Watch out, Big Pharma: A Teva-Mylan combo would remake the industry Top 10

Print 24 April 2015
Carly Helfand / FiercePharma

As of 2014, Teva ($TEVA) is in the No. 11 spot on the list of pharma's top revenue generators. But if it gets its way and lands a deal for rival generics maker Mylan ($MYL), just how much will it be moving up the charts?

A combined company would boast pro forma 2014 revenues tallying about $30 billion, the Israeli drugmaker said Tuesday with the announcement of its $40 billion bid. And that would land it solidly in the No. 8 spot, between British giants GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK)--which generated $37.96 billion last year--and AstraZeneca ($AZN), which hauled in $26.095 billion.

As a result, AstraZeneca would slide into the No. 9 slot, Bayer HealthCare into the No. 10 space, and current No. 10--Gilead Sciences ($GILD), vaulted recently by standout launches for its hep C stars Sovaldi and Harvoni--would have to kiss the top 10 goodbye. Of course, all of that could change in 2015; Gilead, with $24.47 billion last year, didn't come in far behind Bayer, which racked up $25.47 billion.

egardless, it would be quite the jump for Teva, which posted $20.27 billion in 2014--much of it on the back of lead product Copaxone, which as of last week has an FDA-approved knockoff in Sandoz and Momenta's ($MNTA) Glatopa. But it's one the company is eager to take. Combining Teva and Mylan "would transform the global generics space and leverage it to hold a unique leadership position in the pharmaceutical industry," CEO Erez Vigodman in a statement.

It's not the first time lately that pharma has seen its revenue ranks shaken up by a transaction. Thanks to a major M&A year last year--the largest in recent memory--the order could see some shuffling. After all, Bayer's not far behind AstraZeneca, and it last October sealed a deal for a Merck ($MRK) consumer health unit that churned out $2.2 billion in 2013 sales.

Additionally, newly beefed up Actavis ($ACT)--which as of March has folded in Allergan--predicts $23 billion in sales this year, and if that forecast holds up, it could take the spot behind Gilead--No. 12 if Teva makes its jump, and No. 11 if it doesn't.

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