UPDATE 1 — Liquidia surges as United Therapeutics settlement removes key litigation risk

(Updates shares in paragraph 1, rewrites headline) Oct 14 (Reuters) — Liquidia shares jumped nearly 37% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the drugmaker settled a years-long legal dispute with United Therapeutics over its lung disease drug. The settlement, announced late on Tuesday, ends six lawsuits over patents, trade secrets, contracts and antitrust claims related to Liquidia's Yutrepia, an inhaled dry-powder form of the drug treprostinil. Yutrepia is approved to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and pulmonary hypertension linked to interstitial lung disease (PH-ILD), and competes in the market with United Therapeutics' Tyvaso. As part of the settlement, Liquidia will stop promoting its drug for PH-ILD, but will keep selling it for PAH. It will also pay United Therapeutics about $380.7 million in installments through 2027. "We expect to fund the outlined payments from the ongoing sales of Yutrepia and cash on hand," Chief Financial Officer Michael Kaseta said. The deal removes a major legal risk for Liquidia, whose shares had lost more than half their value after an adverse court ruling last month, while narrowing the competition for United Therapeutics' Tyvaso. "