Teva Pharmaceutical Industries announced plans yesterday for a new organisation and leadership structure as part of “decisive and immediate action to address external pressures and internal inefficiencies,” CEO Kåre Schultz said in a press release.
The announcement comes after a turbulent time for the Israeli drugmaker which is facing generic price erosions and recently lost exclusivity on its best-selling MS drug Copaxone (glatiramer acetate injection).
The new structure will include integrating Teva’s generics and specialty medicines into a single commercialisation unit, operating through three regions: North America, Europe and emerging markets.
The firm will also combine its R&D activities for generics, specialties and biologics in efforts to increase focus and efficiency, while a new executive management team, effective immediately, hopes to “position Teva for turnaround in the short to medium term.”
Manufacturing network
Plans for Teva’s manufacturing network – made up of dozens of API, finished formulation, and packaging plants, globally – were not announced yesterday, though Schultz, who became CEO in September, is likely to follow in the footsteps of a number of predecessors in looking to reduce this.
But Teva’s latest plans to restructure its manufacturing network will not be revealed until mid-December, spokesperson Denise Bradley told this publication in an email.
In June 2014, the firm, under CEO Erez Vigodman, said it was hoping to exit from its 70 plus sites as part of a $2bn-a-year efficiency programme.
And a cost-saving plan from July this year, spearheaded by then CEO Yitzhak Peterburg, aimed at selling or closing 15 manufacturing facilities, with 7,000 jobs to go.
Teva did not comment on a report by financial media publication Calacist last week which said over 4,000 Israeli and US jobs were set to be axed by the pharma firm.