This is a comprehensive list of all courses being offered through the Division of Healthcare and Biopharmaceutical Business. The courses are divided into curriculum primarily supporting either the Master of Science Healthcare Decision Analysis or Master of Science Biopharmaceutical Marketing degrees. All courses are available to students currently pursuing a degree or certificate. For information on degree completion requirements, please reach out to Michelle Ton.
Biopharmaceutical Marketing Courses
This course provides a comprehensive look at the key stakeholders across the biopharmaceutical and healthcare landscape, the pressing challenges currently facing the industry, and core strategies and tactics for managing biopharmaceutical products.
- Analyze the global, economic, and political factors that influence the cost and availability of prescription drugs in the US
- Evaluate biopharmaceutical products to maximize market potential and accomplish brand objectives
- Discuss strategies and policies for addressing budgetary pressures faced by healthcare payers
A comprehensive review of the key management decisions and milestones in developing and advancing a new product from bench-top to clinical trials to market authorization and commercial market launch.
- Describe key elements of clinical development and regulatory requirements for new products.
- Describe the role of marketing throughout the product development process to optimize market success of new products.
- Evaluate critical milestones and go/no go decision mapping throughout the product development process.
- Discuss and analyze marketing and value strategies from product development to commercial launch.
This course covers the multi-faceted measures and tasks required to bring a product into the commercial marketplace through the advertising, promotions, and communication process.
- Demonstrate product key messages and differentiation methods
- Evaluate and explain each type of marketing messages, DTCA and regulatory measures
- Write and integrate an advertising and marketing plan
Market access is critical to a successful coverage and financial success, requiring product availability at a reasonable cost relative to clinical improvement. This course examines the key strategies and value planning necessary to ensure product uptake into the commercial market and favorable formulary coverage by payers.
- Discuss key decisions-makers and evidence needs required to ensure coverage and product uptake into the commercial market.
- Build a market access plan to maximize a products potential market share opportunity and coverage profile.
- Explain the channel marketing strategies for biopharmaceutical products.
- Discuss the impact of health policy on market access to products.
This course analyzes and evaluates various competitive pricing strategies, coverage and access implications, and alternative strategies at product launch and throughout the product lifecycle.
This course introduces primary and secondary research methods and analytics tools for synthesizing valuable data-driven insights to increase the speed and quality of marketing decisions for biopharmaceutical product managers, industry analysts and consultants.
- Apply systematic frameworks for collecting, analyzing and reporting marketing research to assess and maximize a drug’s commercial opportunities
- Develop marketing experiments to test product value proposition and strategic marketing messages
- Apply statistical analysis techniques to predict healthcare stakeholder response to various marketing channels
This course offers students a forum to achieve a deeper understanding about the industry-defining issues and marketing methods from critical analysis of health services research, health policy, and marketing literature.
- Analyze the relationship between rising medical expenditures and the biopharmaceutical industry
- Identify issues associated with demonstrating value in the biopharmaceutical sector, elucidating key drivers of the demand for value from various stakeholder perspectives
- Demonstrate critical thinking, evaluation of healthcare literature, and develop presentation of analysis and findings
This capstone project course in biopharmaceutical management provides the opportunity for students to demonstrate proficiency with the tools and principles learned across the Biopharmaceutical Marketing curriculum and to enhance students’ professional portfolios.
- Apply various marketing tools and activities to real-world products
- Prepare and execute a project management plan
- Develop original biopharmaceutical marketing work analyzing marketplace challenges for innovative therapies
Special Topics in Biopharmaceutical Marketing.
Healthcare Decision Analysis Courses
An introduction to the U.S. health system with a comprehensive overview of insurance coverage and benefits, reimbursement, access to healthcare and biopharmaceuticals, and the delivery of healthcare services. By the end of the course, students will be able to evaluate the U.S. health system and make recommendations on strategies to improve healthcare access and delivery. In addition, students will be able to evaluate biopharmaceuticals and make coverage decisions based on product information and evidence. The goal of the course is to provide students with applied knowledge and skills to evaluate the complex U.S. health system and its components to make informed strategic business and health policy decisions to improve health outcomes.
A comparison of national and private health coverage and funding across multiple industrial countries, with an examination of variances and similarities in healthcare outcomes by region and population mix vs. stated policy.
- Better understand how regulatory and value determinations vary by country
- Critical pathways for access & reimbursement among global health systems & providers
- Best practice examples for new product introductions by both region and product category
An overview of competitive analysis techniques used to evaluate healthcare marketplace opportunities including primary & secondary intelligence-gathering methods, decision testing, and head-to-head wargaming with strategic cases.
