The chief financial officer of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Eyal Desheh, is stepping down and will likely be appointed chairman of Isracard, Bank Hapoalim’s credit card company, Israeli news websites reported on Tuesday.
Desheh joined Teva as CFO in 2008 and briefly served as acting CEO from October 2013 to February 2014.
Teva was left without a permanent chief executive in February after Erez Vigodman stepped down, leaving new management to restore confidence in the world’s biggest generic drugmaker after a series of missteps.
A string of costly acquisitions, along with delayed drug launches, have sent Teva shares plummeting and led to calls for management and structural changes, including a possible split into separate generic and branded medicine units.
Officials at Teva declined to comment on the reports.
“Hapoalim is now considering the selection of a new chairman for Isracard,” Israel’s biggest bank said in a statement, noting there were a number of candidates.
“The selection of a chairman will be subject to the recommendation of Bank Hapoalim’s board of directors and the decision of Isracard’s board.”
The appointment would also need approval from the Bank of Israel.
“When a decision is made, we will announce it to the public,” Hapoalim said.
By Tova Cohen
Source: Reuters
The company plans to pour more than $500 million in additional funds into its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) plant in Raheen, Limerick County, the country’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA) said. The new funding brings the company’s total investment in the site to 927 million euros ($1 billion).
“If in 2005 someone told you that two-thirds of our industry would be driven on the R&D side by emerging biopharma—it would be unthinkable. If one were to project that trend forward, what it would suggest is that we could have a day when we do this talk, say in 2027 or 2028, where 80% of the industry’s pipeline is coming from emerging companies.”
The German healthcare and agrochemicals giant told Reuters that in future its pharma pipeline will focus on cardiovascular disease, neurology, rare diseases and immunology, while de-emphasizing women’s health, a field it first focused on with the acquisition of the former women’s health specialist Schering in 2006.
