From Breakthrough to Blockbuster: A conversation with Donald Drakeman

Abstract

In their new book From Breakthrough to Blockbuster: The Business of Biotechnology, Donald Drakeman, Lisa Drakeman, and Nektarios Oraiopoulos revisit a question posed by Harvard Business School Professor Gary Pisano about the ability of small, entrepreneurial biotechnology companies to compete against large pharmaceutical companies in a research-driven, capital-intensive, and highly regulated industry. While Pisano in his 2006 book Science Business: The Promise, the Reality, and the Future of Biotech found biotech had failed to live up to its promise and that large pharmaceutical companies should turn to their internal R&D because they had the resources needed to produce innovative medicines.