Publications

June 2017
Supplement

Transformation at Eli Lilly & Co. (B)

By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Keywords: Eli Lilly; Pharmaceutical Companies; Restructuring; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Pharmaceutical Industry; Indiana; Indianapolis

November 2016
Supplement

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals: Building Value from the IP Estate (B)

By: Vicki Sato, Willy Shih and Matt Higgins

The leader of a pioneering biotech company in the siRNA space weighs his options for scaling production capacity in advance of an anticipated commercial launch. Operational complexity and relative merits of in-house manufacturing versus a contractor model are... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotech; Biotechnology; Operational Complexity; Strategy; Manufacturing; Production; Strategic Planning; Intellectual Property; Biotechnology Industry; United States

10 May 2016
News

Meet Health Care's Major Spoilers: Theranos, Valeant, and Turing Pharmaceuticals

February 2022 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Nuritas

By: Mitchell Weiss, Satish Tadikonda, Vincent Dessain and Emer Moloney

Nora Khaldi had built a technology “to unlock the power of nature” in the service of extending human lifespan and improving health, and now in April 2020 was debating telling her Board of Directors she wanted to put on ice some of her discoveries. Nuritas, the company... View Details

Keywords: Cash Burn; Cash Flow Analysis; Pharmaceutical Companies; Founder; Artificial Intelligence; AI; Entrepreneurship; Health Testing and Trials; Health Care and Treatment; Decision Making; Market Entry and Exit; AI and Machine Learning; Pharmaceutical Industry

November 2024
Teaching Note

Martine Rothblatt and United Therapeutics: A Series of Implausible Dreams

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 323-039. In 1990, satellite expert and Sirius XM founder Martine Rothblatt was determined to save the life of her seven-year-old daughter, Jenesis, who was diagnosed with a terminal illness called Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH). At... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Technological And Scientific Innovation; Organ Donation; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; District of Columbia

06 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

Curbing an Unlikely Culprit of Rising Drug Prices: Pharmaceutical Donations

counterintuitive driver: the fact that in the US, pharmaceutical companies subsidize the purchase of their drugs. Medicare, the government insurer for elderly or disabled people in the US, encourages... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Pharmaceutical; Pharmaceutical; Pharmaceutical

August 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Novo Nordisk Foundation

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

In 2024, Novo Nordisk A/S was one of the most profitable firms in the world, thanks largely to just two GLP-1-based drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy. Unusually, this incredibly profitable firm was controlled not by individual private shareholders, but by a non-profit... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Diabetes; Obesity; Foundation; Non-profit Management; Profit; Corporate Governance; Business or Company Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Expansion; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Nonprofit Organizations; Pharmaceutical Industry; Denmark; Europe

January 2020
Case

Celata Bioinnovations

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In December 2019, Jon Hu (HBS ‘19) and Dr. Samantha Dale Strasser, co-founders of Celata Bioinnovations, were raising $1 million to launch their company. They had founded Celata less than six months earlier with the aim of redefining the drug discovery process.... View Details

April 18, 2022
Article

Will mRNA Technology Companies Spawn Innovation Ecosystems?

By: Christoph Grimpe, Timo Minssen, W. Nicholson Price, II and Ariel Dora Stern

The mRNA technologies that helped rapidly create effective COVID-19 vaccines could become technology platform businesses, which has tremendous implications for players in the world of drug development. These platforms could attract other companies interested in... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Digital Health; Technology; Innovation; Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Digital Transformation; Health Industry; United States

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Spring 2014
Article

Attracting Long-Term Investors Through Integrated Thinking and Reporting: A Clinical Study of a Biopharmaceutical Company

By: Andrew Knauer and George Serafeim

Faced with a large percentage of investors that chase short-term returns, companies could benefit by attracting investors with longer-term horizons and incentives that are more consistent with the long-term strategy of the company. The managers of most companies take... View Details

Keywords: Investing; Asset Management; Long-term Investing; Short-termism; Sustainability; Integrated Reporting; Leadership & Corporate Accountability; Pharmaceuticals; Leadership; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Investment; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Finance; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

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2014
Working Paper

The Organizational and Geographic Drivers of Absorptive Capacity: An Empirical Analysis of Pharmaceutical R&D Laboratories

By: Francesca Lazzeri and Gary P. Pisano

Scholars and practitioners alike now recognize that a firm's capacity to assimilate and use know-how from external sources—what Cohen and Levinthal (1990) called "absorptive capacity"—plays a central role in innovation performance. In recent years, a common strategy... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Industry Clusters; Knowledge Acquisition; Pharmaceutical Industry; San Francisco; San Diego; Massachusetts

SSRN

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April 1999 (Revised May 2000)
Case

Pilgrim Drug Company

David Thomas takes his first sales management assignment and is faced with a sales rep revolt because of a possible territory reorganization. In addition, his sales division is performing well below the national average. Rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Conflict Management; Salesforce Management; Performance; Pharmaceutical Industry

01 Mar 2007
News

Daniel Vasella

that had been separate. On a global basis we created project teams to move drugs forward. That allowed us to have more approvals by the FDA than any other major pharmaceutical company since the year 2000.... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; multinational pharmaceutical company; prescription drugs; vaccines; Medicare; generics business; Health, Social Assistance

2020
Working Paper

How ESG Issues Become Financially Material to Corporations and Their Investors

By: George Serafeim

Management and disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues have received substantial interest over the last decade. In this paper, we outline a framework of how ESG issues become financially material, affecting corporate profitability and valuation.... View Details

SSRN

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May 2020 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Michael Ku and Global Clinical Supply at Pfizer Inc.: Bringing Hope to Patients (A)

By: Linda A. Hill, Allison J. Wigen and Emily Tedards

Michael Ku joined Pfizer in 2011, after the company had undergone three large-scale mergers and acquisitions. His mission was to drive the digital transformation of the company’s clinical supply chain, but he knew he had to start with the culture. Over the next eight... View Details

August 2023
Case

Constellation Pharmaceuticals: Corporate Development at a Novel Therapeutic Company

By: Satish Tadikonda and Brad Prosek

Constellation Pharmaceuticals was a company focused on epigenetic therapies for cancer patients. Despite a promising start and an early deal with a leading biopharma company, the company weathered twin setbacks in the end of a major research collaboration and the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Health Care and Treatment; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Research and Development; Business Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Goals and Objectives; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

April 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Background Note

Note on Healthcare in Ghana

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ben Creo

This note provides an overview of the healthcare system in Ghana. It discusses the public and private sector as well as traditional medical practice. It also discusses the country’s pharmaceutical industry. It is recommended as a companion to Professor Regina... View Details

Keywords: Africa; Pharmaceutical Companies; Pharmacy Benefit Manager; Health Care; Health Care Costs; Health Care Delivery; Health Care Entrepreneurship; Telehealth; Health Equity; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Care and Treatment; Business and Government Relations; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Ghana