According to media reports, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) has hired the head of the generic drug division of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Gary Buehler, as VP regulatory strategic operations.
According to the reports, Buehler was pushed to a different job at the FDA in March. Congress and some pharmaceutical companies criticized the generic office. The office has a backlog of some 2,000 drug approvals, which means applications take an average of about two years to process.
Teva's hiring of Buehler comes as the FDA and Congress are considering starting user fees for generic drug makers as a way to get more funding for reviews. User fees paid by brand-name drug makers have increased the number of FDA reviewers available for their products and shortened approval times. Teva is part of a group of four companies developing proposals to assess user fees, after the company quit the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, the generic makers' lobby in Washington, which is developing separate proposals.
Teva's share price rose 1.4% on Nasdaq on Friday to $54.02, and rose 0.7% in early trading on the TASE today to NIS 195.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 17, 2010
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