Subject category:
Strategy and General Management
Published by:
Harvard Business Publishing
Version: 2 September 2020
Length: 7 pages
Data source: Published sources
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https://casecent.re/p/172412
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Abstract
In March 2020, Dr Cynthia Bamdad, founder and CEO of Minerva Biotechnologies Inc (Minerva), was reviewing the first results of human clinical trials for the company's novel CAR-T drug therapeutic, one of the first ever to target solid cancer tumors. The results looked promising. CAR-T therapeutics were a new field attracting a lot of scientific interest. They involved genetically re-engineering a patient's T-cells, a key element of the human immune system, to attack the cancer. The first CAR-T treatments for cancer were developed for the relatively small field of blood cancers, 7% of all cancers. For instance, early pioneer Kite Pharma Inc (Kite) developed a treatment for a special type of lymphoma that only affected 7,500 patients a year. Still, the financial interest was huge, and Kite was acquired by Gilead Sciences Inc in August 2017 for USD11.9 billion. Similarly, Juno Therapeutics Inc was acquired by Celgene Corporation for USD9 billion in January 2018. Minerva's therapeutics targeted 96% of all breast cancers and 46% of prostate cancers, a market that was orders of magnitude larger. After 21 years, Bamdad believed that Minerva was on the threshold of something really big. Should Bamdad sell the business and work within a larger organization? Or should she IPO and continue to develop the company's long-term pipeline of therapeutics and diagnostics?
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Abstract
In March 2020, Dr Cynthia Bamdad, founder and CEO of Minerva Biotechnologies Inc (Minerva), was reviewing the first results of human clinical trials for the company's novel CAR-T drug therapeutic, one of the first ever to target solid cancer tumors. The results looked promising. CAR-T therapeutics were a new field attracting a lot of scientific interest. They involved genetically re-engineering a patient's T-cells, a key element of the human immune system, to attack the cancer. The first CAR-T treatments for cancer were developed for the relatively small field of blood cancers, 7% of all cancers. For instance, early pioneer Kite Pharma Inc (Kite) developed a treatment for a special type of lymphoma that only affected 7,500 patients a year. Still, the financial interest was huge, and Kite was acquired by Gilead Sciences Inc in August 2017 for USD11.9 billion. Similarly, Juno Therapeutics Inc was acquired by Celgene Corporation for USD9 billion in January 2018. Minerva's therapeutics targeted 96% of all breast cancers and 46% of prostate cancers, a market that was orders of magnitude larger. After 21 years, Bamdad believed that Minerva was on the threshold of something really big. Should Bamdad sell the business and work within a larger organization? Or should she IPO and continue to develop the company's long-term pipeline of therapeutics and diagnostics?
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