Teva Revenue Loss Amid Generic Competition

YERUSHALAYIM
CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Kare Schultz. (Reuters/Amir Cohen/File Photo)

Teva president and CEO Kåre Schultz said that his company’s drop in revenue in the first quarter of this year was to be expected as it lost exclusivity to its flagship cancer drug, Globes reported on Thursday.

Revenue in the first quarter was $4.295 billion, down 15 percent from the first quarter of 2018, attributed mainly due to generic competition to Copaxone and a decline in revenue from respiratory products.

Schultz said: “We faced the expected loss of exclusivities of key products Copaxone and ProAir to generic competition. Our focus is on stabilizing our global generics business and ensuring the success of our long-term organic growth drivers, especially Ajovy and Austedo. Both products continue to gain momentum since their initial launches and we are making the necessary investments to be able to bring them to markets outside of the U.S. as well as explore additional indications.

“The second year of our two-year restructuring program got off to a promising start. We are on track to reduce our total cost base by $3 billion by the end of 2019 and we have achieved a reduction of $2.5 billion to date, while continuing to lower our debt.“

Teva led the losers on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on Thursday, joined by Nice Systems, Bank Leumi, Bank Hapoalim and Discount Bank.

Clal Insurance, in which IDB Development sold a 10 percent stake Thursday, rose 7.03 percent, and Delek Drilling rose 2.90 percent.

The Tel Aviv 35 Index fell 0.64, to 1,588.41 points; the Tel Aviv 125 Index fell 0.60, to 1,457.44 points; and the BlueTech Global Index fell 0.92, to 377.68 points. The TelBond 20 corporate bond index fell 0.12%, to 357.61 points. Turnover totaled NIS 2.45 billion in equities and NIS 2.67 billion in bonds.

 

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