With Allergan deal sealed, Teva turns its attention to branded M&A

After delays, divestments and plenty of fretting from shareholders, Teva’s $40.5 billion purchase of Allergan’s generics unit is finally complete. But the Israeli drugmaker can’t say the same for its quest for M&A.

Now that the deal, which closed on Tuesday, is in the rearview mirror, Teva is turning its attention to branded buys, CEO Erez Vigodman told Bloomberg.

Teva’s newly solidified spot at the top of the knockoffs heap “doesn’t mean we confine our business to just generics,” he said. “The strategy and vision are much broader.”

Specifically, the company will be eyeing “attractive specialty assets, or branded drug assets or pipeline assets” that fit in with the therapeutic areas it’s already tackling, including pain, neurodegenerative and respiratory, Vigodman told the news service.

Future pickups on the branded side will back up Copaxone, the blockbuster multiple sclerosis franchise that’s now facing generic competition from Sandoz and challenges to the IP protection on its patent-protected long-acting version.

And they’ll also re-energize investors, who are feeling less than enthusiastic after the year they spent fretting over delays and divestments since Teva originally announced the Allergan pact.

“It was not an easy year,” Vigodman said. “It took longer than expected, it exercised strong pressure on us. But we are ready to go now.”

Meanwhile, Allergan seems ready to wheel and deal with the new cash in its pocket. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported it could have its eye on Biogen, a company that’s also reportedly received acquisition interest from Merck.

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Special Reports: Top 20 generics companies by 2014 revenue - Teva - Allergan

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