Teva CFS Book English

78 When the plant became a sealed room - Formation under fire during the Gulf War In 1991 during the Gulf War, under the threat of chemical warfare, the plant employees got together for a different kind of chemical warfare, subsequent to an urgent tender to manufacture antibiotics (Erythromycin). The days turned into nights and the nights turned into days - home was...here! The machines worked around the clock and the world outside penetrated the plant, where you could meet even the plant managers, at all hours of the day or night. On Friday night there was a Kiddush and the Plant Manager at the time, Reuven Shapira, spent Shabbat at work, together with the employees. In order to stay sane, humor became a part of routine. During one of the meals, some of the employees initiated a “siren”, and the dining room cleared out in minutes. When the all-clear was sounded and the security situation in Israel returned to normal, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Sedural - mellow yellow at Kfar Saba In the mid eighties the plant manufactured a diuretic product called Sedural. Doron Asis, who has been working at Teva since 1984, recounts: “A lengthy and thorough preliminary preparation preceded the product’s production. Since the product contained a yellow powder that stained everything around it yellow - manufacturing took place in a specially-designated room outside the building. Before production, the contents of the room would be covered in nylon so that the color wouldn’t stain, but this precautionary measure wasn't enough... An employee that worked in Sedural production was given an extra set of clothes, underwear, soaps, and even... sheets for his bed at home!” Not long after, Sedural production moved from Kfar Saba to Rafa, and the “yellow” story became a thing of the past. The Syrup Department used to be an inseparable part of the OSD Plant. At its peak, the department had 50 people that worked on manufacturing every type of syrup to the local market, such as Acamol, Symphocal, and SMX Suspension for the American market. The department also manufactured all type of ointments and creams, such as eye ointments, Silverol, burn cream, and more. In 1998, the department was reduced to 14 workers and its work was moved to the Liquids Plant in Jerusalem. Did you know? * ◄ Rica Sasportas at the Resprin Forte syrup packaging department An especially sweet plant - the Dragée Department The Coatings Department used to be called the Dragée Department. Whoever used to crave chocolate during work could have gone to the Coatings Department and have a taste... “In the past, the department even got an order from one of the kibbutzim in the Sharon area, to coat almonds with chocolate”, recounts Emil Elmechali, who has been working at Teva since 1981 and started his career there at the Coating Department. In his day, the department was comprised of two areas: organic coating and dragée sugar coating. Five boilers of dragée coated the tablets like pearls and the work required a great deal of professionalism and skill and was a real work of art: “It was a profession with patents” attests Emil. “With silver coating, for example, if we would overheat it, the batch was destroyed in a second”. Two of the historical boilers can be seen, which we used between 1984 and 1998 to coat the diet pills with a silver coating. Emil Elmechali at work in the Coating Department ▲ ▲ Avshalom Shalev - was one of the Syrup Department managers The Iranian connection - the story of the Pergonal suitcases The low status of barren women in Islamic culture made Pergonal, the fertility drug that Ikapharm marketed, very much in demand among Iranian families. In 1977-1978 we were witness to Iranian families that came with suitcases stuffed with money - and left with suitcases stuffed with Pergonal... Eventually, Israel actually became the largest market in the world for Pergonal (per capita), due to the allocation of funds to boost the birth rate.