Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • November 2009 (Revised August 2010)
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

NovoCure Ltd.

By: William A. Sahlman and Sarah Flaherty
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:31 
ShareBar

Abstract

Venture capitalist William Doyle must raise $35 million for a portfolio company with a promising, novel cancer therapy, just as global capital markets are imploding in the fall of 2008. NovoCure, Ltd., has developed an electrical-field-based therapy, called Tumor Treating fields, for the treatment of cancerous tumors. The therapy has shown significant efficacy with no side effects after five years of testing in human patients. Doyle believes NovoCure has the potential to become an important company with a major new cancer therapy platform but must complete pivotal (Phase III) clinical trials and receive FDA approval. Doyle's venture capital firm, WFD Ventures, has invested $25 million in three rounds to fund pilot clinical trials for glioblastoma and other non-small cell lung cancer, and the first pivotal clinical trial for glioblastoma. Additional financing is needed to proceed with the strategically important second pivotal trial. In the fall of 2008 Doyle was negotiating the final terms of an investment by two prominent hedge funds when the liquidity crisis caused the hedge funds to withdraw from the transaction. Dole must now reevaluate his options for securing the needed financing for this promising young company.

Keywords

Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment; Health Care And Treatment; Health Testing And Trials; Technological Innovation; Financial Services Industry

Citation

Sahlman, William A., and Sarah Flaherty. "NovoCure Ltd." Harvard Business School Case 810-045, November 2009. (Revised August 2010.)
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

William A. Sahlman

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • November 2020
    • Faculty Research

    Guild Education: Unlocking Opportunity for America's Workforce

    By: William A. Sahlman, Michael D. Smith, Nicole Tempest Keller and Alpana Thapar
    • October 2020
    • Faculty Research

    1366 Technologies: Surviving in a Fast Changing World

    By: Jurgen Weiss, William A. Sahlman and Joseph B. Lassiter III
    • January 2020
    • Faculty Research

    Khan Academy 2018 (Abridged)

    By: William A. Sahlman and Nicole Tempest Keller
More from the Authors
  • Guild Education: Unlocking Opportunity for America's Workforce By: William A. Sahlman, Michael D. Smith, Nicole Tempest Keller and Alpana Thapar
  • 1366 Technologies: Surviving in a Fast Changing World By: Jurgen Weiss, William A. Sahlman and Joseph B. Lassiter III
  • Khan Academy 2018 (Abridged) By: William A. Sahlman and Nicole Tempest Keller
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College