Teva completes Cephalon purchase

Teva Pharmaceutical has acquired US-based biopharmaceutical company Cephalon for about $6.8bn following approval from the European Union (EU).

The EU had demanded that Teva sell off its generic version of Cephalon's narcolepsy drug, Provigil (modafinil), to enable another company to own a competitor product.

Cephalon is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Teva, with Cephalon to receive $81.50 per share of common stock.

Teva said the combined company is to have a presence in over 60 countries. As individual companies, the combined revenue of Teva and Cephalon for the period July 2010 to June 2011 was around $20bn.

Shlomo Yanai, president and CEO of Teva, said the purchase was part of the Israel-based company's attempt to build its branded pharmaceuticals business through diversification and expansion of its product portfolio and pipeline.