Teva to sell its remaining women health biz assets for $1.38bn

Teva, the Isreali drug giant, announced plans to sell the remaining assets in its specialty women’s health business for $1.38 billion in two separate deals. The move is for the drug maker to pay down debt, combined with the $1.1 billion it received from the recent sale of its Paragard IUD asset announced last week.

Teva announced to sell its assets in women’s health business in two seperate deals.

Teva said that CVC Capital Partners Fund VI will pay $703 million in cash for a portfolio in Teva's global women´s health business including contraception, fertility, menopause and osteoporosis products. Net sales of these products in 2016 amounted to $258 million.

Teva will also sell its Plan B One-Step and emergency contraception brands to Foundation Consumer Healthcare for $675 million. Combined annual net sales of these products were $140 million last year.

"Today´s announcement, coupled with the recent announcement of the sale of Paragard for $1.1 billion, demonstrate Teva´s commitment to delivering on our promise to generate net proceeds of at least $2 billion" from the divestitures, said Yitzhak Peterburg, interim chief executive. "With these initial divestitures we have exceeded expectations."

Teva, which named new CEO Kare Schultz last week, faces large debt from a $40 billion acquisition of Allergan’s generics business in 2015. The stock has lost half its value, as investors wait for Teva to come up with a plan to address challenges, including pricing pressures for its U.S. generic drug business.

Teva also failed to protect its best-selling, branded multiple-sclerosis drug Copaxone by losing a patent-infringement case in February. The competition comes from drug manufacturers who will make lower-cost, chemically-equivalent generic versions to sell.