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Roche: Machine Learning Brings a Big Pharma Business Model Under Siege
hbs_2020_student
Posted on November 13, 2018 at 7:41 pm
Roche, the Swiss pharmaceuticals giant, is caught in a race against time. After making a big bet on breakthrough drugs and personalized medicine, the company has spent much of the last 18 months thinking ahead to the challenges that machine [...]

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On November 15, 2018, hbs_2020_student commented on Volkswagen: Additive Manufacturing as a Tool for Success :

I really like your recommendation that Volkswagen should buy a 3-D manufacturing company. It is an interesting proposal that squarely addresses the biggest concern with 3-D printing cost for auto giants, which is that a centralized, single auto-plant manufacturing company can erode Volkswagen’s competitive advantage, some of which stems from its intricate, global supply chain and relationships with vendors. Are automotive giants simply accelerating their own commoditization when they begin to mass-produce car parts with 3-D printing? https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/28/tech/volkswagen-3d-printing-parts/index.html

On November 15, 2018, hbs_2020_student commented on Detroit and the Future of the Automobile: Will Additive Manufacturing Help GM Beat Silicon Valley at its Own Game? :

One critical question for GM is the impact that additive manufacturing will have on their current operating model and margins. Today, additive manufacturing processes require expensive machines, high-cost raw material, and up-skilling of labor. Can GM really come up with the capital it needs to make this transition — to buy (& upgrade) this equipment, put up with the inventory risk, and hire new skilled 3-D printing operators? Additionally, once additive manufacturing really does get incorporated into auto manufacturer’s processes, how will the ability to create custom, personalized with 3-D printing — a unique car for everyone — hurt GM’s brand equity?

On November 14, 2018, hbs_2020_student commented on Speeding the Drug Discovery Pipeline with Open Innovation :

This is a terrific look into Big Pharma’s strategy of leaning on Open Innovation to forestall the rapid collapse of their R&D model. My concern, however, is that this is not a sustainable source of competitive advantage for an undiversified pharmaceutical company. Why can’t other pharma companies set richer incentive schemes, spurring a race to the bottom? When payers, providers, and pharma — e.g., the government — set higher monetary rewards with implicit guarantees of FDA approval and CMS reimbursemnt, open innovation looks less appealing.

On November 14, 2018, hbs_2020_student commented on When HHS becomes iOS: Harnessing Open Innovation to Combat the US Opioid Crisis :

Thanks, Justin, for this insightful piece. Government agencies are perfectly positioned to use open innovation strategies to take advantage of the public’s knowledge and expertise for “big idea” projects while appropriately incentivizing and compensating valuable contributors. However, I wonder whether $10K and 50 teams is paltry and insufficient. How does incentive design in open innovation account for the appropriate “prize” level that can compete with private sector rewards for the same work?

On November 14, 2018, hbs_2020_student commented on Optum: Machine Learning at the center of Health Care :

Thanks Ricardo. The key here is their parent company relationship with UnitedHealth. Optum’s critical advantage is not their IP over machine learning techniques or engineering/data science talent, but rather their ability to access a breadth and depth of data across the health care system (from providers, pharma, and other payers) that they can use to compound the power of their predictive analytics offerings.

On November 14, 2018, hbs_2020_student commented on The Growing Market for Identifying Fake IDs :

Great piece. While Jumio is using ML to optimize for an “old” world of physical IDs, one interesting avenue to explore is whether blockchain-based identity mechanisms will find a way to supplant these status quo systems — financial services seems like a ripe target to begin with, particularly with blockchain-based mechanisms being used to verify market transactions on distributed ledgers.