Teva Pharm to cut 1,000 jobs worldwide

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries will be laying off an additional 1,000 employees around the globe, bringing the company’s total recent job cuts to 7,000, the firm announced on Thursday.

The company confirmed the new layoffs on Thursday afternoon, after releasing a disappointing second-quarter earnings report earlier in the day. In addition to completing the 7,000 job cuts, Teva declared its intentions to close 15 of its factories around the world by the end of 2018.

“Second-quarter results were lower than we anticipated due to the performance of our US generics business and the continued deterioration in Venezuela,” said Yitzhak Peterburg, interim president and CEO of Teva, in the second-quarter report. “These factors also led to a lowering of our outlook for the remainder of the year. All of us at Teva understand the frustration and disappointment of our shareholders in light of these results.”

While revenue rose 13% to $5.7 billion, the company reported an 18.4% drop in second-quarter earnings on Thursday – with earnings per share falling from $1.25 in the second quarter of 2016 to $1.02 in the second quarter of 2017. Teva also cut its interim dividend by 75% due to weaker prices in the US, according to Reuters.

“Given the current environment, we have had to take swift and decisive actions,” Peterburg said in the quarterly report. “We are focused on executing meaningful cost reductions, rationalizing our assets and maximizing their value, actively pursuing divestiture opportunities and strengthening our balance sheet. We will continue to take action to aggressively confront our challenges.”

Teva’s report on Thursday followed the Petah Tikva-based company’s announcement last week that it would be laying off some 350 Israeli employees at its Kfar Saba and Ramat Hovav facilities. The company is laying off these 350 employees in addition to the 7,000 global cuts currently under way, a spokeswoman for Teva confirmed.