Research Outline

Pivot Examples- Pharmaceutical Industry

Goals

Identify examples from the pharmaceutical industry of the following ten pivot types: customer segment pivot, zoom-in pivot, zoom-out pivot, customer need pivot, platform pivot, business architecture pivot, value capture pivot, engine of growth pivot, channel pivot, and technology pivot. Each example should explain how and why the companies pivoted and what the company was like before. The examples should be no older than 8 years.

Early Findings

Customer Segment Pivot

  • A customer segment pivot is needed when the company realizes that the product its building solves a problem for customers, just not the customers it had originally targeted.
  • A failed cancer drug, farnesyltransferase inhibitor (FTI), was used to treat children with the rapid-aging disease Progeria in 2012.
  • The farnesyltransferase inhibitor, called lonafarnib, is manufactured by Merck & Co.
  • The success with the repurposing of the drug led Merck & Co. to expand its partnership with another pharmaceutical company, Eiger BioPharmaceuticals Inc.
  • The drug only received FDA approval in December 2018, so it is still early to see the effect it may have on Merck and Co.