- Strategic use of an integrated systematic approach to competitive intelligence gathering
- What role competitive intelligence can play in new product development, marketing timing, and tactics
- How competitive intelligence should play an active role in every aspect of product and account management
Basic overview focused on the coverage, payment, reimbursement and access to healthcare and pharmaceuticals across a global landscape including the US, EU, and the big five countries of Asia-Pacific.
Basic introduction focused on the pathways and principles for managing new health technology discovery, funding, development, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, and commercial market launch.
Overview of coverage, access, and reimbursement changes that have resulted from healthcare reform that will impact payers, employers, healthcare industry, state and federal agencies, and consumers.
- Review the basic goals and principles of the Affordable Care Act and access to care
- How health reform will impact future insurance coverage, risk models, and reimbursement decisions
- Future impact of healthcare reform on emerging commercial products and services
Quantitative methods of evaluating business, policy, pharmaceuticals, medical care resource allocations. Budget Impact Models, Decision Trees, Sensitivity Analysis tradeoffs between treatment strategies, interventions, risks, outcomes.
A demonstration of how drug value is formally assessed using health economics and outcomes research, clinical trials, and epidemiologic study designs. Students will develop an understanding of these core research methodologies, their applications to generate and synthesize different types of value evidence, and the relative strengths and limitations of the different approaches.
- Improve your skills in using analytic techniques and tools in daily business and marketing decisions
- Apply basic analytical techniques to measure the validity and applicability of data and outcomes
- Learn to quickly identify well-designed research and models offering efficiency and value-added
Conduct literature reviews and learn practical approaches to evaluate and critique clinical, health economics, outcomes, and other healthcare product literature.
- Understand the basic rules that identify and define good vs. bad research results
- Learn to efficiently and quickly review and grade research and outcomes publications
- Understand unique research requirements across different therapeutic categories
This course develops critical principles of leadership, communication, project management techniques, marketing best practices, and strategy.
- Healthcare product marketing and development through the eyes of the healthcare business executive
- Principles of leadership, product evaluation and marketing strategies
- How to drive effective product leadership in a diverse corporate culture
This course will assess the basic principles and tools for creating novel and breakthrough thinking within healthcare. The evolution of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries will be evaluated for the key processes and methods that have led to today’s newest research and therapies.
- Examine the techniques we can all use to improve creative thinking
- Follow the systematic evolution of biotechnology to identify key inflection points and origins
- Review the next generation of therapeutic options and impact on the pharmaceutical industry
Strategic principles will be demonstrated on the effective use of product attributes, guarantees, and discounts to attain advantaged global market positioning for new products while protecting mature product market positioning. Market share targets and rate or attainment, payer value across different payer categories and demographic groupings, product lifecycle, and launch techniques to maximize future opportunities along with structured tools and techniques for formulary positioning & reimbursement will be covered for traditional drugs, biotech & specialty drugs, devices, and diagnostics.
This course provides an applied and operational view of mergers & acquisitions and partnering in the healthcare industry. Students will review the operational effectiveness of new relationships to examine successful and failed collaborations to measure identifiable patterns of strengths and weaknesses.
- Assess the manager’s role in advising the company on the operational implications of new partnerships
- Identify key measures and steps needed to assess the likelihood of clinical and business success
- Evaluate global M&A and strategic partnerships’ role in shaping coverage and reimbursement by region
In-depth review of China, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan. Analyzing regional pharmaceutical industry, research, manufacturing, partnerships, licensing, trials. Compare insurance, pricing, access, reimbursement for drugs, healthcare services.
Learn methods for working with large health data sets, including developing an analytic plan and selecting an appropriate data source, as well as practical skills needed to manage and use large health data sets to accomplish an analytic goal.
This course will further develop the student’s analytic skills and expanded use of statistical software programs to conduct a variety of healthcare business related analysis. Additionally, the course will expand students’ proficiencies in database management, contemporary software programs, and analytical planning and management.
Weekly seminar and literature series, review and discuss policy, biopharmaceuticals, insurance, global healthcare access issues. Student lead discussions, expert guest speakers, group projects, critical thinking.
The Enterprise Team Project (ETP) course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to work on consulting team project. Students and a faculty advisor work closely with leading healthcare companies on real-work consulting projects. Students are able to successfully apply all their knowledge and skills learned in the classroom to real-world consulting projects at healthcare companies.
Students will work on real business issues in the healthcare industry at an internship site with an existing business, company, firm or government entity.
Part-time or full-time, practical work experience in the student’s field of study. The internship must be located at an off-campus facility. Students are individually supervised by faculty. May not be taken until the student has completed at least one full academic year of enrollment in the graduate program with a cumulative 3.0 GPA.
Special Topics in Healthcare Business, Healthcare Decision Analysis, and etc.