Publications

2024
Working Paper

Cephalosporins—Fighting Hospital Infections: Case Histories of Transformational Advances

By: Amar Bhidé, Srikant Datar and Katherine Stebbins

This case history describes the development of three generations of cephalosporins – antibiotics that have significantly reduced hospital infections. Specifically, we chronicle how: 1) Early (pre-cephalosporin) antibiotics were developed in the first half of the 20th... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Technology Adoption; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Invention; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

SSRN

October 2024
Case

Allurion: Competing in the Age of GLP-1

By: Satish Tadikonda, Rajiv Lal, David Lane and Sarah Sasso

Shantanu Gaur had built Allurion into a formidable business internationally, providing obesity patients with a less invasive option long before GLP-1 drugs became the latest craze. Selling Allurion's medical device across 60+ countries, he awaited FDA approval to bring... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Global Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; United States; United Kingdom; France; India; Brazil; Middle East

September 2021 (Revised October 2022)
Supplement

Hester Pharmaceuticals (B): Securing Supply

By: Dante Roscini and John Masko

Supplements the (A) case. In late 2020, demand for Hester Pharmaceutical’s (Hester’s) breakthrough oncology drug Akrozumab was outstripping the company’s most optimistic projections. In order to increase manufacturing capacity and meet the demand, Hester was... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Cost vs Benefits; Trade; Supply Chain; Global Strategy; Buildings and Facilities; Operations; Health Care and Treatment; Demand and Consumers; Global Range; Globalized Markets and Industries; Pharmaceutical Industry; Italy; China; United States; Germany

November 2012
Supplement

Amylin Pharmaceuticals (B)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Amylin Pharmaceuticals brought two first-in-class diabetes drugs to market, Byetta and Symlin, in 2005, which were sold in over 80 countries with $650.7 million in sales by 2011. However, the company remained unprofitable as sales plateaued. The small pharmaceutical... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceuticals; Bristol-Myers Squibb; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

November 2019
Article

Many Medicare Beneficiaries with Serious Illness Report Financial Hardships Despite Coverage

By: Michael Anne Kyle, Robert J Blendon, John M Benson, Melinda K Abrams and Eric C Schneider

In a national survey, seriously ill Medicare beneficiaries described financial hardships resulting from their illness—despite high beneficiary satisfaction with Medicare overall and the fact that many have supplemental insurance. About half reported a serious problem... View Details

Keywords: Medicare; Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Financial Condition

2021
Working Paper

The Health Costs of Cost-Sharing

By: Amitabh Chandra, Evan Flack and Ziad Obermeyer

We use the design of Medicare’s prescription drug benefit program to demonstrate three facts about the health consequences of cost-sharing. First, we show that an as-if-random increase of 33.6% in out-of-pocket price (11.0 percentage points (p.p.) change in... View Details

Keywords: Cost-sharing; Impact; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Health; Consumer Behavior

20 Aug 2020
Blog Post

Being patients compelled us. Sequoia inspired us. HBS sustained us.

started treatment to add members to our family, not take them away. We’d been to three clinics, in two states, and felt beaten by a process that had dented our confidence, our marriage and our savings. As we raced to the hospital, we... View Details

22 Apr 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Where is the Pharmacy to the World? International Regulatory Variation and Pharmaceutical Industry Location

Keywords: by Arthur Daemmrich; Pharmaceutical

11 Oct 2011
Working Paper Summaries

US Healthcare Reform and the Pharmaceutical Industry

Keywords: by Arthur Daemmrich; Pharmaceutical; Health

November 2022 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Martine Rothblatt and United Therapeutics: A Series of Implausible Dreams

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

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 the time, there was little medication... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Technological And Scientific Innovation; Organ Donation; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Innovation and Invention; Pharmaceutical Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States; District of Columbia

10 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: First Look: October 10

broad-based therapies. Instead, the focus should be on enrolling subpopulations, based on diagnostic testing, in trials of targeted drug treatments and on monitoring and assessing effectiveness after View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2001
Case

Merck Global Health Initiatives (A)

By: James E. Austin, Diana Barrett and James Weber

The case series focuses on Merck's drug donation program and then raises new issues facing management about what to do about HIV/AIDS in Africa given the company's development of a new therapy. Describes collaboration among many parties including the Gates Foundation,... View Details

Keywords: Programs; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Health Disorders; Health Care and Treatment; Private Sector; Public Sector; Alliances; Problems and Challenges; Pharmaceutical Industry; Botswana

2024
Working Paper

Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy—Living Drugs: Case Histories of Transformational Advances

By: Amar Bhidé and Srikant M. Datar

In 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an immunotherapeutic treatment, called CAR-T therapy, for two kinds of blood cancers—acute leukemia (ALL) and a lymphoma. We describe 1) how CAR-T works, 2) the foundational advances and discoveries, 3) the... View Details

Keywords: Immunotherapy; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

SSRN

February 2002 (Revised August 2002)
Case

Inhale Therapeutics: Executing and Growing the Business Model

Inhale is about to bring a novel technology to market that uses inhalation to administer drugs that formerly required injection. Inhale must now decide which way to evolve its business model. This will determine the future direction of growth for the company. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Technological Innovation; Health Care and Treatment; Growth and Development Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

Find at Harvard

January 2014 (Revised June 2014)
Case

23andMe: Genetic Testing for Consumers (A)

By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

On November 22, 2013, the direct-to-consumer genetic testing provider, 23andMe, received a letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordering the company to halt the sale and promotion of its genetic testing kit. The FDA stated that the product was... View Details

Keywords: Public Health; Genome Testing; Health Care; Ancestry; 23andMe; Marketing; Product Launch; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Genetics; Strategy; Health Industry; United States

12 Jul 2016
First Look

July 12, 2016

credit constraints, and I find no imbalance in observable characteristics between treatment and control groups. These findings strongly suggest social safety nets have spillover benefits on the supply of firms. Download working paper:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Mar 2021
Working Paper Summaries

The Health Costs of Cost-Sharing

Keywords: by Amitabh Chandra, Evan Flack, and Ziad Obermeyer

May 2002 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Marketing Antidepressants: Prozac and Paxil

By: Youngme E. Moon and Kerry Herman

Describes the marketing of Prozac and Paxil, two of the best-selling mental health drugs in history. Set in 2001, several months before the expiration of Prozac's patent, Eli Lilly (Prozac's manufacturer) and GlaxoSmithKline (Paxil's manufacturer) must decide how to... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Product Positioning; Competition; Ethics; Value; Health Care and Treatment; Brands and Branding; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

January 2001
Case

Merck Global Health Initiatives (B): Botswana

By: James E. Austin, Diana Barrett and James Weber

The case series focuses on Merck's drug donation program and then raises new issues facing management about what to do about HIV/AIDS in Africa given the company's development of a new therapy. Describes collaboration among many parties including the Gates Foundation,... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Health Care and Treatment; Private Sector; Public Sector; Alliances; Problems and Challenges; Africa; Botswana