Publications

February 2009
Case

Avid Radiopharmaceuticals: The Venture Debt Question

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Ann Leamon

The CEO of a promising biotech company must decide how to respond to the macro-economic slump of late 2008. He had planned to pursue an aggressive schedule, moving the firm's Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease imaging compounds through clinical trials and into the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Borrowing and Debt; Venture Capital; Financial Management; Investment; Health Testing and Trials; Expansion; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

January 2009 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Targanta Therapeutics: Hitting a Moving Target

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich

This case explores regulatory, product testing, and business strategy at Targanta Therapeutics, a biotech company preparing its first new drug application to the FDA. In October 2007, Mark Leuchtenberger, president and CEO of Targanta—which has just held a successful... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Testing and Trials; Product Development; Business and Government Relations; Business Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

March 2005 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Procurement at Betapharm Corp. (A)

Presents a move by Betapharm to centralize procurement and e-sourcing and the many control and incentive issues that arose subsequently. View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Governance Controls; Supply Chain Management; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

June 2003 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Schering-Plough and Genome Therapeutics: Discovering an Asthma Gene

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Marc Aquino

Personalized medicine requires the identification of mutated genes. Schering-Plough's search for the one related to asthma requires finding families with the disease. Examines the industry that helps conduct such research, including contract research organizations. View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Research and Development; Genetics; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

February 1997 (Revised June 1999)
Teaching Note

Massachusetts General Hospital: CABG Surgery (A) TN

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Teaching Note for (9-696-015). View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Massachusetts

November 1995 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Massachusetts General Hospital: CABG Surgery (A)

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and James Weber

A cross-functional team at Massachusetts General Hospital tries to reengineer the service delivery process (the "care path") for heart bypass surgery (CABG) in order to shorten hospital stays (and lower costs) while maintaining/enhancing the quality of care provided. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Business Processes; Mission and Purpose; Product Positioning; Product Marketing; Management Practices and Processes; Customer Satisfaction; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Fair Value Accounting; Ethics; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Massachusetts

September 1997 (Revised October 1997)
Case

Bayer AG (A)

By: John A. Quelch

Bayer's senior executives convene in Germany to consider submitting a $1 billion bid that would recover the Bayer brand name and trademark cross in North America, both of which were confiscated by the U.S. government after World War I. The group also sets out to assess... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Brands and Branding; War; Communication; Trademarks; Acquisition; Government and Politics; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Germany; North America; United States

Find at Harvard

November 1991 (Revised December 1991)
Case

SmithKline Beecham Animal Health

By: Ray A. Goldberg

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

Find at Harvard

11 Nov 2015
Working Paper Summaries

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

Keywords: by Danielle Li; Pharmaceutical; Pharmaceutical; Pharmaceutical; Pharmaceutical

September 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

PolyMedica Corporation (B)

By: David F. Hawkins and Jacob Cohen

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

01 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

How Much Time Should CEOs Devote to Customers?

business and the company's strategy. In a service business like Tesco's, the health of the brand depends heavily on the quality of the millions of daily transactions between shoppers and staff. Motivating the front-line personnel is critical. But in the View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

29 Sep 2022
News

Securing a Resilient Future for Senegal

pharmaceutical sovereignty as key priorities,” Diagne explains. Senegal also wants to boost tourism now that many countries have reopened their borders. The tertiary sector, which took a strong hit through the pandemic, still accounts for... View Details

Keywords: Maureen Harmon

22 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The ‘Mother of Fair Trade’ was an Unabashed Price Protectionist

state pharmaceutical licensing exam, opened a drugstore with her husband in Stockton in 1915. Following his death, she became the sole proprietor and later opened two additional drugstores in town. Gleason emerged as a stalwart defender... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail; Health; Legal Services

04 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 4

910-409 On July 5, 2004, Pfizer's China team received disappointing news. China's patent review board just invalidated the company's existing patent on one of its most successful drugs, Viagra. Making matters worse, a Guangdong-based View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

July 2017 (Revised July 2019)
Supplement

"Doctor My Eyes"--The Acquisition of Bausch & Lomb by Warburg Pincus (B)

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

The B Case of "Dr. My Eyes" provides the answer as to what happened after the ending fact pattern in Case A and the imminent choices faced by the protagonist in the primary case. At the end of the Case A, Bess Weatherman of Warburg Pincus, must chose one option of two... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Health Care and Treatment; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Decision Choices and Conditions; Outcome or Result; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

July 2016 (Revised July 2019)
Teaching Plan

Doctor My Eyes: The Acquisition of Bausch & Lomb by Warburg Pincus (A)

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

In early 2010, senior partners at Warburg Pincus met to review a report on Bausch & Lomb Incorporated, the firm's largest investment at the time. Warburg Pincus had led a group of investors in acquiring Bauch & Lomb on October 26, 2007, taking the company private and... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Governance; Buyout; Private Equity; Finance; Mergers and Acquisitions; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

April 2016 (Revised July 2019)
Case

"Doctor My Eyes"--The Acquisition of Bausch & Lomb by Warburg Pincus (A)

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz

In early 2010, senior partners at Warburg Pincus met to review a report on Bausch & Lomb Incorporated, the firm's largest investment at the time. Warburg Pincus had led a group of investors in acquiring Bauch & Lomb on October 26, 2007, taking the company private and... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Governance; Buyout; Private Equity; Finance; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Health Care and Treatment; Reports; Business Model; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

August 2003
Teaching Note

Pharmacyclics: Financing Research and Development (TN)

By: Malcolm P. Baker and Richard S. Ruback

Teaching Note for (9-201-056). View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry