Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.’s (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) romance with the Japanese market has taken a new direction. The Japanese press today reported that Teva is about to set up a new center in Tokyo, which will cooperate with Japanese generic drug makers. The Japanese press added that Teva might make an offer to acquire a Japanese generic drug company.
The reports state that Teva has two companies “in its sights”: Towa Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. (TSE:4553) and Sawai Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. (TSE:4555), each of which has a market cap of $400-500 million. Although these would not be acquisitions on the scale of Ivax Corp. or Sicor, they would involve a foothold in a potential new market for Teva.
Teva regained its position as the world’s largest generic pharmaceutical company during the first quarter, following its acquisition of Ivax for $8 billion. Teva was satisfied for less than a year with second place, to which it fell when Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS; LSE: NOV; SWX:NOVZ) acquired Eon Labs Inc. and Hexal AG to expand its generic drugs division.
Teva’s relations with Japan were strengthened three years ago in May 2003, when it signed a strategic agreement with Eisai Company Ltd. (TSE:4523) to collaborate on developing Teva’s Rasagiline for uses other than Alzheimer’s disease. Teva and Eisaie are due to jointly market Rasagiline in the US.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on May 14, 2006
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