Publications

January 2023
Case

Cleave Therapeutics: Taking a Risk on Oncology Drug Discovery

By: Regina Herzlinger and Brian Walker

What should a successful executive (HBS Baker Scholar) assess as her next move as the CEO of a firm with a promising and yet uncertain new drug? Amy Burroughs’ mandate to successfully commercialize Cleave Therapeutics’ drug for a cancer with no current successful... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Leadership; Health Testing and Trials; Research and Development; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Condition; Partners and Partnerships; Pharmaceutical Industry

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 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

31 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

Bypass Marketing: Are Docs Influenced?

Until the close of the last decade, health consumers received much of their knowledge and advice about prescription drugs from their physicians or other health care professionals. Today, pharmaceutical companies are spending several... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

01 Mar 2016
News

Off Script

according to one study—and the limited lifespan of patent rights. What can the pharmaceutical industry and government regulators do to improve conditions? We put your queries to Fred Hassan (MBA 1972), a managing director at Warburg... View Details

Keywords: Insurance Carriers and Related Activities; Finance

John G. Searle

The pharmaceutical company that John Searle inherited from his father was moderately successful, with about $1 million in sales in 1936, but under Searle’s guidance the company grew rapidly. G. D. Searle’s biggest growth is owed to the... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare

2024
Working Paper

Dusting Off the Old Ones: Drug Licensing to Startups, Innovation Success and Efficiency

By: Mosab Hammoudeh, Joshua Lev Krieger and Jiajie Xu

This paper investigates whether moving R&D from incumbents to startups can increase innovation. Using comprehensive drug development data, we examine the outcomes of drug projects licensed from large firms to startups. We find that these projects licensed to startups... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Innovation and Invention; Business Startups; Research and Development; Performance Efficiency; Pharmaceutical Industry

Read Now

April 2010
Teaching Note

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals: Spurring Scientific Creativity with Metrics

By: Robert S. Huckman

Teaching Note for [607008]. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Decisions; Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

28 Sep 2020
Working Paper Summaries

What Can Economics Say About Alzheimer's Disease?

Keywords: by Amitabh Chandra, Courtney Coile, and Corina Mommaerts; Pharmaceutical; Pharmaceutical

February 2009
Teaching Note

Syndexa and Technology Transfer at Harvard University (TN)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh

Teaching Note for [808073]. View Details

Keywords: Agreements and Arrangements; Commercialization; Science-Based Business; Research; Rights; Pharmaceutical Industry

Merck played a pivotal role in the development of Merck & Company as a pharmaceutical research powerhouse. He created the firm’s first research division in 1933 and... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare

January 1994
Case

Evolving Finance Function: Judy C. Lewent at Merck & Co., Inc.

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

This case examines the career path of Merck's CFO, Judy C. Lewent, as a way of tracing changes over time in Merck's finance function. It describes the adoption of innovative quantitative analytical models, changes in job definitions and in the organization of the... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Mathematical Methods; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Design; Innovation and Invention; Pharmaceutical Industry

2021
Working Paper

Regulatory Approval and Expanded Market Size

By: Benjamin Berger, Amitabh Chandra and Craig Garthwaite

Regulatory review of new medicines is often viewed as a hindrance to innovation by increasing the hurdle to bring products to market. However, a more complete accounting of regulation must also account for its potential market expanding effects through quality... View Details

Keywords: New Medicines; Regulatory Approval; Health Care and Treatment; Research and Development; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Markets; Expansion; Pharmaceutical Industry

Find at Harvard

Read Now

24 Apr 2014
News

Giving hope and inspiration to cancer patients around the globe

Every new day is a good day for Kathryn E. Giusti (MBA 1985) since that morning in 1996 when her oncologist told her to get her affairs in order because she had a rare blood cancer, with three years to live. Leveraging her past experience as a View Details

25 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

An Organization Your Customers Understand

and intensive retail marketing programs. Hospitals, pharmacies, and research scientists are managed as constituents; efforts are made to ensure only that they feel fairly treated in their transactions with the firm. The View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

Fast Answer

Biotech, Medical Devices, and Pharmaceuticals: Industry/Market Overview/Analysis

them for your industry research. BCC Research - Reports on major scientific and technological developments in biotech, medical devices, pharmaceutical, and high technology worldwide. EMIS – SWOT analysis, global and country... View Details

March 2023
Case

Moderna

By: Marco Iansiti, Karim R. Lakhani, Hannah Mayer, Kerry Herman, Allison J. Wigen and Dave Habeeb

This multimedia case follows the story of Moderna and its entry into vaccine development in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In summer 2020, Stephane Bancel, CEO of biotech firm Moderna, faces several challenges as his company races to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Research and Development; Digital Transformation; Health Testing and Trials; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry