Publications

2020
Working Paper

What Can Economics Say About Alzheimer's Disease?

By: Amitabh Chandra, Courtney Coile and Corina Mommaerts

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) affects one in ten people aged 65 or older and is the most expensive disease in the United States. We describe the central economic questions raised by AD. While there is overlap with the economics of aging, the defining features of the... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Health Care and Treatment; Economics

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2016
Working Paper

Standardized Color in the Food Industry: The Co-Creation of the Food Coloring Business in the United States, 1870–1940

By: Ai Hisano

This working paper examines how, starting in the 1870s, food manufacturers in the United States began to use standardized color, achieved by synthetic dyes, as part of their marketing strategies. Food manufacturers along with dye makers and regulators co-created the... View Details

Keywords: Food; Supply and Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

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September 2024
Case

Myeloma Investment Fund

By: Kyle Myers and Scott Sawaya

This case explores a critical decision facing the Myeloma Investment Fund (MIF) as it evaluates two investment opportunities aimed at accelerating a cure for multiple myeloma.

The MIF, a venture philanthropy fund, must choose between two distinct paths. One... View Details

Keywords: Venture Philanthropy; Biomedical Research; Investing For Impact; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Science-Based Business; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Decision Making; Health Care and Treatment; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

2024
Article

Effects of a Real-Time Information-Based Intervention on Physician Prescribing Behavior

By: Olivia Zhao and Anna D Sinaiko

High out-of-pocket (OOP) prices for prescription drugs create financial difficulties for patients, and cost-related underuse of medications can adversely patient health. Simultaneously, many physicians report a willingness to address affordability concerns with... View Details

Keywords: Price; Health Care and Treatment; Communication Technology; Technology Adoption; Customer Focus and Relationships; Health Industry

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March 2014 (Revised November 2020)
Case

The Novartis Malaria Initiative

By: Michael Chu, Vincent Marie Dessain and Emilie Billaud

The Novartis Malaria Initiative was designed, as a result of a precedent–setting agreement with the World Health Organization in 2001, to provide a breakthrough treatment for malaria—"at no profit"—for public health systems. What had begun as an exemplary act of... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Product Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Enterprise; Pharmaceutical Industry; Switzerland; Africa; Nigeria

June 2002 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Life, Death, and Property Rights: The Pharmaceutical Industry Faces AIDS in Africa

By: Debora L. Spar

In the final years of the 20th century, the world was hit by a plague of epidemic proportions--AIDS, a life-threatening disease that remained stubbornly immune to any cure or vaccine. In the developed nations of the West, AIDS was slowly brought under control through a... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Health Pandemics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Pharmaceutical Industry; Africa

October 2024 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Parexel: Scaling Up and Industry Dynamics

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ben Creo

Through the lens of biopharmaceutical contract research organization (CRO) PAREXEL, this case traces the evolution of the firm as it reinvents itself in response to the transformation of the CRO sector from a small, secondary cluster of firms into a major player with... View Details

Keywords: Research; Innovation and Invention; Business Model; Transformation; Globalization; Information Technology; Competitive Advantage; Pharmaceutical Industry

April 2009 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Partners In Health: HIV Care in Rwanda

By: Michael E. Porter, Scott S. Lee, Joseph Rhatigan and Jim Yong Kim

In 2005, Partners in Health (PIH) was invited by the Rwandan Ministry of Health to assume responsibility for the management of public health care in two rural districts in Eastern Rwanda and create an HIV treatment program at these sites. PIH successfully implemented a... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Medical Specialties; Service Delivery; Nonprofit Organizations; Expansion; Health Industry; Rwanda

September 2007
Article

Investigative Negotiation

By: Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. Negotiators often fail to achieve results because they channel too much effort into... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics; Motivation and Incentives; Perspective; Pharmaceutical Industry

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Research Summary

Health-care Applications

Active postmarketing drug surveillance. There is substantial interest within the U.S. health community and among health policymakers in developing a surveillance system that scans public health databases in order to proactively detect potential drug safety... View Details

2008
Chapter

Where is the Pharmacy to the World? Pharmaceutical Industry Location and International Regulatory Variation

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich

A consumer-oriented model for drug development and use has attracted attention in recent years as an alternative to the much-maligned approach of mass-marketing blockbuster drugs. In a parallel development, patients and disease-based organizations have assumed greater... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Testing and Trials; Demand and Consumers; Pharmaceutical Industry; European Union; Germany; United States

Research Summary

The Transparency of Ethical Behavior

(with Max Bazerman, Karim Kassam, and Neeru Paharia)
This research analyzes how unethical behavior is viewed when performed... View Details

2009
Working Paper

Where Is the Pharmacy to the World? International Regulatory Variation and Pharmaceutical Industry Location

By: Arthur Daemmrich

A consumer-oriented model for drug development and use has attracted attention in recent years as an alternative to the much-maligned approach of mass-marketing blockbuster drugs. In a parallel development, patients and disease-based organizations have assumed greater... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Disorders; Health Testing and Trials; Power and Influence; Competitive Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; European Union; Germany; United States

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May 2016
Case

AbbVie

By: Kevin Schulman, Laura Little, Samyukta Mullangi and Stephen Schleicher

This case focuses on the impact of a novel regulatory pathway, the biosimilars pathway, on the strategy of a major pharmaceutical firm that finds its largest product (60% of revenue) at risk. The case reviews the rationale for the pathway, the emerging biosimilars... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Company; M＆A Valuation; AbbVie; Health Care; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; United States

December 2022
Article

The Contribution of Price Growth to Pharmaceutical Revenue Growth in the United States: Evidence from Medicines Sold in Retail Pharmacies

By: Pragya Kakani, Michael Chernew and Amitabh Chandra

Context: To what extent does pharmaceutical revenue growth depend on new medicines versus increasing prices for existing medicines? Moreover, does using list prices, as is commonly done, instead of prices net of confidential rebates offered by manufacturers, which are... View Details

Keywords: Revenue; Price; Policy; Business Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry

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October 2019
Supplement

Impax Laboratories: Executing Accretive Transactions (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Impax Laboratories was a technology-based pharmaceutical company that used a “dual platform” strategy to sell both generic and branded treatments. While Impax had grown organically for most of its history, it was beginning to use major acquisitions for growth. In the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Structure; Financial Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

October 2019
Case

Impax Laboratories: Executing Accretive Acquisitions (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Impax Laboratories was a technology-based pharmaceutical company that used a “dual platform” strategy to sell both generic and branded treatments. While Impax had grown organically for most of its history, it was beginning to use major acquisitions for growth. In the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Structure; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States