Teva Pharmaceuticals said it will shrink some of its generic drug manufacturing as the Israel-based drugmaker reports $20.7 billion in debt.
In 2022, Teva lost revenue on generics, and the company cited inflation, "increasing competition to parts of our portfolio and timing of certain customer bids" as the cause, according to a recent investor call. Teva did not specify which generics it would cut from production lines.
"The drugs we're pulling out of are drugs which are low-margin," Teva CFO Richard Francis told Bloomberg, adding that the affected products are older medications and the company will curb the number of new generics it develops.
On May 10, Mr. Francis called the plan "a new chapter."
Teva's plan to trim its drug production outputs coincides with a 10-year high of the most ongoing drug shortages and two U.S.-based drugmakers shutting down.
"I find it hard to believe that these actions won't result in worsened or new shortages," Erin Fox, PharmD, associate chief pharmacy officer for shared services at Salt Lake City-based University of Utah Health, tweeted in response to the news.