pharmaceuticals - Publications - Faculty & Research

December 1999 (Revised February 2001)
Case

CVS: The Web Strategy

How should America's second-largest pharmacy chain respond to the challenge from online drugstores? What threat does the web pose to bricks and mortar distribution of prescription drugs and the other items that make up 50% of a drugstore's sales? This case describes... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Marketing Channels; Distribution Channels; Service Operations; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

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02 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

The Dubious Logic of Global Megamergers

with their mega-deals, you can exploit that fact to improve your own competitive position. For instance, while pharmaceutical players such as Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham have made headlines with their merger news, one large... View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat & Fariborz Ghadar

02 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

Ray A. Goldberg

is the blurring of agriculture and pharmaceuticals limited to seeds and plants. Animals are being turned into drug-manufacturing facilities" as well. Thus, Goldberg says, bioengineering may some day lead to animals whose milk, for... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Agriculture & Agribusiness

14 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: Dec. 14

addresses a decision to replace salesmen netbook PCs with iPhones, including converting the company's sales and customer applications to the iPhone platform. Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/911413-PDF-ENG Hikma View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 3, 2009

pharmaceutical division and a diagnostic division. The company's antiviral drug Tamiflu dominates the market for prevention and treatment of seasonal influenza (flu). Tamiflu, however, could also play an important role in responding to... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 May 2008
First Look

First Look: May 28, 2008

goals? Purchase the case: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=308030 Can PACIV (Puerto Rico) Serve European Customers? Harvard Business School Case 808-099 Jorge Rodriguez-Gonzalez, PACIV's (Puerto Rico) founding CEO, is considering expanding... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

XTV: Xerox’s Attempted Recovery From “Fumbling the Future”

with researchers at PARC. Much of that time was occupied with interviewing prospective customers who had significant problems with document management. For example, a pharmaceutical company that was applying for FDA approval had to manage... View Details

Keywords: by Henry Chesbrough

May 2025 (Revised May 2025)
Supplement

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

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

This fourth installment in the Pfizer Global Clinical Supply (GCS) transformation case series highlights how over a decade of cultural and digital evolution positioned GCS to meet unprecedented global challenges. In 2011, Michael Ku became the Vice President of GCS and... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Leadership; Technological Innovation; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Transformation; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; Asia; Europe; Latin America

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April 2025
Case

Radical Transformation at Bayer: Dynamic Shared Ownership

By: Boris Groysberg and Gamze Yucaoglu

In 2023, Bill Anderson became CEO of Bayer AG, a 160-year-old life sciences giant looking to strengthen its pharma pipeline, manage debt, and cut through bureaucracy. His bold response: Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO), a radical model replacing traditional hierarchies... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Business Strategy; Alignment; Innovation and Management; Organizational Structure; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

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2001
Other Unpublished Work

Clusters of Innovation Initiative: San Diego

By: Michael E. Porter

The study contains a conceptual framework for assessing the competitiveness of regional economies, an analysis of the San Diego region overall, as well as detailed assessments of two representative clusters—biotechnology/pharmaceuticals and communications. The report... View Details

Keywords: Clusters; Economics; Industry Clusters; Economy; Growth and Development; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; San Diego

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2014
Working Paper

Bio-Piracy or Prospering Together? Fuzzy Set and Qualitative Analysis of Herbal Patenting by Firms

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Tarun Khanna

Since the 1990s, several Western firms have filed patents based on medicinal herbs from emerging markets, evoking protests from local stakeholders against 'bio-piracy'. We explore conditions under which firms and local stakeholders share rents from such patents. Our... View Details

Keywords: Rents From New Technology; Local Stakeholders; Herbal Patents; QCA; Fuzzy Set Analysis; Qualitative Case Studies; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Patents; Emerging Markets; Health Care and Treatment; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

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September 1996
Case

Food and Drug Administration: Business as Unusual at CDER

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and James Leonard

Keywords: Government Administration; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

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November 1998
Case

Wegmans Food Markets: Diabetes Counseling

By: Ray A. Goldberg, David E. Bell and Ann Leamon

Danny Wegman, president of Wegmans Food Markets, is trying to decide how to evaluate the success of a nutrition-counseling program for diabetics, and whether and how to expand the program beyond the two stores currently involved. Wegmans, with 57 stores and $2.3... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Expansion; Programs; Human Needs; Financial Management; Health Care and Treatment; Nutrition; Consumer Behavior; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

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16 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 16, 2007

this case: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=508036 Michael Fernandes at Nicholas Piramal Harvard Business School Case 408-001 Michael Fernandes, the Director of Custom Manufacturing Operations at the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

The Right Connections

pharmaceutical companies — what the authors call downstream social capital — had a direct impact on the size of the startup's IPO. "Downstream social capital was essential in attracting the interest of a top investment bank and... View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross

04 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Tech Hubs: How Software Brought Talent and Prosperity to New Cities

period. Software is penetrating other industries, Kerr notes. Take vaccines. Pharmaceutical companies’ speedy development of mRNA-based vaccines for COVID-19 required software, he notes. “Their capacity to bring a substantial software, AI... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

06 Jun 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: June 6, 2017

regulatory pathway, the biosimilars pathway, on the strategy of a major pharmaceutical firm that finds its largest product (60% of revenue) at risk. The case reviews the rationale for the pathway, the emerging biosimilars market entrants,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 3

architecture, including business- and technology-related aspects. We apply our methodology to data gathered in a large pharmaceutical firm. We show that this methodology helps to identify layers in the firm's architecture associated with... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne