Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, a world's leading generic pharmaceutical company headquartered in Israel, has reported strong performance during the first quarter ended March 2008. The company's net profit increased by 55 per cent to US 529 million from $342 million in the corresponding period of last year. Its net sales increased by 24 per cent to $2,572 million from $2,080 million. Its adjusted diluted earnings per share increased by 52 per cent to $0.64 from $0.42 in the last period.

Shlomo Yanai, Teva's president and chief executive officer, commented, "The year is off to a strong start for Teva across all of our major businesses. It was a particularly outstanding quarter for Copaxone, which crossed the $500 million mark in in-market quarterly sales and became, for the first time, the number one global MS therapy".

Yanai continued, "We have already made great progress in implementing our new strategy. During the first quarter, we significantly increased investments in R&D and operations in order to support our growth plans; closed the acquisition of CoGenesys; and signed an agreement to acquire Bentley Pharmaceuticals in Spain, one of the fastest-growing generic pharmaceutical markets in Europe--an important region in Teva's strategic plan".

Pharmaceutical sales in North America improved by 28 per cent to $1,368 million its sales benefited primarily from sales of generic versions of Protonix Lotrel which were launched in 2007, the launch of generic version of Fosamax (alendronate) in the first quarter of 2008 and strong sales of Copaxone.

As of April 30, 2008, Teva had 155 product applications awaiting final FDA approval, including 44 tentative approvals. Collectively, the brand products covered by these applications had annual US sales of approximately $98 billion. Of these, 88 were "Paragraph IV" applications challenging patents of branded products. Teva believes it is the first to file on 49 of the 88 applications relating to products with annual US sales exceeding $38 billion.

Pharmaceutical sales in Europe (including Copaxone) in the first quarter of 2008, which accounted for 26 per cent of net sales, totaled $667 million, up 18 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2007. The increase in sales is attributable primarily to strong generic sales in Germany, France, Poland and Italy, as well as increased sales of Copaxone and Azilect. During the first quarter of 2008, Teva received in Europe 239 generic approvals relating to 52 compounds in 98 formulations, including 1 EMEA approval which applies to all EU member states. In addition, as of March 31, 2008, Teva had approximately 2,899 marketing authorization applications pending approval in 30 European countries, relating to 146 compounds in 289 formulations, including 1 pending application with the EMEA.