Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is an Israeli multinational pharmaceutical company that is designated a priority boycott target by the Palestinian BDS National Committee for its captive Palestinian market, its material support for the Israeli Occupational Forces, and a decades-long record of bribery, and price-fixing.
Roots in the settler-colonial project
Teva's founding chairman and CEO, Eli Hurvitz, enlisted in Israeli military forces in 1948 and served in the Sinai Campaign, Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, and First Lebanon War, rising from private to lieutenant colonel. Former Teva CEO Shlomo Yanai is a general in the Israeli military and headed its Planning Division; Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered Yanai the directorship of Mossad in 2010.
Gilly Fortuna, a former Teva vice president who also served as vice president of Rafael, Israel's state-owned weapons manufacturer.
The captive Palestinian market
Who Profits Research Center documents Teva, through its logistics subsidiaries Salomon, exploits Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory for commercial advantage.
As documented in its 2012 report Captive Economy: The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Israeli Occupation, Teva and its SLE subsidiary benefit from frictionless access to Palestinian markets, while Palestinian pharmaceutical producers face the full weight of apartheid with import burdens, checkpoints, and a prohibition on expanding the Gazan industry.
Active support for the IOF after October 2023
Three days after October 7, 2023, Teva issued a corporate statement declaring:
As an Israeli company we condemn this appalling assault and Teva stands with Israel in this time of great loss and challenge.
Teva Israel CEO Yossi Ofek stated publicly that Teva had been harnessed — since the beginning of the war — for the benefit of Israel, the wounded, the families of the evacuees and the security forces.
At least 10% of Teva's Israeli workforce were called up as IOF reservists. Hadar Mama, CEO of Teva's logistics arm SLE, continued managing the company while fighting in Gaza, described by the Jerusalem Post as "fighting in Gaza but still has his finger on the pulse of SLE" and quoted as confirming that "our brigade also received deliveries of equipment collected by Teva workers for us."
Teva established collection points at each of its five Israeli sites for equipment donations to the IOF, collecting 1.5 tons of material. It launched a "Care for the Soul" programme to train at least 200 mental health facilitators to treat IOF war criminals.
In 2009, the IOF formally recognised Teva as having an "exemplary" relationship with its reservist employees. The company participated in the IDF's "Adopt a Battalion" programme, in which Israeli companies provide financial and mental health support to military units.
Corruption and bribery
Teva's drug Copaxone has driven three separate corruption and antitrust settlements. In December 2016, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US Department of Justice fined Teva $519 million for bribing government officials in Russia, Ukraine, and Mexico
In October 2024, the US Department of Justice fined Teva $450 million for price-fixing and Medicare copay kickback scheme that raised the drug's price from about $17,000 to $73,000 a year. That same month, the European Commission fined Teva €462.6 million for patent misuse and disparagement.
Opioid fines $4.25 billion
In 2022, Teva reached an agreement with US states and localities to pay up to $4.25 billion over 13 years to resolve claims related to its role in the opioid epidemic in the US. States alleged Teva promoted its rapid-onset fentanyl products for use by non-cancer patients, overstated the benefits of opioids, downplayed addiction risks. In December 2023.
Sources:
- BDS Movement Guide to BDS Boycott & Pressure Corporate Priority Targeting
- BDS Movement Escalate BDS pressure against these major Israeli companies that made the 1948 Nakba possible
- DOJ Drug Maker Teva Pharmaceuticals Agrees to Pay $450M in False Claims Act Settlement to Resolve Kickback Allegations Relating to Copayments and Price Fixing
- European Commission Commission fines Teva €462.6 million over misuse of the patent system and disparagement
- ice טבע מקימה קרן חדשה: "טיפול בטראומה הלאומית"
- Market Screener Standing with Israel: Teva Statement Regarding the Attacks on Israel and Israeli Civilians
- REPILL Teva and the IDF
- SEC Teva Pharmaceutical Paying $519 Million to Settle FCPA Charges
- Teva טבע למען ישראל
- Texas Attorney General Opioids Maker Teva Agrees to $4.25 Billion Settlement
- The Jerusalem Post The Heros of Teva
- Times of Israel Teva CEO says production and distribution in Israel remain largely unaffected by war
- Who Profits Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
- Who Profits Salomon, Levin & Elstein (SLE)
- Who Profits Captive Economy: The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Israeli Occupation