Teva acquires Taiyo

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ: TEVA) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of effectively 100% of the outstanding shares of Taiyo Pharmaceutical Industry Co. Ltd. for $934 million in cash.

Taiyo is the third largest generics manufacturer in Japan with sales of approximately $530 million in 2010. Taiyo brings to Teva a portfolio of over 550 products and a strong presence in all major channels in the Japanese pharmaceutical market. Teva also gains access to Taiyo's strong R&D team, local regulatory expertise and a state of the art production facility. Following the acquisition, Teva expects to reach $1 billion in sales in Japan, ahead of its original 2015 target.

"This is an important milestone in executing Teva's long term strategic plan", said Shlomo Yanai, Teva's President and Chief Executive Officer. "The acquisition of Taiyo, along with Teva's existing Japanese business, assures that Teva will deliver on our strategic objective of becoming a leading player in Japan."

Japan is the second largest pharmaceutical market in the world, valued at $96 billion in 2010 with only a 23% rate of generic penetration. The Japanese government has expressed its intention to increase generic penetration to 30% by the end of 2012.