Where Are They Now? Teva Pharmaceuticals

By Ben Comer, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader

Then: In an article published in the October 2013 issue of Life Science Leader, former executive editor Wayne Koberstein spoke with Teva’s then CEO Jeremy Levin about the company’s strategy to bridge the divide between follow-on generics and innovator branded products. The company’s future, Levin said, would depend on producing “high-value generics” and new drugs in CNS, respiratory, and other therapeutic areas.

In 2011, Teva formed a joint venture (PGT Healthcare) with consumer goods behemoth Proctor & Gamble, with the goal of expanding its OTC product offering. With the arrival of Levin as CEO in May of 2012, the company added a focus on “new therapeutic entities” or NTEs, a phrase denoting products built from existing or known molecules, but reformulated, combined, or delivered in new ways to improve compliance and address patient needs.

For example, Teva would build a pipeline of NTEs that prolong drug half-life to reduce frequency of administration, modify pharmacokinetic profiles to reduce side effects, convert drugs from parenteral to oral or other forms of administration, and develop drugs for new indications, and for special populations such as children and the elderly. “The model of the future is managing complexity; we can create better and better medicines which improve compliance, rather than relying on small Paragraph IV products,” said Levin.

Known for his “string of pearls” acquisition strategy as head of business development at BMS prior to joining Teva, Levin told Koberstein that Teva would not follow that playbook, and that the company’s days of growth by acquisition had ended. “I am convinced the only sustainable way to grow is through internal growth — organic growth driven by great products. Targeted acquisitions can supplement that, say, to help build a portfolio in a key therapeutic area or to enter a new country, but they should not have the main role for growth in the future,” said Levin.

Levin described Teva’s emerging “constellation strategy“ as a pathway to growth in the company’s key therapeutic areas. “We weave together transactions, small acquisitions, internal programs, and alliances with other companies to create a strong arena where we will see growth in our core area of respiratory or in our core area of CNS,” he said.

Now: A few weeks after Koberstein’s article was published, Levin unexpectedly departed from Teva, amid cost-cutting plans and an ongoing legal battle over “purported generic” versions of the company’s best-selling multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone. (In a separate 2013 article, Koberstein pressed Levin on the Copaxone generic dispute. Levin became chairman and CEO of Ovid Pharmaceuticals in 2015). Teva saw its topline revenue figures climb until 2017, followed by a several years of declining revenue. PGT Healthcare, Teva’s OTC JV with Proctor & Gamble, was terminated in 2018.   

In May 2023, Teva announced a new “pivot to growth” strategy under CEO Richard Francis, who joined the company in January 2023. Biosimilars play and important part in pivot to growth and are a “main component” of the strategy, says Thomas Rainey, SVP, U.S. biosimilars, at Teva. “When you look at Teva’s overall commitment to biosimilars, we have 15 assets in the pipeline which cover around 70% of the top 20 drugs coming off patent in the next few years.”

Teva currently markets three biosimilars in the U.S. and plans to launch a fourth — Selarsdi, a biosimilar version of J&J’s Stelara — in February 2025. Branded biologic drugs are expensive, and Rainey says Teva’s opportunity to reduce costs for patients with generics and biosimilars “is important to us.”  

Although Teva’s revenue figures haven’t returned to 2017 levels, they began to move in the right direction in 2023, and have seen double digit growth in recent quarters, according to company data. Much of that growth is due to Teva’s branded portfolio, which includes Austedo XR (an extended-release version of Austedo), which was approved by FDA in February 2023 for tardive dyskinesia and chorea associated with Huntington’s disease. Austedo XR is expected to bring in $1.6 billion in 2024. That drug isn’t expected to face generic competition until 2033.