Publications

19 Mar 2018
News

Those coupons people use for expensive meds are starting to count for less

November 2006
Case

Selling Biovail Short

By: Malcolm P. Baker, Chris Lombardi and Aldo Sesia

Hedge fund SAC Capital and analysts from Gradient Analytics and Banc of America face charges of stock price manipulation from Biovail, a Canadian pharmaceutical company. Gradient and BofA produced negative reports on Biovail's earnings quality. At the same time, SAC... View Details

Keywords: Stock Shares; Investment Banking; Asset Pricing; Financial Strategy; Crime and Corruption; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Canada

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

04 Oct 2019
HBS Seminar

Annabelle Fowler (Harvard University), Harvard University

March 1999
Case

Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (A): The First Month

By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Dr. Hans Fritz is 37 years old when he arrives in Bangkok on March 1, 1998 to assume his position as general manager of Novartis Thailand. Novartis is the world's largest pharmaceutical company. He had lobbied to transition from a staff position to this line management... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Organizational Structure; Transition; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Working Conditions; Organizational Culture; Growth and Development Strategy; Crisis Management; Decision Making; Pharmaceutical Industry; Thailand

23 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

AIDS in Africa—What’s the Solution?

according to panelists from the healthcare field and the pharmaceutical industry, is delivering drugs that are donated or available at reduced prices to patients who need them. Government Priorities Dr. Konji Sebati, a physician with the... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Jette

2015
Working Paper

Public R&D Investments and Private-sector Patenting: Evidence from NIH Funding Rules

By: Pierre Azoulay, Joshua S. Graff Zivin, Danielle Li and Bhaven N. Sampat

We quantify the impact of scientific grant funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on patenting by pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. Our paper makes two contributions. First, we use newly constructed bibliometric data to develop a method for flexibly... View Details

Keywords: Economics Of Science; Patenting; Academic Reserach; NIH; Knowledge Spillovers; Patents; Research; Government and Politics

Read Now

December 1997
Case

American Cyanamid (A) & (B) (Combined)

American Home Products' (AHP) $9 billion hostile takeover of American Cyanamid (Cyanamid) was the largest merger-and-acquistion transaction in 1994, and made AHP the fourth largest pharmaceutical firm in the United States. At the time of AHP's offer, Cyanamid had... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Conflict and Resolution; Pharmaceutical Industry

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

12 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 12, 2007

mutually agreed-upon transfers with compensation and are located within the task network. Placing a transaction in a particular location in turn requires work to define, count (or measure), and pay for the transacted objects. The costs of this work (labeled mundane... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2008
Case

Novartis AG: Science-Based Business

By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington

Novartis is a science-based drug company, which has important implications for its business strategy. It is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world with over $38B in sales in 2007. Pharmaceuticals account for slightly over $24B of that total. In 2007,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Resource Allocation; Product Development; Partners and Partnerships; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Pharmaceutical Industry

October 1996 (Revised December 1997)
Case

American Cyanamid (A): Boardroom Response to a Hostile Takeover Offer

American Home Products' (AHP) $9 billion hostile takeover of American Cyanamid (Cyanamid) was the largest mergers and-acquistions transaction in 1994, and made AHP the fourth largest pharmaceutical firm in the United States. At the time of AHP's offer, Cyanamid had... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

13 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Merck CEO Ken Frazier Discusses a COVID Cure, Racism, and Why Leaders Need to Walk the Talk

As chairman and CEO of the leading vaccine producer in the world, pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., Ken Frazier has one of the highest-profile positions in global business. But Frazier, who is leading one of the firms on a charge to... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Pharmaceutical

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; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

November 2017
Case

The 'Wonder Drug' That Killed Babies

By: Joshua Lev Krieger, Tom Nicholas and Matthew Preble

In the early 1960s, a popular drug taken by patients worldwide for a range of maladies was found to cause severe birth defects and other health problems in babies born to mothers who had taken it during a certain stage of fetal development. As many as 10,000 children... View Details

Keywords: Regulation; Business and Government Relations; Business and Community Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Product Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business History; Health; Government Legislation; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; United Kingdom; Australia; Germany; Europe

27 Sep 2011
First Look

First Look: September 27

explain how to generate ideas with these skills, collaborate with "delivery-driven" colleagues to implement ideas, and build innovation skills throughout your organization to sharpen its competitive edge. They also provide a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Amy W. Schulman

Amy W. Schulman is an accomplished business leader, widely recognized for growing and stabilizing global businesses, commitment to people, strategic judgment, and efforts to advance women and promote inclusive workplace cultures.

Ms. Schulman joined Harvard... View Details

April 2011 (Revised April 2015)
Case

Cipla 2011

By: Rohit Deshpande, Sandra J. Sucher and Laura Winig

Dr. Yusuf Hamied, head of the Indian pharma and generics manufacturing company Cipla, is weighing options for how to continue to support the global fight against HIV/AIDS while positioning his company for growth in a changing regulatory landscape. View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Leading Change; Leadership Style; Management Teams; Governance Compliance; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry