After a multiyear effort to cut away roughly $3 billion in operational costs, Israeli drugmaker Teva could be expected to take a short break to its slice-and-dice efforts. Instead, Teva is keeping its foot on the gas pedal, and hundreds of Israeli manufacturing jobs are now in the chopping block.
Teva will cut 350 positions at its active pharmaceuticals ingredient (API) plant in Neot-Havav, Israel, as part of a "global optimization plan" to streamline site operations through February 2022, the drugmaker said Monday.
Those cuts won't be immediate, Teva said; instead, the company has agreed to eliminate those positions at the 2022 cut-off date. Teva pledged in a statement to offer "fair separation benefits, beyond those required by the law or collective agreements" to its employees.
A Teva spokeswoman indicated the plan was specific to the Neot-Havav plant and said the drugmaker planned to "streamline the site operations by implementing significant changes in production volumes, product lines, facilities and the number of employees needed to make the site efficient and sustainable."
RELATED: Teva's global cutback spree is done. Now, it's aiming to grow with Ajovy, Austedo
Teva's new round of streamlining efforts was announced in February, at the close of the drugmaker's multiyear, $3 billion restructuring project that eliminated around 13,000 positions globally.
As part of that effort, which launched in late 2017, Teva also shut down, sold or earmarked for disposal 23 manufacturing sites and shuttered 40 offices and laboratories.
That $3 billion scale-back plan was the centerpiece of Teva's new strategy under CEO Kåre Schultz, lured away from Lundbeck in November 2017 to help steer the ship after years of disastrous financial leadership.
Teva used the restructuring as part of its pivot away from the generics space, where global competition has forced down profits across the board, and toward its branded portfolio, including migraine med Ajovy and Huntington's therapy Austedo.
RELATED: Teva, Takeda offload generics, manufacturing plant to Nichi-Iko in Japanese venture reshuffle