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Regi’s ‘Innovating in Health Care’ Case Corner

“Regi’s ‘Innovating in Health Care’ Case Corner” highlights teaching materials that focus on how to innovate in all sectors of health care – including delivery, insurance, and life sciences – around the world. The materials will help readers fulfill the difficult job of actually innovating so that health care can better meet its costs, quality, and access challenges.

“Regi”, aka Regina E. Herzlinger, is the Nancy McPherson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She is the author of three bestselling trade books on health care –Market –Driven Health Care, Consumer-Driven Health Care, and Who Killed Health Care? 

This issue of the Case Corner focuses on a case co-written by by Tom Gleave and Will Mitchell, Anthony S. Fell Chair in New Technologies and Commercialization and Professor of Strategic Management at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

 

Case: Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine Science: The BlueRock Opportunity in Toronto

Support for creating the case was provided by Medicine by Design, University of Toronto, an initiative funded in part by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund. Eric Soller of Versant Ventures provided invaluable suggestions. We greatly appreciate insightful input from multiple knowledgeable contributors.

Authors: Tom Gleave and Will Mitchell

Synopsis: Michael May, CEO of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM), wanted to make doubly sure that his organization was prepared to lend strategic support to BlueRock Therapeutics, a biotechnology company being formed by Versant Ventures and the Bayer Life Science Center (BLSC), a division of Bayer AG (Bayer). May hoped that the commercialization and cell manufacturing expertise of his team would be well placed to help the start-up achieve its technical and strategic objectives.

 

This case gives students the opportunity to evaluate the following questions:

  • Was the BlueRock opportunity truly a strategic fit for CCRM?
  • What rewards could CCRM earn from the deal, and what risks went along with these potential gains?
  • How could May and his team develop a sufficient understanding of the other ecosystem partners to trust their intentions and capabilities, knowing CCRM was not party to all the agreements being negotiated?

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Materials