Teva Reports $4.6 Billion Write-Down for Legal Costs

The Israel-based pharmaceutical giant Teva disclosed on Thursday that it will have to write down $4.6 billion to cover the company’s extensive legal proceedings connected to charges of price-fixing and kickbacks in the U.S., Globes reported.

Teva reported revenue of $4 billion and earnings per share of $0.58 for the third quarter. The earnings figure is in line with the consensus analysts’ estimate, but the revenue line is about 2% below the estimate of $4.1 billion.

Overall, Teva posted a net loss for the third quarter on a GAAP basis of $4.3 billion, which compares with a net loss of $314 million in the corresponding quarter of 2019. For the first nine months of 2020, Teva posted a loss of $4.1 billion, which compares with a loss of $1.1 billion in the corresponding period of 2019.

According to its annual guidance, Teva expects an annual revenue totaling $16.5-16.8 billion, and non-GAP earnings per share of $2.40-2.55. The revenue guidance is slightly reduced, but the earnings per share is slightly higher than it was previously.

Teva’s share is down about 2% in pre-trading in New York.

Teva president and CEOKåre Schultz said, “Teva’s business and operations have shown resilience as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact the world. The quarter saw continued strong performance from our key growth drivers, led by Austedo and the biosimilar Truxima, while the market share of Ajovy continued to grow in the US and Europe. During this quarter we also launched our digital inhalers AirDuo Digihaler and ArmonAir Digihaler in the US. The DigiHaler portfolio is now the first and only family of digital inhalers with built-in sensors available to patients.

“Over the past three years we have reduced our net debt by more than $10 billion to $23.8 billion. This debt reduction, and the continued improvement of our profitability, keeps us on track to achieve our long-term financial targets by the end of 2023,” Schultz added.