Teva to expand women's health

According to "Bloomberg", Teva plans for women's health products to reach $460-500 million in 2013.

10 January 13 12:12, Globes' correspondent

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) will expand its women's health operations, president and CEO Jeremy Levin said at the JPMorgan Chase & Co. healthcare conference in San Francisco earlier this week. “Women’s health in the pharmaceutical industry is always focused on fertility and infertility,” he said, adding that contraception is really important, fertility is important, but there are many other diseases which affect only women. “Nobody has taken leadership; this is where we want to go, he concluded.

According to "Bloomberg", Teva plans for women's health products to reach $460-500 million in 2013, amounting to 6% of its brand products sales. The company produces oral contraceptives and hormone therapies for menopause, but Levin said that it may contemplate treatments for uterine fibroids.

"Bloomberg" notes that most of Teva's focus in women's health in on reproduction. At the annual American Society of Reproductive Medicine meeting in October, Teva published successful late-stage trial results for Milprosa, a weekly progesterone vaginal ring for women undergoing in-vitro fertilization, and for Quartette, an ascending-dose, extended oral contraceptive.

Levin also noted that 70% of Copaxone, Teva's brand treatment for multiple sclerosis, was used by women. "Our understanding of women’s health stems from that,” he said. “It’s a huge opportunity. Women are great consumers of medicines, they understand what it is that they need to make themselves happier and healthier."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 10, 2013

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