Teva drops pursuit of Mylan to purchase Allergan’s generics business

Teva has announced the acquisition of the generics business of Allergan in a deal worth $40.5 billion (25.95 billion pounds).

The deal will see Teva become a top-ten ranked pharmaceutical company and will bring together two of the industry's largest portfolios of generic medicines. The move will be particularly beneficial to its US profile.

As a combined entity, Teva and Allergan Generics will have a commercial presence across 100 markets, including a top three leadership position in over 40 markets.

Erez Vigodman, president and chief executive officer of Teva, said: "Our respective portfolios of generic medicines and applications are highly complementary, providing Teva with high quality growth and earnings visibility, and the scale and resources to expand upon our specialty capabilities."

The agreement of this deal coincides with the withdrawal of Teva's offer to acquire fellow generic medicine manufacturer Mylan, which was rebuffed by Mylan on several occasions as being too low.

Mr Vigodman reiterated his stance that the merger would have been beneficial for both Teva and Mylan, while describing the Allergan deal as a "greater opportunity".