Publications

December 2008 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Amylin Pharmaceuticals: Diabetes and Beyond (A)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Rachel Gordon

Ginger Graham, CEO of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, joined the company with the expectation of taking the company's signature drug, Symlin, to market. However, unforeseen regulatory challenges have put the approval process in jeopardy. At the same time, the company has a... View Details

Keywords: Regulations; Drug Regulations; Symlin; Negotiation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Resource Allocation; Negotiation Deal; Product Development; Research and Development; Commercialization; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

October 2000
Case

Procter & Gamble Italy: The Pringles Launch (A)

By: Roy D. Shapiro

Procter & Gamble's (P&G) Pringles potato chips have been a very successful brand. This case reviews the development and first launch in the United States, then in markets around the world. Italy is one of the last countries where Pringles will be launched. Should P&G... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Markets and Industries; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Emerging Markets; Product Development; Adoption; Value Creation; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

October 1992 (Revised September 1993)
Case

Nopane Advertising Strategy

By: David E. Bell

Nopane is a proprietary drug that sells in much of the United States. It faces substantial competition. The brand manager is undertaking an experiment to determine whether ad copy should be emotional-based or rational-based. The data and associated regression results... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Intellectual Property; Advertising; Health Care and Treatment; Brands and Branding; Product Marketing; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

February 1998 (Revised October 1998)
Background Note

Note on New Drug Development in the United States

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

An overview of the new drug development process in the United States, using the migraine drug Imitrex as an illustrative example. View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Research and Development; Health; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

2023
Working Paper

Market Exclusivity and Innovation: Evidence From Antibiotics

By: Edward Kong and Olivia Zhao

The US incentivizes drug innovation via patents as well as market exclusivity periods awarded by the US Food and Drug Administration. We estimate the causal effects of extending market exclusivity for an important drug class: antibiotics. Using a... View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Innovation and Invention; Motivation and Incentives; Government Administration; Government Legislation; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

SSRN

March 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

The Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy: Settling the Opioid Crisis

By: Kristin Mugford, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Susan Pinckney

How to get to a fair outcome for claimants in the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy given its significant role in the U.S. opioid crisis. View Details

May 2010 (Revised June 2010)
Supplement

Pfizer: Letter from the Chairman (B)

By: Robert L. Simons and Kathryn Rosenberg

This case continues the story begun in "Pfizer: A Letter from the Chairman" (HBS No. 110-003), revealing the letter Chairman and CEO Jeff Kindler wrote for the 2008 Annual Report. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value Creation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Annual Reports; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

01 Sep 2012
News

A Silent Workplace Crisis

pharmaceuticals, the gap between the medical and the mental health systems, and the time required to find community resources and quality home care. My previous experience as a pharmaceutical executive and management consultant seemed... View Details

Keywords: Janet Simpson Benvenuti; caregiving; aging; Nursing and Residential Care Facilities; Health, Social Assistance

01 Mar 2005
News

Facing Ambiguity

successfully executed in a paper case.” The case, which will be taught this spring in the MBA second-year course General Management: Processes and Action, debuted last fall in a customized Executive Education program for a group of View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Space Research and Technology; Government

September 2008
Case

Pfizer Inc: Building an Innovation Center

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

The case describes Pfizer's efforts to build and run an innovation center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As the center goes through different periods of leadership and strategic models, its relationship with the corporation and other research sites is explored. The case... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Research and Development; Pharmaceutical Industry; Cambridge

March 2001 (Revised June 2017)
Teaching Note

Vyaderm Pharmaceuticals: The EVA Decision

By: Robert Simons and Indra A. Reinbergs

Teaching Note for (9-101-019). View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Industry; Washington (state, US)

February 1992 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Pfizer: Global Protection of Intellectual Property

By: Lynn S. Paine and Michael Santoro

Top officials at Pfizer are assessing their strategy for improving protection of Pfizer's patents around the world. The outcome of the Uruguay Round of the GATT negotiations is uncertain, and it is not clear whether an acceptable intellectual property protection... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Trade; Policy; Government and Politics; Business Strategy; Agreements and Arrangements; Alliances; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; Japan; Europe

May 2008
Teaching Note

Michael Fernandes at Nicholas Piramal (TN)

By: Michel Anteby and Nitin Nohria

Teaching Note for [408-001]. View Details

Keywords: Conflict and Resolution; Conferences; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Globalization; Pharmaceutical Industry; Canada; United Kingdom

February 2005 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Rx Depot: Importing Drugs from Canada

By: Debora L. Spar

In 2002, a handful of entrepreneurs began to ship drugs from Canada into the United States, taking advantage of regulatory and price differentials across the neighboring countries. Using the Internet and a low-cost network of Canadian pharmacies, firms like Rx Depot... View Details

Keywords: Courts and Trials; Entrepreneurship; Intellectual Property; Laws and Statutes; Pharmaceutical Industry; Canada; United States

Find at Harvard

February 2024
Teaching Note

Compass Pathways: Pioneering Psychedelic Treatment

By: Tiona Zuzul

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 724-412. View Details

Keywords: Commercialization; Corporate Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Product Launch; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry; Europe; United States; United Kingdom

April 1990 (Revised November 1992)
Case

Population Services International: The Social Marketing Project in Bangladesh (Abridged)

By: James E. Austin

Population Services International (PSI) was a not-for-profit agency founded to disseminate family planning information and to market birth control products, primarily in less developed countries seeking to curb their population explosions. In 1976, PSI concluded an... View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Developing Countries and Economies; Information Publishing; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Agreements and Arrangements; Product; Nonprofit Organizations; Pharmaceutical Industry; Bangladesh; Washington (state, US)

01 Dec 2003
News

The Next Big Thing

life-sciences center of the world, by virtue of its unsurpassed “cluster” of world-renowned universities and teaching hospitals; medical-device, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies; financial firms; and skilled workers. “The leadership... View Details

Keywords: life sciences; Scientific Research and Development Services

15 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

A Better Business Model for Fighting Cancer

iPhoto With billions of dollars spent on the development of precision medicine and related cancer research over the last decade, a recent partnership seeks a new way to bring these treatments to patients more quickly: through a better business model. Founded in... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Pharmaceutical; Pharmaceutical

October 2020
Teaching Plan

Merck: COVID-19 Vaccines

By: Willy C. Shih

COVID-19 infections were still climbing across the U.S. and many other parts of the world in September 2020, and it seemed that every time Ken Frazier, the CEO of Merck & Co. consented to an interview in recent months he always seemed to hear the same question,... View Details

Keywords: Vaccines; Health Pandemics; Health Testing and Trials; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Research and Development; Business Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States