Brazil and China are the next target markets for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) as it expands geographically, the generic drugs giant's CEO Jeremy Levin declared yesterday at a conference held by investment house Canaccord Genuity.

"We look to expand our geographic footprint where we feel that there are markets that we're not present in," said Levin, "And you should know we're not present in places like Brazil in any meaningful way. We're not present yet in the large expanding markets of China in any meaningful way."

Levin said that Teva was looking for acquisitions or strategic alliances in these markets, but added, "I am not looking to do large acquisitions to penetrate these marketplaces. What I'm looking for is to find the right partners to work for." He stressed that "the old strategy of acquiring topline is no longer our strategy… we look to improve our portfolio of medicines."

Levin mentioned the importance of the strategic alliance with Procter and Gamble in non-prescription, over-the-counter drugs. "That alliance is about a $1.4 billion alliance at this stage. It's growing exceptionally well," he said.

Dr. Michael R. Hayden, President Global Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer at Teva, also spoke at the conference. Hayden elaborated on Teva's NTE (new therapeutic entities) activity, that is, combining existing drugs to meet new needs. He said that the activity was in various areas, among them the HIV virus, pain treatment, and neuropsychiatry. "It's important to think about NTEs like Phase 3 drugs," he said.

Hayden promised that Teva would provide clearer information about NTE in the coming months. "We commit to becoming much, much more transparent around our NTE business," he said, "but just to give you some flavor today, we have and we told the Street that we would have, between 10 and 15 NTEs. We're already at eight. And I suspect that we will probably get to 13 or 14 this year. So we are meeting all the targets."

In the conference call after the release of Teva's latest quarterly financials, Levin said that the potential for NTE drugs was around $1 billion annually.

Teva is traded in New York and Tel Aviv with a market cap of $33.7 billion.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 15, 2013

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