Healthcare Industry News: Teva Pharma
News Release - February 5, 2010
Teva Announces Settlement in Principle regarding Certain Drug Pricing Lawsuits
JERUSALEM--(HSMN NewsFeed)--Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA ) announced today that several of its subsidiaries in the United States reached a settlement in principle to resolve claims brought by Ven-A-Care of the Florida Keys, Inc. on behalf of the United States, Texas, Florida, and California under federal and state False Claims Acts.Together with many other pharmaceutical manufacturers, Teva is named in numerous civil lawsuits that relate to drug price reporting by manufacturers in about 15 states. The cases, which are pending in federal and state courts, generally allege that the prices reported by pharmaceutical companies caused governments to pay inflated reimbursements for drugs under Medicaid or other programs. Teva denies the allegations.
Upon execution of definitive settlement documents and certain government and court approvals, the settlement will resolve a lawsuit relating to federal contributions to all state Medicaid programs and claims of Texas, Florida, and California relating to their Medicaid programs. The settlement will eliminate the majority of the alleged damages asserted against Teva in the various drug pricing litigations.
Teva will record a charge of approximately $315 million in its fourth quarter, 2009 results. This charge includes both the settlement in principle and a reserve for the remaining drug pricing lawsuits to which Teva is a party.
About Teva
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., headquartered in Israel, is the world's leading generic pharmaceutical company and is among the top 15 pharmaceutical companies in the world. The Company develops, manufactures and markets generic and innovative human pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients, as well as animal health pharmaceutical products. Over 80 percent of Teva's sales are in North America and Europe.
Teva's Safe Harbor Statement under the U. S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
This release contains forward-looking statements, which express the current beliefs and expectations of management. Such statements are based on management's current beliefs and expectations and involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause our future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include risks relating to: our ability to successfully develop and commercialize additional pharmaceutical products, the introduction of competing generic equivalents, the extent to which we may obtain U.S. market exclusivity for certain of our new generic products and regulatory changes that may prevent us from utilizing exclusivity periods, potential liability for sales of generic products prior to a final resolution of outstanding patent litigation, including that relating to the generic versions of Neurontin®, Lotrel®, Protonix® and Eloxatin®, the current economic conditions, competition from brand-name companies that are under increased pressure to counter generic products, or competitors that seek to delay the introduction of generic products, the effects of competition on our innovative products, especially Copaxone® sales, including potential oral and generic competition for Copaxone®, dependence on the effectiveness of our patents and other protections for innovative products, the impact of consolidation of our distributors and customers, the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and pending legislation that could affect the pharmaceutical industry, our ability to achieve expected results though our innovative R&D efforts, the difficulty of predicting U.S. Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency and other regulatory authority approvals, the uncertainty surrounding the legislative and regulatory pathway for the registration and approval of biotechnology-based products, the regulatory environment and changes in the health policies and structures of various countries, supply interruptions or delays that could result from the complex manufacturing of our products and our global supply chain, our ability to successfully identify, consummate and integrate acquisitions, the potential exposure to product liability claims to the extent not covered by insurance, our exposure to fluctuations in currency, exchange and interest rates, significant operations worldwide that may be adversely affected by terrorism, political or economical instability or major hostilities, our ability to enter into patent litigation settlements and the intensified scrutiny by the U.S. government, the termination or expiration of governmental programs and tax benefits, impairment of intangible assets and goodwill, environmental risks, and other factors that are discussed in this report and in our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC").
Source: Teva Pharmaceutical
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