Course Detail

While the pharmaceutical industry has long been a global industry, most R&D has taken place in the United States and a few European economies; global activities have primarily involved creating sales and regulatory affairs offices to serve national markets. In recent years, however, the globalization of world markets and the rapid development of sophisticated bioscience industries in India, China, and other emerging markets is creating a reorganization of the pharmaceutical and related bioscience industries. Moreover, the creation of global value chains has created opportunities to develop new and perhaps more effective policies to lessen the long-standing global health crisis afflicting hundreds of millions of individuals in poorer countries.

This course will equip students with tools to effectively understand global marketplace issues within the life sciences. The course has three broad aims. First, students will learn how to assess bioscience market opportunities within different regions of the world, including advanced economies in East Asia and Europe and rapidly emerging marketplaces such as China and India. Second, students will explore the causes and consequences of globalization, focusing on the increased ability of firms, both small and large, to develop global value chains that integrate research, development and other marketplace activities from regions around the world. Finally, the course will explore global health, examining traditional policy frameworks towards neglected disease and new public-private partnerships designed to embrace global value chains.

Develop tools to help assess bioscience related market opportunities within both advanced and emerging economies

Examine how differences in the structure of national and regional economies impact how companies from different areas of the world develop competitive strategies.

Understand the causes and consequences of globalization

• Explore the development of global value chains in the pharmaceutical and other bioscience related industries and understand typical managerial problems they create
• Examine different types of multinational companies in terms of strategy, corporate structure, and typical managerial dilemmas
• Examine the causes of global health problems in different disease areas and different regions of the world.
• Understand the successes and limits of traditional towards the alleviation of neglected diseases, including the activities of the World Health Organization
• Evaluate recent initiatives to alleviate neglected diseases, including the creation of public-private partnerships, the development of non-profit pharmaceutical companies, and programs by the Gates Foundation and other non-government organizations to harness global value chain opportunities towards the alleviation of neglected disease.

(Preliminary)

Emerging market assessment team project 25%
Global health team project 25%
Short memos on cases 25%
Class participation 25%

Note: It is likely that the emerging market assessment project will be a "global" project in which KGI students will form teams with students from the Bioentrepreneurship Masters program at the Karoslinska Institute, Sweden.