Teva looks set for a new round of M&A deals

Posted under Blog, Cephalon, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, Jeremy Levin, laquinimod, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Universities, Videos by John Carroll

Don't be too surprised if Teva starts to make fresh headlines on the M&A side of the business. CEO Shlomo Yanai is telling reporters  the company is acutely aware of just how badly it needs to diversify its product base to cover falling revenue from its MS franchise. And with star Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) dealmaker Jeremy Levin taking the helm from Yanai in May, analysts are buzzing about whether Teva ($TEVA) is thinking of pulling the trigger on a Shire takeover.

"Our answer is not just in developing drugs but in reducing our dependence on this product," Yanai told a news conference today, according to a report in Reuters. And Levin's looming arrival indicates for many that Teva sees a big future on the branded side of the biopharma business.

Revenue from branded drugs jumped 68% in the fourth quarter, a boost delivered by new drugs acquired in its Cephalon takeover. "During 2011 we made important progress in reaching our strategic goals with the acquisitions of Cephalon and Taiyo, and the creation of a unique joint venture with Procter & Gamble," Yanai told a news conference while covering the company's fourth quarter results. Its profits dropped 34% on acquisition costs.

Teva has had its own problems in drug development. Laquinimod, its next-gen MS treatment, recently flunked a late-stage study. And now Teva is working with regulators to design a new study for the therapeutic. Yanai says that Teva has a strong pipeline of experimental drugs.

- read the Reuters report
- get the Dow Jones story

Special Report: Jeremy Levin - The 25 most influential people in biopharma today

Related Articles:
New Teva CEO expected to replicate "string of pearls" deal strategy
Teva to bulk up in Asia with generics buyouts
Teva jacks up prices on Cephalon legacy brands

Teva looks set for a new round of M&A deals

Posted under Blog, Cephalon, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, Jeremy Levin, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Universities, Videos by John Carroll

Don't be too surprised if Teva starts to make fresh headlines on the M&A side of the business. CEO Shlomo Yanai is telling reporters  the company is acutely aware of just how badly it needs to diversify its product base to cover falling revenue from its MS franchise. And with star Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) dealmaker Jeremy Levin taking the helm from Yanai in May, analysts are buzzing about whether Teva ($TEVA) is thinking of pulling the trigger on a Shire takeover.

"Our answer is not just in developing drugs but in reducing our dependence on this product," Yanai told a news conference today, according to a report in Reuters. And Levin's looming arrival indicates for many that Teva sees a big future on the branded side of the biopharma business.

Revenue from branded drugs jumped 68% in the fourth quarter, a boost delivered by new drugs acquired in its Cephalon takeover. "During 2011 we made important progress in reaching our strategic goals with the acquisitions of Cephalon and Taiyo, and the creation of a unique joint venture with Procter & Gamble," Yanai told a news conference while covering the company's fourth quarter results. Its profits dropped 34% on acquisition costs.

Teva has had its own problems in drug development. Laquinimod, its next-gen MS treatment, recently flunked a late-stage study. And now Teva is working with regulators to design a new study for the therapeutic. Yanai says that Teva has a strong pipeline of experimental drugs.

- read the Reuters report
- get the Dow Jones story

Special Report: Jeremy Levin - The 25 most influential people in biopharma today

Related Articles:
New Teva CEO expected to replicate "string of pearls" deal strategy
Teva to bulk up in Asia with generics buyouts
Teva jacks up prices on Cephalon legacy brands

Jeremy Levin – The 25 most influential people in biopharma today

Posted under Blog, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Companies, Copaxone, Diagnostics, Funding, Jeremy Levin, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Universities, Videos by Suzanne Elvidge

Setting the pace for pearls and oysters

Jeremy Levin
President and CEO
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries

After his success launching Bristol-Myers Squibb's ($BMY) famed "String of Pearls" partnering strategy, Dr. Jeremy Levin is moving on to a new challenge as he takes over from Shlomo Yanai as president and CEO of Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ($TEVA). And he will be watched like a hawk by a group of rivals anxious to understand his strategy and imitate his success at dealmaking.

It's easy to see why Teva snapped him up for this role--through Levin's "String of Pearls" strategy, which aimed to make sequential transactions to secure compounds, pipeline or entire companies to fill specific pipeline gaps, BMS made a total of 17 acquisitions, from $2.4 billion for Medarex down to individual drug deals.

Companies across the industry, including Teva, are facing the loss of patent protection for blockbuster drugs. Teva will be hard hit when its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone loses its exclusivity in 2014 and faces generic competition, because this single drug is responsible for a large percentage of Teva's sales. Following Levin's example of selecting just the right drug (or even company) to fill the spaces left by off-patent drugs, they could avoid catastrophic losses and ensure a steady stream of income from newly-licensed launched products that would fund in-house drug development to fill the early-stage pipeline.

According to PharmaTimes World News, Judson Clark at Edward Jones has confidence in Levin's "ability to manage the company through the upcoming wave of branded drugs going generic." Additionally, "we think his experience in business development points to the company's continued desire to pursue smart, timely acquisitions."

As well as creating strategies to license in "pearls," Levin also created an "oyster" strategy at BMS, to license out non-core compounds to companies to develop in emerging markets, on the basis of getting back a percentage of profits on drug approval. As well as being a pragmatic move as these are drugs that wouldn't otherwise have been developed, it also shows a level of social responsibility in improving access to therapeutics--another model that it would benefit other companies across the industry to follow.

Mark Schoenebaum of the International Strategy & Investment Group in New York described Levin as the "number one person in business development," according to Bloomberg. Time will tell what this expertise will do for Teva, and whether his strategies of oysters and pearls will form a necklace shared by the industry as a whole.