Teva sells remaining women’s health line in deals totaling $1.38 billion
Together with the sale of Paragard earlier this month, the agreements will yield the drugmaker $2.48 billion to repay debt
Shoshanna Solomon was The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. said Monday it has entered into two agreements to sell the remaining assets of its specialty global women’s health business for $1.38 billion.
Proceeds from these sales, combined with proceeds from the recently announced sale of Paragard, will total $2.48 billion and will be used by Teva to repay debt, Teva said in a statement.
The Israel-based firm said it has entered into a definitive agreement under which CVC Capital Partners Fund VI will acquire a portfolio of products within its global women’s health business that includes contraception, fertility, menopause and osteoporosis products for $703 million in cash.
In addition, Teva has also entered into a definitive agreement under which Foundation Consumer Healthcare will buy Plan B One-Step and Teva’s emergency contraception brands for $675 million in cash.
“Today’s announcement, coupled with the recent announcement of the sale of Paragard for $1.1 billion, demonstrate Teva’s commitment to delivering on our promise to generate net proceeds of at least $2 billion from the divestiture of non-core assets,” said Yitzhak Peterburg, the company’s interim CEO. “With these initial divestitures we have exceeded expectations, leveraging the tremendous value we have built within Teva’s specialty business.”
The deals prove Teva’s “ability to repay term loan debt while also providing a clear path forward for these important products to continue to be available to women throughout the world,” he added.
Teva is selling assets to reduce its more than $30 billion debt, which ballooned after the firm acquired drug company Actavis Generics for $40 billion in 2016. The deal turned out to be an expensive venture that eventually resulted in the stepping down of Teva’s CEO Erez Vigodman in February 2017.
Completion of the transactions is subject to terms, including antitrust clearance in the US and EU respectively, together with employee consultations. The transactions are expected to close before the end of 2017. Until the deals are completed, Teva will continue to market the products.
With the divestiture of Teva’s global women’s health products and the planned divestiture of Teva’s oncology and pain business in Europe, Teva is “reinforcing its strategic focus” on the central nervous system and respiratory activities “as its core global therapeutic areas of focus” within its specialty medicines, the statement said.
Earlier this month the company appointed a new CEO, Kåre Schultz, who will be tasked with setting out Teva’s strategy, divesting assets, cutting its debt and restoring investor confidence in the troubled drugmaker, which has seen its US shares slide some 64 percent in the past 12 months as it seeks strategic direction.
Collaborating with Mount Sinai
Separately, Teva announced a partnership with Mount Sinai Health System hospital to create solutions to improve patient and health system care for Multiple Chronic Conditions (MCC), defined as “an emerging and unaddressed global health threat.”
The announcement was made to an audience of public health leaders at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Sustainable Development Impact Summit.
MCC are defined by the presence of two or more chronic conditions in a patient. Currently, one in three adults globally, and two in three adults over the age of 65, suffer from two or more chronic conditions, Teva said. The top conditions contributing to mortality and morbidity in high-income countries include ischemic heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, depression, diabetes and back and neck pain.
In low- and middle-income countries, the top diseases include IHD, stroke, diabetes, and depression, as well as communicable diseases, such as diarrhea, HIV and tuberculosis.
The collaboration will envisage a regional pilot program at Mount Sinai’s Arnhold Institute for Global Health in New York, which will design and evaluate a patient-centered, integrated approach and ultimately adapt it for delivery to larger patient populations, the statement said.
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