Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) said its fourth-quarter profit fell 37%, as weakness in its core generic-drug business contributed to an overall revenue decline of 7.5%. The Israel-based drug maker also said it plans to sell a plant in Irvine, Calif., that makes injectable drugs. The quarterly results fell just short of Wall Street expectations. Teva boosted its quarterly dividend by 15%. Teva has grown through a series of acquisitions to become the largest maker of generic drugs and has diversified into nongeneric businesses such as over-the-counter medicines and patent-protected, branded drugs. But the company’s new chief executive, Jeremy Levin, recently said Teva lost some of its focus, and its cost structure has become bloated. He has vowed to reshape the company, including a reduction in annual costs by up to $2 billion over five years, and measures to sharpen the focus of the company’s research-and-development pipeline. For the three months ended Dec. 31, Teva earned $320 million, or 37 cents a share, compared with $506 million, or 57 cents a share, a year earlier. The latest quarter included restructuring and other costs; excluding these, earnings would have been $1.32 per share, versus $1.59 a share a year earlier. Revenue declined to $5.25 billion from $5.68 billion a year earlier. Revenue declined to $5.25 billion from $5.68 billion a year earlier. Analysts expected Teva to earn $1.33 a share, excluding items, on revenue of $5.26 billion, for the fourth quarter, according to mean estimates from Thomson Reuters.
