Teva Reorganizes Business, Launches Generic Medicine Group
Teva announced that it is implementing a new organizational structure as well as making changes in its senior leadership. Staring on July 1, 2014, the company will have a specialty medicines group (GSM) and a generic drugs (GGM) group.
The reorganization will also include reducing the number of its executive committee members from 15 to 9 and the appointment of global quality control chief Eric Drapé who is presently serving as Teva’s head of sterile, respiratory, and specialty operations.
The company’s global generic medicine (GGM) group will be responsible for Teva’s global generics market and its over-the-counter business. The group will be led by former Actavis president Sigurdur Olafsson. The global specialty medicines (GSM) group, which aims to bolster patient experience in focus therapeutic areas, will continue operations under the leadership of Dr. Rob Kremans.
Erez Vigodman, Teva's President and CEO, said, “The new, fully integrated commercial generic business, under the leadership of Sigurdur Olafsson, is designed to enhance Teva's current leadership position in the global generic market. The unified generic business will focus on accelerating business growth, achieving competitive costs, developing innovative value propositions, creating a broad and differentiated portfolio, and strengthening our commercial position in all existing markets.”
The Israeli pharmaceutical firm also announced the formation of the corporate development, strategy, and innovation group, which will be responsible for guiding the company into business development initiatives while looking for opportunities for partnerships. Teva said it will appoint a leader for the group in the near future.
“The new organizational structure and leadership team will better position Teva to deliver sustainable growth and create short and long-term value. We must capitalize first on our existing assets and capabilities, and exploit opportunities and synergies emanating from the full integration of all business activities – most importantly, generic and specialty – while leveraging our global R&D and operations capabilities,” Mr. Vigodman said.
According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, analysts from BMO Capital have speculated that the split of Teva’s commercial businesses could herald an eventual separation of the company’s generic and branded units, though not in the near term.