Publications

August 2023
Case

Augmenix: Space to Think Differently

By: Satish Tadikonda and Sidhant Jena

Amar Sawhney, a serial medtech entrepreneur, had founded Augmenix to develop and commercialize a hydrogel-based medical device called SpaceOAR as an adjunctive technology to core radiation therapy. This technology was used to protect organs at risk (OAR) during... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Technology Adoption; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Product Development; Commercialization; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

2024
Working Paper

Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy—Living Drugs: Case Histories of Transformational Advances

By: Amar Bhidé and Srikant M. Datar

In 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an immunotherapeutic treatment, called CAR-T therapy, for two kinds of blood cancers—acute leukemia (ALL) and a lymphoma. We describe 1) how CAR-T works, 2) the foundational advances and discoveries, 3) the... View Details

Keywords: Immunotherapy; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

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January 2018
Case

Spark Therapeutics: Pioneering Gene Therapy

By: Robert F. Higgins and Tina Liu

Spark Therapeutics is a pioneering gene therapy startup. It was spun out of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The company had taken with it much of the intellectual property and talent that CHOP had developed. The company is considering an initial public... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Business Startups; Opportunities; Problems and Challenges; Strategy

April 2017
Supplement

Imprimis (C)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karen Elterman and Marc Appel

This case is a supplement to Imprimis (A & B). Set in 2015, it first describes Imprimis’s decision to introduce its own line of compounded eye drop medication called LessDrops. The case then examines the moral dilemma faced by CEO Mark Baum, who was struck by the... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Moral Sensibility; Competitive Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

09 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Starbucks’ Lessons for Premium Brands

in three ways. First, the early adopters who valued the club-like atmosphere of relaxing over a quality cup of coffee found themselves in a minority. To grow, Starbucks increasingly appealed to grab and go customers for whom service meant speed of order View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Retail

19 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 19

care delivery at GWH. Rather than treating high-risk pregnancies as a homogeneous group, Dr. Narayan pioneered the development of eleven condition-based, high-risk clinics led by dedicated multidisciplinary... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2023
Case

Constellation Pharmaceuticals: Corporate Development at a Novel Therapeutic Company

By: Satish Tadikonda and Brad Prosek

Constellation Pharmaceuticals was a company focused on epigenetic therapies for cancer patients. Despite a promising start and an early deal with a leading biopharma company, the company weathered twin setbacks in the end of a major research collaboration and the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Health Care and Treatment; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Research and Development; Business Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Goals and Objectives; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

13 Feb 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 13, 2018

Case 118-051 Partners In Health: Costing Primary Care in Haiti Partners in Health, a global NGO focused on delivering health care to residents of rural underserved communities,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 11

2014 and again in 2015. Publisher's link: http://hbr.org/2014/11/digital-ubiquity-how-connections-sensors-and-data-are-revolutionizing-business/ar/1 November 2014 Harvard Business Review How Not to Cut Health View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Market Dynamics and Moral Dilemmas: Novo Nordisk’s Weight-Loss Drugs

By: Joseph L. Badaracco, Tom Quinn and John Schultz

Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk was owned by a charitable foundation, and since its founding in the 1920s had focused on producing insulin to treat diabetes. In 2017, however, it released Ozempic, a diabetes treatment with the revolutionary side effect of... View Details

27 Aug 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Learning From Japan’s Remarkable Disaster Recovery

executives at dozens of organizations—Google and Yahoo!, health care organizations, even a knitting business in a fishing village. They've talked with public officials in Japan and the staff of the US... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy; Utilities; Retail

22 Mar 2016
First Look

March 22, 2016

Ranjay, and Alicia DeSantola Abstract—No abstract available. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50787 forthcoming JAMA Oncology Effects of Narrow Networks on Access to High-Quality Cancer Care By: Schleicher,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Mar 2015
First Look

First Look: March 3

Abstract—Improving the way we pay for health care must be a central component in health care reform. Payment reform must link provider... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas and Research: May 23, 2017

practice. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52649 Physician Beliefs and Patient Preferences: A New Look at Regional Variation in Health Care Spending By: Cutler, David,... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

15 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 15, 2008

significant operational reform within the nation's health care delivery organizations, new financing models, payment systems, or structures are unlikely to realize their... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

04 May 2007
What Do You Think?

How Do Managers Think?

Summing Up Can managers acquire ways of thinking or ways of learning from doctors? Managers can learn from an understanding of how doctors think. But whether the lessons are profound or even totally applicable was a matter of discussion among respondents to this... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

August 2017
Article

Tort Reform and Innovation

By: Alberto Galasso and Hong Luo

Current academic and policy debates focus on the impact of tort reforms on physicians’ behavior and medical costs. This paper examines whether these reforms also affect incentives to develop new technologies. We develop a theoretical model that predicts that the impact... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Legal Liability; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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Article

Putting Patients First: Social Marketing Strategies for Treating HIV in Developing Nations

By: Zoe Chance and Rohit Deshpandé

It is more than mere coincidence that the highest rates of HIV occur in the world's poorest countries. Of the over 40 million people currently living with HIV, 95 percent are in the developing world. The first part of this paper explores the economics of HIV and... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Developing Countries and Economies; Poverty; Health Care and Treatment; Social Marketing; Perspective; Customer Focus and Relationships; Profit; Africa; Asia; South America