Teva aims to add $2.4B to respiratory franchise

As usual, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has big plans. It has stated that it wants to reach $31 billion in revenues by 2015. To do that, the Israeli drugmaker plans to grow not only in the generics sector--where it's already the biggest in the world--but in branded drugs. And it expects $2.4 billion of the new revenue to come from respiratory meds.

In an update on its respiratory-drug strategy, Teva says it's planning to submit 10 new products for U.S. and European approval over the next five years. Six of those 10, the company says, will be new branded meds. "One of the key pillars of Teva's long-term strategy is the expansion of our branded business, and our respiratory franchise will play an important role in this growth," Chief Executive Shlomo Yanai says in a statement.

Teva posted $13.9 billion in net sales last year and expects to bring in $16 billion this year. So, that means it needs $15 billion more to reach that 2015 goal; the $2.4 billion from respiratory meds amounts to about one-sixth of that. Obviously, it will have to beef up in other therapeutic areas. Indeed, the company recently snapped up Merck KGaA's women's health unit Theramex and talked up accelerated growth in that area.

- see the Teva release
- read the news from Reuters
- get the PharmaTimes coverage