Teva CFS Book English

Nati Aharonov, who managed Teva’s penetration to the American market 50 T he Kfar Saba plant was the flagship plant that supported Teva’s penetration to the U.S. market. Since 2004 and especially since 2006, the plant entered a period where one launch followed another (see a breakdown of the launches in the table on page 53). These were huge scale launches, some of which were carried out in conditions of uncertainty and were called “risky launches”. Menny Meirom, who was the Plant Manager from 2008 recounts: “We called ourselves the elite launch forces. There’s always a way to improve in the day to day, but before the launch the entire plant was on high alert and every employee worked like a Swiss watch”. Exclusivity’s window of opportunity Teva was smart to take advantage of the window of opportunity that enabled it the exclusivity period for the company that was first to submit the product for approval. Half a year of exclusivity is a rare business opportunity and therefore the pharmaceutical companies tended to hire people to spend the night hanging around the FDA offices to submit the drug for approval first thing in the morning. There wasn’t a lot of time to prepare for such launches and they were always accompanied by interesting stories. Risky launches - code names and black bags Nati Aharonov, who managed Teva’s penetration to the American market, recounts: “In those years we carried out a lot of risky launches, meaning products whose court decisions regarding their patents were still pending. To meet the challenge that risky launches entail - to protect confidentiality so as not to receive an injunction before the launch - an entire “battle legacy” developed at Teva Kfar Saba. It included giving code names to products and maintaining a heavy cloak of secrecy with few confidants both inside and outside the company. The plant tended to schedule risky launches before long weekends in the U.S. so that by the time the innovator clues in that the launch happened, the product would already be on the market. Menny Meirom remembers: “For one of the launches, we organized in advance goods for half a year, 2-3 times the standard amount. We informed customers that they would receive an appealing product and we didn't A miracle-making plant Between 2006 and 2010, the plant in Kfar Saba reached new records not only in production, but also in successfully meeting the challenges that the series of complex launches posed, which required sophistication, creativity, and team work. Raw material dispensing Production using the Pellets technology Preparing the capsules Capsules with the pellets manufactured with the extended release pellets technology The production process for the first batch of Venlafaxine - Starting with raw material dispensing and ending with loading the goods on the trucks in the warehouse, on the way to the planes