The Jerusalem Post

Benny Landa: There’s nothing left of Teva in Israel

- • By GALI WEINREB

Benny Landa, one of Israel’s most experience­d and successful technology entreprene­urs, is also one of the largest individual shareholde­rs in Teva Pharmaceut­ical Industries Ltd. He has been highly critical of Teva’s board of directors in the past, and now he seems pessimisti­c about the company’s future.

Asked whether Teva is at risk of being taken over by a foreign company and losing its independen­ce, Landa said: “What does it matter now who Teva’s owners are? In any case the company is held by non-Israelis. There’s only one thing that matters, and that is the extent of employment in Israel.”

Globes:

It looks as though the fact that Teva is an Israeli company led it to keep plants going here that were not competitiv­e.

“That can’t last. If a generics facility is not competitiv­e, then in the end it will be closed. That’s why I always said that being based on generics was not the right way forward for Teva, and that it should strengthen its innovative arm. Unfortunat­ely, that proved correct.”

If so, it’s the end of the story. Teva broke up its innovative division.

“Yes. It’s all over. There’s nothing left. Or to be more exact, there are remnants left. But like the majority of the investors, the management is also overseas. Only public relations

Landa:

and human resources are left at the head office in Israel. Under [CEO Kare] Schultz’s organizati­onal structure, research and developmen­t will be transferre­d to an administra­tion that came from Actavis and is based in the US. Marketing is in the US; logistics are in the US. The innovative R&D that was managed by Michael Hayden from Israel has basically been terminated.”

In the past you supported spinning off the innovative division into a separate company. Schultz chose not to do that.

“On the face of it, it would seem that it would have been possible to sell the innovative division for a higher sum as a going concern, as a functionin­g division, and to let it remain in Israel. That’s what I would have done in Schultz’s place, but my motives are different from his, because I’m a Zionist.

“He came only to raise the share price, and he doesn’t have time for long-term investment. On the other hand, you can’t blame him. He didn’t create this situation; he’s only dealing with it. They presented him with a company on the verge of insolvency.”

Throughout our conversati­on, Landa did not cease to express deep sorrow at the what had happened, and he concluded by saying: “If it had happened because of a terrible earthquake, then it would have been a natural disaster. But no, people did this.” (Globes/TNS)

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