Publications

September 1993
Case

Manufacturing at ALZA: The Right Prescription? (A)

By: Dorothy A. Leonard

ALZA, a company specializing in drug delivery systems such as transdermal patches, considers manufacturing its own products. Until now, the company has conducted research and development on its patented system but has then licensed the technology to client-partner... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Technological Innovation; Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Production; Research and Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Pharmaceutical Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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October 2023
Case

Vida Health: Transforming Chronic Disease Treatment

By: William Sahlman and Nicole Tempest Keller

San Francisco based Vida Health, founded by Stephanie Tilenius, former vice president of Commerce and Payments at Google, was a B2B digital health startup focused on the treatment of cardiometabolic conditions, such as diabetes and obesity. Its innovative digital... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Health Care and Treatment; Product Marketing; Risk and Uncertainty; Technological Innovation; Health Industry; Technology Industry; United States; California; San Francisco

March 2014
Case

Novartis' Sandoz: Between Generics and Pharma

By: Krishna Palepu and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Sandoz, which made a significant investment in bio-similars as a way to differentiate itself from its generic drug industry peers, has to negotiate with its parent company and the innovative pharma division on how best to commercialize its bio-similar portfolio. What... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy And Leadership; Managing Within A Multi-Business Organization; Generic Pharmaceuticals; Global Strategy

November 2017
Case

The 'Wonder Drug' That Killed Babies

By: Joshua Lev Krieger, Tom Nicholas and Matthew Preble

In the early 1960s, a popular drug taken by patients worldwide for a range of maladies was found to cause severe birth defects and other health problems in babies born to mothers who had taken it during a certain stage of fetal development. As many as 10,000 children... View Details

Keywords: Regulation; Business and Government Relations; Business and Community Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Product Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business History; Health; Government Legislation; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Pharmaceutical Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States; United Kingdom; Australia; Germany; Europe

September 2017 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Adaptive Platform Trials: The Clinical Trial of the Future?

By: Ariel D. Stern and Sarah Mehta

In July 2017, Dr. Brian M. Alexander, president and CEO of the AGILE Research Foundation, was preparing to launch a new type of clinical trial—an adaptive platform trial—to study potential therapies for glioblastoma (GBM), an aggressive form of brain cancer.... View Details

Keywords: Clinical Trials; Cancer; Adaptive Platform Trials; Platform Trials; Adaptive Trials; Glioblastoma; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Business Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Health Industry; United States

February 2001 (Revised July 2006)
Case

Discovering the Future: R&D Strategy at Merck

By: Gary P. Pisano

Given explosive growth in technologies for drug discovery, how does Merck remain competitive in an industry that is fragmented and continues to consolidate? View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Research and Development; Pharmaceutical Industry

May 1998
Background Note

Pharma Giants,The: Ready for the 21st Century?

By: Robert H. Hayes and Perry Fagan

Presents the changing competitive dynamics in the global pharmaceutical industry and possible implications for large drug companies. View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Globalized Firms and Management; Competition; Pharmaceutical Industry

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August 2008 (Revised September 2008)
Supplement

The Flaxil Label (C): Debrief and Endnotes

This case focuses on the 2001 negotiation between Mytex Pharmaceuticals and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The outcome of the negotiation would determine the new label for Mytex's blockbuster drug for arthritis, Flaxil. The negotiation is quite... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Value Creation; Negotiation; Health Care and Treatment; Sales; Pharmaceutical Industry

09 Apr 2015
News

Ariad Pharmaceuticals’ chief fights to hold on

17 May 2019
News

Tackling high Rx prices

15 Sep 2016
News

Price of pharma innovation: Pro

October 2013
Case

FasterCures: Removing Barriers to Treatments

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and James Weber

In mid-2013, as FasterCures celebrated its 10th anniversary as a center of the Milken Institute, Executive Director Margaret Anderson thought about what the organization should do to ensure it had even more impact in its next 10 years. FasterCures was a non-profit... View Details

January 2018
Supplement

BeiGene Supplemental PowerPoint

By: Willy C. Shih and Jimmy Zhang

BeiGene was a biopharmaceutical company founded on exploiting a temporal regulatory policy discontinuity. Because of regulatory challenges in China, most innovative new drugs launched there four to six years after their initial U.S. launches. This gave BeiGene a window... View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Pharmaceutical Company; Pharmaceuticals; China; Regulatory Environment; Business Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Situation or Environment; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; China

June 2016
Teaching Plan

Terrapin Laboratory

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Andrew Otazo

This teaching plan accompanies the case "Terrapin Laboratory," HBS No. 315-098. That case describes the formation and rapid growth of a drug testing company. The company needs to decide whether to enter the painkiller testing market, in addition to growing its drug... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth; Entrepreneurial Management; Growth Strategy; Market Entry; Venture Capital; Market Entry and Exit; Entrepreneurship; Health Testing and Trials; Growth and Development Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry

13 Oct 2016
News

Study shows coupons lead to big profits for drugmakers

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

2010
Chapter

From Visible Harm to Relative Risk: Centralization and Fragmentation of Pharmacovigilance

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich

Adverse drug reactions pose distinct but potentially catastrophic risks to patients, physicians, pharmaceutical firms, and regulators. Between the early 1960s and the present, national systems were built to collect, standardize, and respond to individual reports of... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Testing and Trials; Business and Government Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States