On Monday September 11, it was announced that Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the largest maker of generic drugs in the world, had a new President and CEO – 30-year pharmaceutical and health care veteran, Kare Schultz, previously COO at Novo Nordisk and currently CEO and President at H. Lundbeck A/S in Denmark.

In February, Teva CEO, Erez Vigodman, left his position without an explanation, leaving the company without a Chief Executive Officer since that time. Following the announcement that Schultz would be the new President and CEO at Teva, shares jumped 21%.

Teva has faced some tough challenges, including a large debt from the 2015 purchase of Allergan’s generics business and their own challenges in the U.S. generic drug market. Sol Barer, board chairman at Teva, said he believes Schultz is the right leader for the job; someone who can position the company for long-term success because of his deep knowledge of the specialty and generic drug markets and intense insight into the global pharmaceutical industry.

Schultz will be the fourth CEO to take the helm at Teva in the last six years. Because of a turnaround at Lundbeck, which Schultz has been given credit for, that involved restructuring and other strategies to put Lundbeck back on a profitable track (in fact, Lundbeck is headed for an all-time high in terms of earnings and revenue), many feel he will be capable of turning the challenges Teva faces into positives, taking the company in a new direction.

Schultz will be based in Petah Tikva, Israel, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ headquarters.

REA JET has partnered with many big names in the pharmaceutical industry including Teva, Novartis, Roche, Merck, and more. For unrivaled pharma coders, rely on REA JET.