Medical Biotechnology - Publications - Faculty & Research

October 2020 (Revised April 2022)
Case

When Institutions Fail: HIV/AIDS in the 1980s

By: Tom Nicholas and Christian Godwin

During the early 1980s, young gay men in urban centers such as San Francisco and New York City began contracting a mysterious illness that would come to be known as HIV/AIDS. A diagnosis meant almost certain death, with a less than 1% survival rate. Conflicting... View Details

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October 2009 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Tengion: Bringing Regenerative Medicine to Life

By: Elie Ofek and Polly Ross Ribatt

Tengion is a young biotech company that is at the frontier of regenerative medicine—a nascent field that seeks to promote the creation of new cells and tissue to repair or replace tissue or organ function lost due to age, disease, damage, or congenital defects. In late... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Product Launch; Product Development; Research and Development; Biotechnology Industry; United States

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September 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Engineering an Inclusive Bioeconomy

By: Tarun Khanna, Raffaella Sadun and Susie L. Ma

In 2019, entrepreneur Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio was developing a project he hoped could generate and share wealth from the natural resources of the Amazon without destroying those resources. His idea, called Earth Bank of Codes (EBC), would create a library of the... View Details

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June 2023
Case

Verve Therapeutics: Taking DNA Editing to Heart

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

Verve Therapeutics, a public biotech company based in Boston, created a novel approach to addressing cardiovascular disease (CVD) - a leading cause of deaths globally. The company's approach was a single shot treatment to permanently lower cholesterol, thus reducing... View Details

Keywords: AI; Genetic Engineering; Medicine; Health Care and Treatment; Genetics; Innovation Strategy; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Medical Specialties; Innovation and Invention; Entrepreneurship; Biotechnology Industry

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21 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 21, 2009

this case: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=807106 Note on Biotech Business Development Harvard Business School Note 807-032 Describes the business development process in biotechnology... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

BiomX: Bringing Phage Back to the Stage

By: Paul A. Gompers, Elie Ofek, Orna Dan and Emilie Billaud

In the spring of 2023, and following the favorable results of a trial involving its phage cocktail for treating lung infections among cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, the leadership of BiomX had several critical issues to wrestle with. First, given its precarious... View Details

Keywords: Working Capital; Financing and Loans; Health Testing and Trials; Product Development; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Commercialization; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry

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17 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

The Trial of Elizabeth Holmes: Visionary, Criminal, or Both?

Former Theranos employees began testifying this week against Elizabeth Holmes, the once-celebrated biotech’s founder and CEO, in a criminal trial that has Silicon Valley worried. In opening statements last week, federal prosecutors charged that Holmes and the company’s... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Biotechnology; Biotechnology; Biotechnology

September 2013 (Revised August 2015)
Background Note

Leadership and Teaming

By: Ethan Bernstein

Small differences in the leadership of teams can have large consequences for the success of their efforts. Many initiatives fail not because of a fatal error in judgment or insufficient ideas, knowledge, motivation, or capabilities to deliver a solution. They fail... View Details

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07 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

The Business of Biotech

heralding the start of National Biotechnology Month, as January 2000 had been designated by the U.S. Senate. For biotech, in fact, the party had begun months earlier, when hundreds of millions of dollars had poured into promising... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Biotechnology; Biotechnology; Biotechnology

January 2014 (Revised December 2014)
Case

GenapSys: Business Models for the Genome

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Joseph B. Fuller and Matthew Preble

GenapSys, a California-based startup, was soon to release a new DNA sequencer that the company's founder, Hesaam Esfandyarpour, believed was truly revolutionary. The sequencer would be substantially less expensive—potentially costing just a few thousand dollars—and... View Details

Keywords: DNA Sequencing; Life Sciences; Business Model; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Genetics; Business Strategy; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States

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August 2013
Course Overview Note

Building Life Science Businesses Fall 2013: Course Outline and Syllabus

By: Richard G. Hamermesh

This Course Outline and Syllabus gives an overview of the Fall 2013 class Building Life Science Businesses. View Details

Keywords: Healthcare Ventures; Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurs; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Medical Specialties; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Asia; North America; Europe

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January 2017
Case

Danaher Corporation, 2007–2017

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

On July 2, 2016, Danaher Corporation completed the spinoff of Fortive Corporation. The previous day, Danaher’s stock price had reached an all-time high. In 2015, Danaher had decided to split off its test and measurement, fuel and fleet management, and automation... View Details

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11 Jun 2020
In Practice

Are Digital Organizations Better at Overcoming COVID?

chains and people analytics to artificial intelligence-based models and automated biotechnology research, organizations further along the digital curve are responding differently than those still wondering how to evolve. The digital... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

18 Sep 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Female Inventors and Inventions

Keywords: by Rembrand Koning, Sampsa Samila, and John-Paul Ferguson; Biotechnology; Biotechnology; Biotechnology

12 Sep 2006
First Look

First Look: September 12, 2006

a not-for-profit research center at the Harvard Medical School (HMS). The center was started in late 2000 with a gift of $37.5 million from an anonymous donor. Its mandate was to conduct research that could lead to actual treatments for... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 3, 2009

behavior, distorted risk preferences, corrosion of organizational culture, and reduced intrinsic motivation. Rather than dispensing goal setting as a benign, over-the-counter treatment for motivation, managers and scholars need to conceptualize goal setting as a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Dec 2001
Research & Ideas

Healthcare Conference Looks At Ailing Industry

Mixing Risk And Reward The basic model that the biotechnology industry has followed for over twenty years is also changing, and for the better, according to panelists at a session titled "Will Equal Biotechnology-Pharma Partnerships... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

26 Jun 2000
Research & Ideas

Presentation Round-Up

among scientists that was unprecedented in human genetics research. A professor of genetics and director of Harvard Medical School's Lipper Center for Computational Genetics, Church noted that his own computer experience dates back to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace & Kenneth Liss; Technology; Communications; Telecommunications