Teva fleshes out restructuring plan; licenses Xenon pain drug for $376 million

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE: TEVA's new chief executive Jeremy Levin has outlined the company's strategy for the next five years at a briefing in New York, promising up to $2 billion in cost reductions, acquisitions and the divestment of non-core assets.

The Israel-based company, the workld's largest by sales in the generics sector, has set aside a $10 billion warchest for business development and to help fund the restructuring exercise, said Mr Levin in his first strategy presentation for Teva since taking over the helm in May.

The restructuring comes shortly after Teva said 2013 revenues will decline on 2012 levels as competition heats up for its biggest product, the multiple sclerosis (MS) blockbuster Copaxone (glatiramer acetate) which had sales of $2.94 billion in the first nine months of 2012 but is due to lose patent protection in 2015.