More from these Authors

• Talk | 2 Apr 2019

  Improving Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains

  Michael W. Toffel

  Citation:

  Toffel, Michael W. "Improving Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains." Duke Fuqua School of Business Strategy Seminar, April 2, 2019.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2018 (Revised March 2019)

  JUUL and the Vaping Revolution

  Michael W. Toffel, John Masko and Sarah Mehta

  In the summer of 2018, San Francisco–based electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) maker JUUL Labs, was experiencing exponential growth. Sales of its JUUL e-cigarette had increased by 783% over the preceding year, projected revenues for 2018 topped $940 million, and the company had captured over 72% of the U.S. e-cigarette market. The company’s success had thrust it into the spotlight, and JUUL Labs found itself at the center of considerable controversy. Whereas the company’s stated goal was to provide tobacco smokers with a less harmful e-cigarette alternative, JUUL Labs’s products had proven widely popular with teenage high school students who had never smoked. Some advocacy groups and public policy makers speculated that the company had purposefully marketed its products to minors—an allegation JUUL Labs’s executives strongly denied. The company now faced an FDA probe and investigations by at least two state attorney generals. It needed a strategy to deal with its mounting regulatory and public relations problems.

  Keywords: electronic cigarettes; E-Cigarettes; vaping; Nicotine Replacement; JUUL; Juuling; Advertising; Online Advertising; Customers; Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Ethics; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Technology; Technology Industry;

  Citation:

  Toffel, Michael W., John Masko, and Sarah Mehta. "JUUL and the Vaping Revolution." Harvard Business School Case 619-006, November 2018. (Revised March 2019.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2019 (Revised March 2019)

  Gilead: Hepatitis C Access Strategy (A) (Abridged)

  V. Kasturi Rangan, Vikram Rangan and David E. Bloom

  Gilead had come up with an innovative drug for Hepatitis C, which affected 180 million people worldwide. The drug was priced at $1,000 a pill for the US market. Gilead had to decide how to price and market the pill in developing countries that bore the brunt of the disease. The company had earned accolades for its work in HIV/AIDS, where its innovative medicines now accounted for 60% of all patients on Anti-Retroviral (ARV) medicines. Much of this was accomplished through generic licensing, which brought a $10,000/year treatment regimen down to $100! Should the company replicate that strategy for Hepatitis C? If so, how would its US Healthcare customers, who were paying $84,000 per patient, react? On the other hand, Gilead had to balance the interests of its shareholders, who paid $11 billion for an acquisition that led to the new Hepatitis C drug.

  Keywords: healthcare; Pharmaceuticals; pricing; Access to care; Emerging Markets; Health Care and Treatment; Price; Strategy; Ethics; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry;

  Citation:

  Rangan, V. Kasturi, Vikram Rangan, and David E. Bloom. "Gilead: Hepatitis C Access Strategy (A) (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case 519-077, March 2019. (Revised March 2019.)  View Details

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