US woes lead Teva to a further US$11bn charge

Teva has registered a goodwill impairment of US$11.0 billion for the fourth quarter of 2017, “mainly related to our US generics reporting unit”, following continued “challenging market dynamics” in the region. The impairment comes on top of a US$6.1 billion goodwill impairment in the second quarter of 2017 (Generics bulletin, 11 August 2017, page 1), resulting in a US$17.1 billion total goodwill impairment for 2017. As a result, the company reported an annual US$17.5 billion operating loss on sales up by 2% to US$22.4 billion.