Publications

Article

Measuring Competence? Exploring Firm Effects in Drug Discovery

By: Rebecca M. Henderson and Ian Cockburn

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Competency and Skills; Health

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2024
Working Paper

Dusting Off the Old Ones: Drug Licensing to Startups, Innovation Success and Efficiency

By: Mosab Hammoudeh, Joshua Lev Krieger and Jiajie Xu

This paper investigates whether moving R&D from incumbents to startups can increase innovation. Using comprehensive drug development data, we examine the outcomes of drug projects licensed from large firms to startups. We find that these projects licensed to startups... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Innovation and Invention; Business Startups; Research and Development; Performance Efficiency; Pharmaceutical Industry

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08 Mar 2018
Cold Call Podcast

Could a New Business Model Make Clinical Drug Trials More Accessible to Patients?

Keywords: Health

August 2012 (Revised August 2024)
Case

ABC Pharmaceuticals

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Erik R. Sparks

This case asks students to price a new drug that is in Stage II of its clinical trials. It contains detailed estimates of the time required and costs for all the steps needed to commercialize a drug in the U.S. Students will learn virtually all the steps required to... View Details

Keywords: Drug Development; Price; Product; Product Launch; Health Industry; Technology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

1996
Chapter

The Determinants of Research Productivity in Ethical Drug Discovery

By: Rebecca M. Henderson and Ian Cockburn

Keywords: Ethics; Health Testing and Trials; Research and Development; Performance Productivity; Pharmaceutical Industry

January 2009
Teaching Note

Biocon: Launching a New Cancer Drug in India (TN)

By: Sunil Gupta and Das Narayandas

Teaching Note for [508026]. View Details

Keywords: Product Launch; Market Timing; Price; Distribution Channels; Marketing Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; India

Article

Biosimilars and Follow-On Products in the United States: Adoption, Prices, and Users

By: Ariel Dora Stern, Jacqueline L. Chen, Melissa Ouellet, Mark R. Trusheim, Zeid El-Kilani, Amber Jessup and Ernst R. Berndt

Biologic drugs account for a disproportionate share of the increase in pharmaceutical spending in the U.S. and worldwide. Against this backdrop, many look to the expanding market for biosimilars—follow-on products to biologic drugs—as a vehicle for controlling... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceuticals; Drug Spending; Drug Pricing; Health Care and Treatment; Spending; Price; Markets; Cost Management; United States

November 2018
Case

David Hysong and SHEPHERD Therapeutics

By: Ananth Raman, John Masko and Aldo Sesia

In 2016, David Hysong, at age 27, found out he had a rare, incurable cancer. Rather than wait around to die, Hysong, a recent graduate of Harvard Divinity School, decided to launch a biotechnology company called Shepherd Therapeutics to development treatments for his... View Details

Keywords: Cancer; Therapeutics; Drugs; Health Care and Treatment; Business Startups; Product Development; Financing and Loans; Growth and Development Strategy; Problems and Challenges

June 2025
Teaching Note

Market Dynamics and Moral Dilemmas: Novo Nordisk's Weight Loss Drugs

By: Joseph L. Badaracco

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 324-114. View Details

December 2000
Case

Drug Wars, The: Pfizer's Hostile Bid for Warner-Lambert in 1999

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Matthew Sandoval

Describes Pfizer's hostile bid for Warner-Lambert in the fall of 1999. Allows for an evaluation of the possible synergies created and poses the question as to whether Pfizer will pay too much. View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Bids and Bidding; Competitive Strategy; Valuation

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

1996
Chapter

Note on New Drug Development in the United States

By: S. Thomke and A. Nimgade

Keywords: Product Development; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

April 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Market Dynamics and Moral Dilemmas: Novo Nordisk’s Weight-Loss Drugs

By: Joseph L. Badaracco, Tom Quinn and John Schultz

Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk was owned by a charitable foundation, and since its founding in the 1920s had focused on producing insulin to treat diabetes. In 2017, however, it released Ozempic, a diabetes treatment with the revolutionary side effect of... View Details

September 2022
Article

Giving a Buck or Making a Buck? Donations by Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Independent Patient Assistance Charities

By: Leemore Dafny, Christopher Ody and Teresa Rokos

The federal Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits biopharmaceutical manufacturers from directly covering Medicare enrollees’ out-of-pocket spending for the drugs they manufacture, but manufacturers may donate to independent patient assistance charities and earmark donations... View Details

Keywords: Cost Sharing; Prescription Drugs; Drug Spending; Medicare; Dual Eligibility; Cost; Health Care and Treatment; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Pharmaceutical Industry

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12 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

Buy-In from Black Patients Suffers When Drug Trials Don’t Include Them

Black patients and their doctors may be more open to new medications if drug trials included more Black people, new research shows. Currently, Black Americans represent just 5 percent of drug trial... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Pharmaceutical; Health

March 2011
Teaching Note

Myelin Repair Foundation: Accelerating Drug Discovery Through Collaboration (TN)

By: Karim R. Lakhani

Teaching Note for 610074. View Details

2008
Case

Eli Lilly: Recreating Drug Discovery for the 21st Century

By: Rebecca Henderson and C. Reavis

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry

2018
Chapter

The Orphan Drug Act at 35: Observations and an Outlook for the Twenty-First Century

By: Nicholas Bagley, Benjamin Berger, Amitabh Chandra, Craig Garthwaite and Ariel Dora Stern

On the 35th anniversary of the adoption of the Orphan Drug Act (ODA), we describe the enormous changes in the markets for therapies for rare diseases that have emerged over recent decades. The most prominent example is the fact that the profit-maximizing price of new... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Laws and Statutes; Research and Development; Investment; Markets; Monopoly