Teva's Growth Trend
Executive Summary
Teva's strategy of becoming a leading global supplier of generics by acquiring companies in the US and Europe is paying off--the company's revenues grew nearly 40% last year. Moreover, the company's first branded product, Copaxone for multiple sclerosis, is finally garnering strong growth after a slow start.
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A Precarious Union: Combining Proprietary and Generic Businesses
The major generics companies, flush with cash from the recent plethora of patent expirations, are all forging ahead in the proprietary business in order to boost margins and even out the volatile revenues and earnings inherent in their core business. They're pursuing, by and large, strategies that don't take them far from their core expertise and involve reformulating known compounds. Some companies have had moderate success, but weaving together two such disparate businesses is a challenge.
Teva's Growth Momentum
Teva has built a successful generics business by being nimble, aggressive and opportunistic, and is betting heavily that by dominating global markets it can prosper even after the end of the current spate of patent expirations. The success of its innovative drug Copaxone has given it a hedge against the volatility of generics and also changed the company in many ways. While Teva has to balance two very different businesses with limited synergies, it also must come up with a viable successor to Copaxone in order to secure its foothold in proprietary pharmaceuticals while continuing its investment in generics.
Teva Ends Hoechst's Generics Misery
Teva Pharmaceuticals is buying Copley Pharmaceutical, another demonstratiion of brand-name companies' disappointment in generics as a business. Hoechst paid more than $500 million for Copley, which it bought in the heyday of brand-name companies' infatuation with the strategy of getting into the generics business in order to ward off fierce generics competition when key branded drugs go off patent. But Copley ran into regulatory problems above and beyond a flawed strategy. Teva, on the other hand, becomes the biggest US maker of generic pharmaceuticals in terms of volume, although Mylan is still slightly ahead in terms of revenues. This comes at a time when size is a key ingredient for success in generics due to the commodity-like nature of the business and customer consolidation.