shares underlying all outstanding and unvested performance shares 0
Total shares underlying all outstanding and unvested restricted stock (excluding performance shares) 372,295
Shares available for future awards that could be issued under Prior Plan(1) 0
Shares available for future awards that could be issued under the 2015 Stock Incentive Plan(2) 2,789,311
Shares available for future awards that could be issued under the 2019 Inducement Stock Incentive Plan(3) 75,197
(1)

Certain outstanding stock options were issued under our Amended and Restated Equity Incentive Plan (the Prior Plan), which was approved by security holders in 1997. Information regarding this plan is contained in Note 8—Share Based Compensation to the consolidated financial statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021. No further awards may be granted pursuant to the Prior Plan following shareholder approval of the Plan in June 2015 (but outstanding awards under the Prior Plan will continue to be governed by the Prior Plan). Any shares subject to awards that are forfeited under the Prior Plan will not become available for the issuance of future awards under either the Plan or the Prior Plan

(2)

This is the Plan being amended and restated and does not include the additional shares to be made available for issuance if the 2022 Restatement is approved. The fungible share ratio of 1.35:1 will apply to full-value awards granted under the 2022 Restatement

(3)

The fungible share ratio of 2.14:1 will apply to full value awards granted under the 2019 Inducement Stock Incentive Plan

The potential dilution from the additional 500,000 shares to be made available for issuance under the Plan is approximately 1.1% (calculated as the additional shares requested divided by shares outstanding as of March 16, 2022). Our Board of Directors has considered this potential dilution level in the context of competitive data from our peer group and believes that the resulting dilution levels would be within normal competitive ranges. Actual dilution from the Plan will depend on several factors, including the type of awards made under the Plan. This is because the Plan uses a fungible share design, under which each share issued pursuant to a stock option or stock appreciation right will reduce the number of shares available under the Plan by one share, and each share issued pursuant to other awards will reduce the number of shares available by 1.35 shares. If all of the shares available under the Plan were to be granted in the form of restricted stock units, the total potential dilution from the Plan would be approximately 0.8% as of March 16, 2022 (calculated as the additional shares requested divided first by 1.35 and then by the total shares outstanding as of March 16, 2022).

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We manage our long-term dilution goal by limiting the number of shares subject to equity awards that we grant annually, commonly referred to as burn rate. Burn rate shows how rapidly a company is depleting its shares reserved for equity compensation plans and is defined as the number of shares granted under our equity incentive plans divided by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding at the end of the year. We have calculated the burn rate under the Plan for the past three years, as set forth in the following table:

Options
Granted
(1)
Full-Value
Shares
Granted(1)
Total Granted =
Options+
Full-Value
Shares
Weighted Average
Number of
Common Shares
Outstanding
Burn Rate
Fiscal 2021       43,653       188,378       232,031       44,860,950       0.5%
Fiscal 2020 78,559 284,303 362,862 44,224,671 0.8%
Fiscal 2019 2,081,047 225,218 2,306,265 43,818,811 5.3%
Three-Year Average 734,420 232,633 967,053 44,301,477 2.2%
(1)

These figures reflect time-based full-value awards granted during the applicable fiscal year and both time-based and performance-based stock option awards granted during the applicable fiscal year

An additional metric that we use to measure the cumulative impact of our equity program is overhang (the number of shares subject to equity awards outstanding but not exercised or settled, plus the number of shares available to be granted, divided by the sum of the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding, plus the number of shares subject to equity awards outstanding but not exercised or settled, plus the number of shares available to be granted). Of the shares subject to outstanding awards under our equity plans as of March 16, 2022, approximately 29,050 shares, or approximately 0.4% of the total shares subject to outstanding awards, were subject to stock options with exercise prices greater than $182.55. If the Plan is approved, our overhang calculated on this basis would increase to approximately 20%, and then would be expected to decline as awards are exercised and/or become vested.

When considering the Plan, our Board of Directors also reviewed, among other things, projected future share usage and projected future forfeitures. The projected future usage of shares for long-term incentive awards under the Plan was reviewed under scenarios based on a variety of assumptions. Depending on assumptions, with the 500,000 additional shares to be made available under the Plan, the 2022 Restatement of the Plan is expected to satisfy our equity compensation needs for approximately two to three years of similar levels of awards based on current utilization levels. Our Board of Directors is committed to effectively managing the number of shares reserved for issuance under the Plan while minimizing shareholder dilution.

Plan Summary

The following summary of the material terms of the Plan is qualified in its entirety by reference to the complete statement of the Plan, which is set forth in Annex A to this Proxy Statement.

Administration

The Plan will be administered by our Compensation Committee. Subject to the express provisions of the Plan, the administrator is authorized and empowered to do all things that it determines to be necessary or appropriate in connection with the administration of the Plan. All decisions, determinations, and interpretations by our Compensation Committee regarding the Plan and awards granted under the Plan will be final and binding on all participants and other persons holding or claiming rights under the Plan or an award under the Plan. Our Compensation Committee may authorize one or more of our officers to perform any or all things that the administrator is authorized and empowered to do or perform under the Plan. Our Compensation Committee may delegate any or all aspects of the day-to-day administration of the Plan to one or more of our officers or employees, and/or to one or more agents.

Participants

Any person who is a current or prospective officer or employee of United Therapeutics or of any subsidiary may be eligible for selection by the administrator for the grant of awards under the Plan. In addition, non-employee directors and any service providers who have been retained to provide consulting, advisory or other services to us may be eligible for the grant of awards under the Plan. Options intended to qualify as “incentive stock options” (ISOs) within the meaning of Section 422 of the Code may be granted only to our employees. Approximately 972 officers and employees and eleven non-employee directors currently qualify to participate in the Plan.

Stock Options and RSUs Granted under the Plan

No awards made under the Plan prior to the date of the Annual Meeting were granted subject to shareholder approval. The number and types of awards that will be granted under the Plan in the future are not determinable, as our Compensation Committee will make these

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determinations in its discretion. The following table sets forth information with respect to the number of stock options and RSUs that have been granted to our NEOs, directors, and the specified groups set forth below under the Plan as of March 16, 2022. No other award types have been granted under the Plan. On March 16, 2022, the closing price of the underlying shares of our common stock traded on the Nasdaq was $182.55 per share.

Name and Principal Position Stock Options Restricted
Stock Units
(1)
Martine Rothblatt        2,560,144         
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer
James Edgemond 661,157
Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Michael Benkowitz 827,691 (2) 
President and Chief Operating Officer
Paul Mahon 793,364
Executive Vice President and General Counsel
All executive officers as a group (4 persons)(3) 4,842,356
All non-executive directors as a group (11 persons) 422,990 113,200
Each associate of the above-mentioned directors or executive officers
Each other person who received or is to receive 5% of such options, warrants or rights
All employees (other than current executive officers) as a group (2,344 persons)(4) 1,708,952 978,753
(1)

Reflects the actual number of shares of common stock subject to restricted stock units, without applying the fungible share ratio of 1.35:1 or 2.14:1, as applicable

(2) Held indirectly by trusts
(3) Excludes former executive officers
(4) Includes current and former employees and former executive officers