During a conference call this afternoon, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) president and CEO Dr. Jeremy Levin said that the company expected non-GAAP earnings per share of $5.30-$5.40 on revenue of $20-21 billion in 2012. This is below the analysts' consensus of $5.59 earnings per share on $21.27 billion revenue and former CEO Shlomo Yanai's previous guidance of $5.59 earnings per share on $22 billion revenue.
Levin said that the slowdown in Europe is hitting company revenue and profit. He added that strategic changes by Teva's US company would also hit revenue this year by $530 million but would yield results in the future.
Levin spoke about "challenges" facing the global pharmaceutical market and said that he is continuing to review operations in all Teva's divisions including R&D activities. He said, "By the end of the year I will present Teva's new strategic plan for the coming years." He stressed the need to control the company's financing expenditure.
Teva expect sales of Copaxone to remain strong in 2012 at $3.8 billion and total brand product sales of $8 billion.
Levin became Teva CEO on May 9, the same day as Teva issued its finiancial report for the first quarter of 2012. On that day, Levin declined to provide 2012 guidance, and since then the share price has fallen 13%.
Teva's share price rose 1.67% on the TASE today to NIS 151.90.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 24, 2012
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