Teva further streamlines ops with Czech plant closure

Teva has not yet issued a statement on the move, although the firm did tell Reuters​ that it plans to invest $58m (€39m) in its Czech manufacturing operations next year to boost production.

Regardless of the motivation for the latest cuts, Teva’s business development strategy over the last years seems to be to streamline and refocus its global manufacturing operations to improve efficiency.

In February, Teva said that its Croatian subsidiary Pliva would reduce its workforce by 790 employees as part of an efficiency drive designed to boost local active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production.

And, earlier this month, the firm announced plans to close one of its plants in Ireland and relocate 315 jobs to operations in a number of countries in Eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic, where costs are lower.

Invests $3.5m in Rexahn​

In other news, Teva has invested $3.5m in US specialty cancer drug developer Rexahn Pharmaceuticals as part of a licensing deal for the latter’s candidate ongology medication RX-3117.

In a press statement company VP of innovative ventures Aharon Schwartz said: "Our agreement with Rexahn underscores Teva's commitment to bolstering its innovative pipeline through licensing of promising compounds​.

The investment fits with both the recent expansion of Teva’s speciality pharmaceutical portfolio, including the addition of Barr’s women’s health division and comments made by the firm at its Q2 results presentation in July.

At the time, Bill Marth, president of North American operations, said: “we believe that the same type of capabilities that we have developed in the generic market, we can also apply to specialty or some other area that we might go after. ​

“We've always said that we are going to be looking at products, technologies, and companies, but I think as you think of companies moving forward you should not limit your thinking to just generic companies​.”