Amylin Pharmaceuticals (B)

Richard G. Hamermesh; Carin-Isabel  Knoop

Supplement | HBS Case Collection | November 2012

Amylin Pharmaceuticals (B)

by Richard G. Hamermesh and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Abstract

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 company was hurt by long delays in bringing Bydureon, a once-a-week version of Byetta, to market, which allowed a competitor time to establish itself in the once-a-week market. Amylin also failed to develop a marketable anti-obesity drug after the purchase of the promising leptin molecule from Amgen, Inc. In 2012, Amylin was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb for $5.3 billion.

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

Language: English

Format: Print

7 pages

Purchase

Citation:

Hamermesh, Richard G., and Carin-Isabel Knoop. "Amylin Pharmaceuticals (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 813-091, November 2012.

In 2020, Olympic goal medal winning boxer and former heavyweight world champion Wladimir Klitschko had built himself a “second ring” to continue his career after retiring from professional boxing. He was a hotelier, boxing promoter, author, teacher, speaker, and had built an organization to train businesspeople on his “Challenge Management” philosophy. He believed that any problem could be turned into a challenge to be overcome, and he taught a method based around F.A.C.E.—Focus, Agility, Coordination, and Endurance—to do so. Some major European firms, including SAP and Deutsche Telekom, had begun using Klitschko’s methods to train their teams. Given the new realities of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, how could Klitschko use his method to help people around the world adapt?

Precision medicine company Blueprint Medicines was building a successful track record for bringing drug therapies to market 40% faster than average. The company had spent $40 million dollars and two years building a compound library that became its drug development engine. Blueprint’s drug development strategy was twofold—it focused on creating a single drug compound for multiple disease indications, while at the same time developing drugs to track a disease through its progression. The company’s goal was to become a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company that could move from drug discovery to development to marketing. But it was increasingly challenging to prioritize and manage programs, personnel and partnerships.

Chair of LAX Board Sean Burton and LAX CEO Deborah Flint have made progress on streamlining and modernizing LAX's complex capital projects ($12 billion worth) while reorganizing and retooling Los Angeles World Airport (LAWA) staff resources, management processes, and revitalizing the LAX guest experience. From 2015 to 2019, LAX's performance improved, yet many challenges remained, and new ones continued to come to light. In December 2019, as Flint prepared to move onto a new position, Burton and the board are assessing the progress the team has made, and looking to next steps.

Faculty & Research

Amylin Pharmaceuticals (B)

Abstract

Citation:

About the Author

More from the Author