In 2023, Teva made a pledge to bolster its innovative medicines portfolio without leaving behind its century-long legacy as a leading generics drugmaker. Now with its innovative drug franchise increasingly coming into its own, the Israeli drugmaker is eager to showcase itself as a formidable biopharma company.
To hear CEO Richard Francis tell it, “we are there,“ he said in an interview on the sidelines of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Give it 18 months and a few more data drops, and “we’ll be there in everyone’s eyes,” according to the CEO.
Francis was referring to the “biopharma identity“ that Teva is looking to step into. Under its ongoing "Pivot to Growth" strategy shift, the company is well on track to claim the title of “innovative biopharma company“ in 2027 before evolving further to become a “leading biopharma“ in 2030, Teva laid out in its Jan. 13 JPM presentation (PDF).
Based on “the fundamentals” that define a biopharma company—namely, an innovative pipeline and a portfolio driving “significant growth”—Teva meets the requirements to be considered an innovative drugmaker, Francis said. In fact, the company's JPM presentation contends that several facets of its business make Teva “more attractive” than other large biopharma companies.
To put it another way, “if they look like a biopharma company, act like a biopharma company, have the numbers of a biopharma company, have a pipeline of a biopharma company … then maybe they’re a biopharma company,” Francis mused.
One example the CEO listed was Teva’s Jan. 11 deal with Royalty Pharma. The exchange saw Royalty handing over up to $500 million to help along the development of Teva’s TEV-‘408 in vitiligo, with the first $75 million tranche funding a phase 2b study.
Royalty is known for helping fund promising assets in exchange for royalty commitments, but these deals typically occur closer to the regulatory finish line. The company has rarely inked such deals this early on in development, Francis said, suggesting that for a company whose entire purpose is to invest in biopharma, Royalty’s multimillion-dollar commitment to Teva's in-house asset speaks for itself.
Becoming an innovative biopharma company
Teva first broke from its prior reliance on generic medicines in the late 1990s with the launch of its multiple sclerosis med Copaxone. Today, the company’s innovative drug portfolio centers on migraine med Ajovy, long-acting schizophrenia med Uzedy and tardive dyskinesia treatment Austedo.
Each has posted significant gains since 2022, Teva noted in its presentation, with Austedo sales more than doubling over that timeframe, Uzedy becoming the “fastest-growing antipsychotic” in the market and Ajovy holding a leading position in certain markets, according to the company.
If all goes according to plan, Teva will add to its lineup of marketed new therapies yearly for the next five to seven years, save for the “odd gap” here and there, Francis said. It’s an “incredible” feat for a company of its size, he said. This year in particular may be when “people start to highlight that we have a really exciting, innovative portfolio in the market that’s growing rapidly.”
One major goalpost this year is the planned rollout of long-acting schizophrenia med olanzapine, which will join Uzedy to form a powerhouse long-acting franchise that could generate between $1.5 billion and $2 billion at peak, according to Teva. The company is already undergoing launch preparations after submitting its FDA approval bid last year, according to the presentation.
The other side of the “Pivot to Growth“ plan was to “go big” into biosimilars, the CEO said. The biosimilar market requires an understanding of the “very fragmented” U.S. healthcare system, Francis explained, but “I think we’ve cracked that.”
Teva plans to launch a handful of biosimilars nearly every year “for the foreseeable future,” according to Francis. By 2027, the company expects its biosimilar sales to reach $800 million, or about double its biosim sales haul from 2024.
Teva's “Pivot to Growth“ strategy isn’t nearly over yet, and neither are Francis’ internal goals for the company. To Francis, the ultimate measure of his success as a leader will be if he can leave the company better than he found it, beyond the metrics of revenue and valuation (although grown in these areas are certainly part of the plan, too).
When he joined, he was met with a team that was “demotivated” and “worked really hard just to stay afloat,” the CEO said.
“The biggest responsibility I felt was ‘I need to make sure that never happens again,’” he said. “I want them to be proud again.”