UPDATE: Barclays Initiates Coverage On United Therapeutics

United Therapeutics Corporation (NASDAQ: UTHR) is facing patent expirations, increasing competition and an uncertain pipeline of prospective new products, an analyst said Tuesday.

Barclay's Geoffrey Meacham launched coverage on the drug maker with an Equal-Weight rating and $135 target.

United changed hands recently at $125.57, down 1 percent.

Meacham said United's franchise looks fragile in light of patent expirations slated for 2017 and 2018 on three of its four currently key blood pressure drugs: Adcirca, Remodulin and Tyvaso.

Moreover, sales growth for Tyvaso and Remodulin is slowing and Meacham's 2015 earnings estimate for United is 8.5 percent below the consensus of $9.86 a share.

United's recent launch of its Orenitram hypertension drug "looks solid in the early days," Meacham said, but beginning in 2016, significant U.S. competition is likely to emerge from Actelion Ltd.'s (OTC: ALIOF) Uptravi.

Although generic competition often results in rapid sales declines for many drugs, in the market for blood pressure medication it's had a "mixed impact" and Meacham doesn't see "immediate material declines" for United resulting from patent expirations.

But Meacham added "it's tougher to get materially higher value for United shares" unless the company obtains patent extensions or sales of Orenitram are significantly higher than expected.