Foreword  |   ESSEC Health Management Institute
Gregory Katz
  Gregory KATZ, PhD, PharmD, MBA
Chaired Professor, ESSEC-sanofi-aventis Chair
Associate Professor, ESSEC Intitute of Health Management

Drug companies are undergoing substantial mutations. The weight of healthcare expenditure, the rapidly expanding generics market and new regulatory requirements are deeply impacting the dynamics of drug innovation. Besides, biomedical progress is paving the way for increasingly targeted treatments, vaccines, new diagnostic technologies and cell therapies for which the economic models remain to be invented. More than ever, therapeutic innovation has become the core challenge for biopharmaceutical companies: how can it be stimulated, marketed and its benefits distributed equitably and extensively throughout society?

The ESSEC-sanofi-aventis Chair of Therapeutic Innovation aims to meet two objectives: 1/ train the future players of the health industry in innovation management, 2/ develop strategic analysis to convert therapeutic advancement into economic and social progress. The Chair welcomes each year international MBA and post-graduate students from a wide variety of backgrounds, wishing to direct their career towards the healthcare sector. Besides its teaching activities, the Chair conducts socio-economic studies and sets out to create a stimulating laboratory of ideas, a space for free and forward thinking on the managerial challenges of the drug industry.