Teva Pharmaceuticals

choi

David Segal and Isabel Kershner, Israeli Drug Maker Faces Crisis; Teva stirs nationwide outrage over a restructuring plan that would cut 14,000 jobs, 1,700 of them in Israel. New York Times, Dec 28, 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/ ... israel-layoffs.html

Quote:

" The first homegrown, global success story and one of Israel's largest employers, Teva [Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd] is both a source of pride and a symbol of the country’s financial ambitions.

"but what was expected was something akin to painful trims. Instead, on Dec 14, Teva announced what amounted to an amputation. * * * Roughly 14,000 jobs will be slashed, about one-fourth of the company’s worldwide work force, with 1,700 of those jobs based in Israel. Manufacturing plants will close, and parts of the company will be sold. Bonuses were canceled, and the stock's dividend was suspended.  About the only positive reaction to this news came from investors, who sent Teva shares up about 14 percent.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [is powerless in this regard]

"Its origins date to 1901, when its predecessor opened in Jerusalem as a drug wholesaler, distributing products throughout the area on camels and donkeys. * * * ts biggest break came in 1967, when Israel passed a law allowing domestic manufacturers to make clones of drugs produced by foreign pharmaceutical companies. Many of those companies had ceased doing business in the country in response to the Arab boycott. Teva gained expertise in producing copycat drugs, and its revenue soared.  'I used to say that we should thank God for bringing us the Arab boycott,' Eli Hurvitz, who retired as Teva's chief executive in 2002 after more than 25 years at the helm, said in 2004. * * * Through aggressive expansion, Mr Hurvitz built Teva into the world's largest producer of generic drugs. ['He died in 2011.']

"Kare Schultz, Teva's recently hired chief executive * * * Mr Schultz, the new chief executive, is Danish, and although he is not the first foreigner to hold the job, he is the first non-Jew. * * * several pharmaceutical experts have applauded his arrival. They say that his track record at Novo Nordisk, the drug company based in Denmark where he spent much of his career, is impressive, and that an unsentimental eye is precisely what Teva needs.

"Teva's most immediate problem is its $35 billion debt.

"The company sells a branded drug that it patented called Copaxone, which treats multiple sclerosis. A huge success, Copaxone has provided as much as 40 percent of Teva’s operating profit in some years.  Copaxone went off patent this year, and generic-drug makers are now producing their own versions, eroding Teva's profits. This may be the essence of turnabout as fair play, given that Teva has been cashing in on expiring patents for decades.

"Teva's management anticipated the patent and pricing issues well in advance, and decided that the company should buy its way out of the problem through major acquisitions. Several of those deals are now considered disasters

" 'The former management made bad decisions, and the chain reaction led to the collapse here,' said Aharon Cohen, 33, a machine operator [at a Teva plant in Jerusalem] for the last four years, who was protesting last week [by plant gate, Teva employees having been locked out, a standard procedure during a worker strike, to prevent sabotage]

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest. Teva is a Hebrew word for (mother) nature.
(b) glatiramer acetate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glatiramer_acetate
(Copaxone)