Publications

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February 2003
Article

The Geography of Opportunity: Spatial Heterogeneity in Founding Rates and the Performance of Biotechnology Rirms

Keywords: Opportunities; Performance; Business Ventures; Biotechnology Industry

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October 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Teaching Note

Alvogen

By: Daniel Isenberg, William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Alvogen is an Icelandic pharmaceutical company that makes and sells generic drugs. Founder and CEO Robert Wessman is deciding whether to take on private equity investors willing to buy out all shareholders, merge with a large and publicly-traded US pharmaceutical... View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Globalization; Entrepreneurship; Biotechnology Industry

Article

Discontinuities and Senior Management: Assessing the Role of Recognition in Pharmaceutical Firm Response to Biotechnology

By: Rebecca M. Henderson, Sarah Kaplan and Fiona Murray

Keywords: Management; Science; Technology; Biotechnology Industry

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1989
Chapter

Collaborative Product Development and the Market for Know-How: Strategies and Structures in the Biotechnology Industry

By: Gary P. Pisano and Paul Mang

Keywords: Product Development; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge Management; Industry Structures; Biotechnology Industry

1997
Working Paper

R&D Performance, Collaborative Arrangements, and the Market-for-Know-How: A Test of the "Lemons" Hypothesis in Biotechnology

By: Gary P. Pisano

July 2013
Case

Sample6: Innovating to Make Food Safer

By: Robert F. Higgins and Kirsten Kester

Tim Curran, CEO of Sample6, a start-up biotechnology company developing a novel food safety diagnostics platform, must decide how to partner with food industry players. How can he best convince leaders in this mature industry to adopt a new technology and improve food... View Details

September 2020
Case

Minerva 2020: Clinical Trials

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In March 2020, Dr. Cynthia Bamdad, founder and CEO of Minerva Biotechnologies Inc. (Minerva), was reviewing the first results of human clinical trials for the company’s novel CAR-T drug therapeutic, one of the first ever to target solid cancer tumors. The results... View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Strategic Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Health Testing and Trials; Decision Choices and Conditions; Strategy

April 2014
Case

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (A)

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Bethany S. Gerstein and Melissa Valentine

In 2006, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals was a fast-growing biotechnology company. Its leadership team was divided over whether to keep R&D organized in functional departments or transition to interdisciplinary teams. As a small company, Merrimack's R&D organization had... View Details

Keywords: Teamwork; Interdisciplinary Collaboration; R＆D; Biotechnology; Complexity; Innovation Management; Organizational Design; Groups and Teams; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry

January 2018
Teaching Note

BeiGene

By: Willy Shih and Jimmy Zhang

Teaching Note for HBS No. 618-033. View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Drug Development; Corporate Strategy; Business Startups; Technological Innovation; Situation or Environment; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; China

Teaching Interest

Overview

Since coming to HBS, my teaching interests have centered around the intersection of science and business: entrepreneurship, management, and strategy. More recently, i have become more engaged in considering the emergence of new university models for the translation... View Details

Keywords: Science Business; Biotechnology; Pharmaceuticals; Innovation

December 2014 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Simplot Plant Sciences: Designing a Better Potato

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Mary Shelman

Privately held Simplot has developed a new genetically engineered potato that substantially reduces waste and does not turn brown after cutting. Unlike other GMOs, it does not contain foreign genes. The case describes the company's commercialization plans in light of... View Details

Keywords: GMO; Sustainability; Agribusiness; Biotechnology; Food And Environment; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Food; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Marketing; Product Positioning; Genetics; Value Creation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States

November 2017
Case

BeiGene

By: Willy 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; Business Startups; Innovation Strategy; Situation or Environment; Pharmaceutical Industry; China

June 2020
Case

Breakthroughs at Blueprint Medicines

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Kathy Giusti and Susie L. Ma

Precision medicine company Blueprint Medicines was building a successful track record for bringing drug therapies to market 40% faster than average. The company had spent $40 million dollars and two years building a compound library that became its drug development... View Details

Keywords: Precision Medicine; Cancer; Biotechnology; Drug Development; Strategy; Expansion; Science; Genetics; Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Culture; Management; Growth and Development; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; Cambridge; Massachusetts

August 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Case

MedImmune Ventures

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and David Lane

Ron Laufer is the new Senior Managing Director of MedImmune Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of AstraZeneca, a leading pharmaceuticals firm. Laufer has to decide whether to pursue a high-potential, but very risky, early-stage investment. The decision Laufer... View Details

Keywords: MedImmune; MedImmune Ventures; AstraZeneca; NeuProtect; Corporate Venturing; Biotechnology; Venture Investing; Venture Capital; Health Care and Treatment; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States; Australia; Europe; London

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; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; China

March 2018 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Celgene

By: Malcolm Baker and Emily McComb

In February 2011, Adam Koppel, a managing director at Brookside Capital, the public equity arm of Bain Capital, must decide whether to increase or exit the firm’s position in Celgene Corporation. News has emerged that raises potential safety concerns associated with... View Details

Keywords: Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Public Market Investing; Celgene; Revlimid; Hedge Fund; Growth Stocks; Valuation; Investment; Decision Choices and Conditions; Analysis; Biotechnology Industry

January 2021
Case

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (A)

By: David J. Collis, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

This case follows Christophe Weber, President and CEO of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, a leading pharmaceutical company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, as Takeda considers acquiring Shire Plc, a biotech company based in Ireland. The acquisition would turn... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Pharmaceuticals; Biotech; Biotechnology; M＆A; Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; R＆D; Talent Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Globalization; Management; Global Strategy; Talent and Talent Management; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Japan; Asia