Teva shake-up: Manufacturing restructure to be announced in December

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.