Teva Pharm Q2 profit falls less than expected

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries reported a smaller-than-expected drop in second-quarter profit on Wednesday and said its chief financial officer was leaving the company.

The world’s largest generic drugmaker earned 60¢ per diluted share excluding onetime items in the April-June quarter, down from 78¢ a year earlier.

Revenue fell 8% to $4.34 billion mainly due to generic competition to its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone and lower revenues from cholesterol treatment Treanda.

Analysts had forecast Teva would earn 57¢ a share ex-items on revenue of $4.25b., according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv.

“We are on track to achieve the targets of our two-year restructuring plan, and based on our good results for the first half of the year, we are reaffirming our full-year guidance,” chief executive Kare Schultz said.

For 2019, the company had forecast adjusted EPS of $2.20-$2.50 and revenue of $17.0b.-$17.4b. Analysts are forecasting EPS of $2.37 on revenue of $17.14b.

Teva said Michael McClellan had decided to step down as CFO due to personal reasons requiring him to be located near his family. Teva has begun a search for a new CFO and McClellan is expected to remain in his role until after the group’s third quarter results.

Teva had legal settlements and loss contingencies of $646m. in the quarter. These mainly related to an $85m. settlement paid in litigation brought by the Oklahoma attorney-general and an estimated provision made for certain other opioid cases they may settle in the future.

Also Elbit Systems said on Wednesday it won an $80m. contract to upgrade tanks and supply radio systems to an unnamed Southeast Asian army. The contract will be performed over 32 months.

Elbit said it will supply fire control systems and electric gun and turret drive systems for tanks and advanced radio systems from the E-LynX family in several configurations, including hand-held and manpacked radios for infantry soldiers and vehicular radios for armored fighting vehicles.