Finally...we have a mention of the Blaster in the Q&A...

Finally...we have a mention of the Blaster in the Q&A session.

EXTRACT AS FOLLOWS:


Operator:
And we have Ronny Gal from Sanford Bernstein on line with the question. Please go ahead.

Aaron Gal - Sanford Bernstein:
Good morning and thank you for taking my question. I have two, first regarding the generic business; I understand you’re now focusing more on profitability. Can you help us understand if this business is profitable today and how more profitable it is versus last year that is, if we think about the profitability of this business should we think about operating profit as 5%, it's 10%, it's 15%, just kind of like a ballpark figure how profitable that business is? And second to Michael; I have two questions, first regarding Mesoblast, I think they’ve released a press release yesterday, but with press release out saying that they were clear to conduct their Phase III trial, should we expect that trial to start soon and roughly how will they influence the cost of R&D. And second, there’s a new wave of methodological, biological compounds coming in. I was wondering how you saw the influence of those products on Treanda?

Eyal Desheh - Acting President and CEO:
Thank you. Dipankar, will you take the question on Europe please.

Dipankar Bhattacharjee - President, CEO, Generics Europe:
Yes. Thank you, Eyal. Thanks, Ronny. As far as the European business is concerned in terms of profitability for generic, the answer is very clearly yes. The business is a profitable business. There are some business units and countries which are obviously more profitable than others. We do extremely well in markets which are branded generics markets as far as markets which are more mature where the generics penetration is higher and most prescriptions are driven on an INN basis. We continue to remain focused on improving our profitability. Our strategy which we have been executing for the last year and half, we believe that the evidence that we see now is paying results. We continue to focus on profitable and sustainable business. We have selectively participated in tenders, but in most part where tenders are not profitable or sustainable, we have selected not to participate in them. And in terms of our market leadership we have continued to maintain our market leadership, and I believe the scale that the market leadership offers puts that at a competitive advantage to continue to improve our profitability from where it is. We have very clear goals set and we are delivering on those goals.

Aaron Gal - Sanford Bernstein:

Anything, can you give us some sort of quantification of this, so it's very hard from the outside to see that level of profit. It's a pretty big business on the revenue line, but we have no idea how much it contributes to Teva’s earning. Can you just give us a feel for it as mostly, as one of your competitors have decided to exit that market because it's not profitable enough; can you give us the feel?

Eyal Desheh - Acting President and CEO:
Yeah, I can give you. The operating margin of our generic business in Europe is approximately 15%.
Aaron Gal - Sanford Bernstein
Right. And where was it like a year ago since you’re improving your profitability. How is the timeline closing?

Eyal Desheh - Acting President and CEO:
Actually it grew when compared to last year.

Aaron Gal - Sanford Bernstein
All right. Thank you very much.

Michael Hayden - President, Global Research and Development, CSO:
Okay, Ronny, just in answer to your question, yes we’re delighted that the FDA has approved the IND for the -- essentially the self therapy for cardiac failure. This approval just came in. Essentially the trial is a Phase III trial with and importantly an interim analysis. The interim analysis will be done after about a 125 patients, and will help determine whether there is a reason to continue the trial, in other words particularly such that its efficacy has likely to be achieved in the broader Phase III trial. That is committed to the first phase of the trial, and we look forward to enrolling the first few patients in this trial in the very near future. I think the other question was on G-CSF, and we're going to be launching …

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3 points I make (in my opinion only):

(a) Teva are FULLY behind the P3 CHF trail..I expect rapid progress from here on. It makes you wonder what the delay was about. Maybe it had nothing to do about CHF and everything to do with ???. All I can remember is that Teva swooped on CEPH with MSB being a key reason AND IT ALL CHANGED in January 2012

(b) 125 person interim analysis : In my opinion, this will continue to make P3 CHF front and center for inflextion points IN THE MEDIUM term (subject to positive outcome). In this regard, I continue to be excited by the 3 years plus no MACE events in the higher dose cohort.The appointment of Dr E Rose on the MSB Board(April 13) is another vote of confidence for MSB's aspirations regarding the Cardio trials.


(c)There were at least 13 Analysts present at the Q& A session including; BOM Merrill Lynch; Cowen & Co ; JP Morgan ; Sanford Bernstein; BMO Capital Markets; CRT Capital Group; Buckingham research; Goldman Sachs; UBS; Citi Group; Morgan Stanley; Needham & Company; Piper Jaffray
(the only one currently covering MSB is Goldman Sachs).

I wounder how many of them would have been awrae of Revacsor beforehand and no doubt would be unaware of MSB's other upconing /potential P3 Applications, being pursued by the company in the coming 3-6 months ?

(d) As you note from Dr Haydens comments, FDA approval only came on the day before the earnings call - so TEVA have not had ample opportunity to explain to the 12 other analysts, the significant potential of P3 CHF (therefore I expect more emphasis Q4 earnings).

Also haven't had the chance to commend the Professor on the Osiris acquisition (1st to market advantage and what was my biggest fear around the strength of our patents).

I am elated with this last point...I would think Pharma (and their legal teams) would look at this as a crucial check mate type of action.

Anyway good luck and good weekend to all holders.
Please DYOR.