Teva CEO Schultz: "The lawsuits against us are more complicated for us than we thought

Teva met profit forecasts for the third quarter of the year, but reported a high write-off following lawsuits. Teva shares declined in pre-trading in New York and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, after earlier trading in gains.
The Israeli pharma company managed by Kor Schultz concluded the third quarter of 2020 with revenues of $ 4 billion, a decrease of 3% compared to the corresponding quarter last year. Earnings were 58 cents a share.
Teva's revenues are lower than analysts' forecasts, which expected the company to have revenues of $ 4.07 billion, but the profit is in line with expectations.
Along with the numbers that met the forecasts, Teva announced a high write-off of $ 4.6 billion in the third quarter, related to its US division. The company explains that the write-off is related to the impact of the lawsuits on the company's market value. Of $ 16.8-16.5 billion and earnings of $ 2.55-2.4 per share.
CEO Schultz noted in the conference call after the reports were published: "It is frustrating that the operational plan we have built for nature is being fully implemented, but the legal situation in the US has deteriorated compared to what it was three years ago. "We are still in dialogue with the authorities on the painkillers, but at the moment we see that the market value is affected by this event."
Regarding the company's performance, Schultz said that "we had a solid quarter with slightly lower revenues than expected in the US and Europe. On the last day of the third quarter we launched TRUVADA, the first generic version of AIDS treatment that I hope will have an impact in the fourth quarter on revenue. Despite the corona affecting the entire world we have been able to keep the company fully operational at all sites. Today I mark three years in the company and am proud to reduce the debt from $ 10 billion to a net debt that reached $ 23.8 billion. I am sure that in the next three years we will continue to see the debt reduced and this is important because the previous levels were not healthy for the company. "
Ostedo marks like Schultz three years since the start of sales, and revenue from it reached $ 168 million, a slight increase over the previous quarter. Revenue from the drug for the treatment of dyskinesia has totaled $ 451 million since the beginning of the year, an increase of 64% over the same period last year.
Revenue from Ajuba, the drug for the treatment and prevention of migraine, continues to disappoint with $ 35 million in the third quarter, but market share rose slightly to 24%. "At Ajobi the numbers are a bit disappointing and it has to do with the fact that we lost market share at the beginning of the year when we did not have a syringe version.
In the biosimilar segment, advanced generics, Teva does not publish the sales data, but has provided a market share of a drug traxima designed to treat several types of cancer. The market share amounted to 20% and according to Schultz this figure will be satisfactory in light of the company's expectations of reaching a double-digit number this year.
Schultz reiterated that Teva has no plans to raise shares in the near future.

CEO Schultz: "The lawsuits against us are more complicated for us than we thought"