Report: Teva may benefit from health-reform law

NEW YORK Teva Pharmaceutical Industries could get a lot of business thanks to the health-reform law, according to published reports.

Reuters quoted Teva CEO Shlomo Yanai as telling investors that the flood of newly insured people could bring up to 31 million new customers to the Israel-based company, the world’s largest generic drug maker.

In addition to allowing uninsured patients to obtain health insurance, the healthcare-reform bill created an abbreviated regulatory approval pathway for biosimilars. While the pathway isn’t what the generic drug industry wanted – it allows biotech drugs to have 12 years’ data exclusivity before the Food and Drug Administration can approve a biosimilar version, instead of the five years generics companies had hoped for – this also could be a boon for Teva thanks to the company’s sizeable biosimilars business. India-based Dr. Reddy’s Labs, Sandoz and Hospira also make biosimilars.