Publications

Fast Answer

Investing in Life Sciences - SIP Resources

healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotech industries including policy and science developments, and overview of different technologies. Factiva - Covers news from national and local newspapers, magazines, trade publications and transcripts... View Details

25 Jun 2019
Blog Post

Learning the Language of Business and Science – The MS/MBA Biotechnology: Life Sciences Program

pharmaceutical company. I then chose to go to HBS to get my first formal training in business. This has helped me to become fluent in the language of business, evaluate strategic decisions through a different lens, and grow my network... View Details

Career Coach

Sarah Hoffner

industry as well as how to leverage career resources across HBS. She studied Public Health and History at Vanderbilt University and spent six years as a Client Service Lead at Entree Health, a pharmaceutical consulting and marketing firm... View Details

01 Mar 2012
News

How to Close the Health Gap

real progress has been made over the last decade, thanks in part to funding from organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and efforts by pharmaceutical companies and governments to make drugs available at little or no... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne; Ambulatory Health Care Services; Health, Social Assistance; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

01 Jun 2023
News

Research Brief: The Best Medicine

As it turns out, innovation doesn’t benefit everyone equally, and a new study tries to understand how that plays out in the pharmaceutical R&D process in the United States. “The numbers are striking,” says Associate Professor Joshua... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Hospitals; Health, Social Assistance

01 Jan 2002
News

Raymond V. Gilmartin (MBA '68)

the business world has an important leadership role to play in terms of closing the gap in health and other vital social issues," he says. When Ray Gilmartin joined Merck in June 1994 as president and CEO (he became chairman several months later), it was the first time... View Details

01 Sep 2020
Cold Call Podcast

How to Launch a New Biosciences Product: Start Small or Dive in?

Keywords: Re: Jeffrey J. Bussgang; Pharmaceutical; Biotechnology

November 1969 (Revised February 1973)
Background Note

Note on the U.S. Prescription Drug Industry, Part II

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven and Audrey T. Sproat

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

April 1998
Case

Cephalon, Inc.

By: Peter Tufano

In early 1997, Cephalon, awaited an FDA panel's decision on whether its drug, Myotrophin, would be approved. If the drug was approved, the firm might need substantial additional funds to commercialize as well as to buy back rights to it (which had been sold earlier to... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Financing and Loans; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

1996
Chapter

Note on New Drug Development in the United States

By: S. Thomke and A. Nimgade

Keywords: Product Development; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

June 2023 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Biogen and the Aduhelm Melee

By: Amitabh Chandra and Lauren Gunasti

Alzheimer's Disease is a devastating condition affecting millions of Americans. At this time, there is no cure. In 2021, Biogen's Aduhelm (aducanumab) received FDA approval under the accelerated approval pathway after a controversial approval process.

This... View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Valuation; Product Development; Pharmaceutical Industry

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

April 2017
Supplement

Imprimis (D)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karen Elterman and Marc Appel

This case is a supplement to Imprimis (A, B, & C). It describes Imprimis’s 2015 decision to develop a $1 per pill compounded alternative to Daraprim, the branded drug that had recently undergone an extreme price hike, raising its price to $750 per pill. Imprimis also... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States