Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (also known as Teva Pharmaceuticals) is an Israeli multinational pharmaceutical company. Teva specializes primarily in generic drugs, but other business interests include branded-drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and, to a lesser extent, contract manufacturing services and an out-licensing platform. Teva's primary branded products include Austedo (deutetrabenazine) which is used for the treatment of chorea associated with Huntington's disease and tardive dyskinesia; and Ajovy (fremanezumab), used for the preventive treatment of migraine in adults. Additional branded drugs sold by Teva include Copaxone, Bendeka and Treanda, all of which are primarily sold in the United States. Teva is listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. Its manufacturing facilities are located in Israel, North America, Europe, Australia, and South America. The company is a member of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Teva Pharmaceuticals is the largest generic drug manufacturer in the world. Overall, Teva is the 26th largest pharmaceutical company in the world. Teva has a history of legal trouble in relation to collusion and price-fixing to inflate prices for drugs. In 2023, Teva paid the largest fine to date for a domestic antitrust cartel in relation to a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice into the company's price-fixing. One of its early shareholders, after the company was quoted on the Tel Aviv exchange, was the late British press tycoon Robert Maxwell.
History
Salomon, Levin, and Elstein Teva's earliest predecessor was SLE, Ltd., a wholesale drug business founded in 1901 in Ottoman Empire's Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem. SLE Ltd. took its name from the initials of its three cofounders: Chaim Salomon, Moshe Levin and Yitschak Elstein, and used camels to make deliveries. During the 1930s, new immigrants from Europe founded several pharmaceutical companies including Teva and Zori. In the 1930s, Salomon, Levin, and Elstein Ltd. also founded Assia, a pharmaceutical company.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
1935–1949 Teva Pharmaceutical Industries took its present form through the efforts of Günther Friedländer and his aunt Else Kober on May 1, 1935. The original registration was under the name Teva Middle East Pharmaceutical & Chemical Works Co. Ltd. in Jerusalem, then part of Mandatory Palestine. Friedländer was a German pharmacist, botanist and pharmacognosist, who immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1934. The company was built with an investment of £4,900, which came from the family's own capital and partly from loans from other German immigrants. Capital shortage led to the joining of the banker Alfred Feuchtwanger as a partner in Teva, who received 33% of the shares in return for his investment. Friedländer's business philosophy opined that the pharmaceutical industry has a reliable basis in difficult economic times, since "A Jewish mother will always buy medicine for her children". In the Second World War, the company provided medicine to the allied forces and in particular to the British army present in the Middle East. After the war, Sir Alan Gordon Cunningham, the last of the High Commissioners for Palestine and Transjordan, visited Teva on behalf of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. His visit promoted Teva's reputation in the pharmaceutical market and created a momentum for Teva's development. During Mandatory Palestine, Teva exported its medical products to Arab countries. In 1941, Friedländer presented Teva products in an exhibition held in Cairo, Egypt. The exhibition was sponsored by the General Agent and Sole Distribution of medicine in Egypt and Sudan, Syria and Lebanon. Later on, Teva exported its products to the US, Soviet Union (USSR), health institutes in Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Persia and Burma.
1950–1999 In 1951, Feuchtwanger initiated an initial public offering to raise capital through the newly founded Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange and Teva became a public company. In 1954, Teva received a Certificate Excellence in Training award from the Israeli President, Yitzhak Ben Zvi. In 1964, Teva partnered with Sintex, a company from Mexico, and Schering Plough. In 1964, Assia and Zori merged and in 1968 acquired a controlling stake in Teva. In 1976, the three companies merged into the modern-day Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. In 1980, Teva acquired Ikapharm, then Israel's second largest drug manufacturer. In 1980, Teva acquired Plantex. In 1982, Teva was granted approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Kfar Saba manufacturing plant. In 1995, Teva acquired Biogal Gyógyszergyár Rt. (Debrecen, Hungary) and acquired ICI (Italy).
2000-2009 In 2000, Teva acquired Canada-based Novopharm. In October 2003, Teva announced its intentions to acquire Sicor Inc. for $3.4 billion. Following the announcement, the acquisition was completed on January 22, 2004, which marked Teva's entry into biosimilars' market. In 2005, Teva opened a new, state-of-the-art pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Har Hotzvim, a technology park in Jerusalem. The plant received FDA approval in early 2007. Teva entered the Japanese market in 2005 and in 2008 established a generics joint venture with Kowa. In January 2006, Teva acquired its U.S. rival Ivax Corporation for $7.4 billion. In 2008, sales totalled $11.08 billion, $13.9 billion in 2009, and in 2010 total sales rose to $16.1 billion, of which a major portion was in Europe and North America. In July 2008, Teva announced it completed the acquisition of Bentley Pharmaceuticals for its generic pharmaceutical operations in Spain for $360 million in cash. On December 23, 2008, Teva acquired Barr Pharmaceuticals for $7.5 billion, making Barr and Pliva (which Barr bought earlier) part of Teva.
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