Teva Shakeup Only the Beginning
The drugmaker must still contend with extensive competition in the generic drug industry and high financial leverage.
Following Kare Schultz recently taking the CEO helm at
We doubt Teva’s structural change will lead to a dramatic strategic shift for the company, but it could signify Schultz’s willingness for more dramatic changes to simplify operations and potentially deeper cost savings down the road. However, collapsing the branded and generics businesses into more cohesive operations among geographic regions could signify lower odds of selling or spinning off the branded business. As somewhat more of a surprise to us, the move ousts Rob Koremans as CEO of global specialty drugs, Dipankar Bhattacharjee as CEO of global generics, and Michael Hayden as chief scientific officer at the end of the year. All of the new executive promotions come from within Teva, which should help alleviate operational transitions. Michael McClellan will now be permanent CFO after taking the interim role in July 2017. Hafrun Fridiksdottir--who was formerly head of generics R&D and had success building Actavis’ generics pipeline--will now lead global R&D.
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