Mylan CEO: Generics Are Backbone of our Health-Care System

Global pharmaceutical company Mylan N.V.  announced a $7.2 billion deal to acquire Meda. CEO Heather Bresch talked with FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo about the significance of the deal and the company’s efforts to boost growth globally.

“Meda is a very strategic, complimentary asset and has even become more so since the last time we approached the company back in 2014.  Since then they acquired Rottapharm, we acquired Abbott, established products in Europe,” said Bresch.

“So, today the Meda combination really builds out, completes Europe, we both have the GX, RX, over the counter, takes us into emergingmarkets, 16 new countries that we did not currently have commercial infrastructure in.”

Bresch continued to explain the deal’s importance globally.

“I think you see this, the macro health-care industry, the global competitiveness has never been more important from a cost perspective, infrastructure perspective.”

Bresch also addressed the company’s growthstrategy.

“I think we look at Mylan and say we’re very fortunate, because we have been based on fundamentals for over eight years, we’ve delivered 26% CAGR through 2016. So, we have talked about this before, we have been building for the long term, but not losing sight of strong earnings growth year-over-year.”

The importance of generics for global growth was another topic the Mylan CEO wanted to talk about.

“If you look here in the United States, generics have become the backbone of our health-care system and as we look around the world we see that continuing to happen.  Utilization in Europe continues to slowly tick up, utilization in Japan, utilization in Australia, the emerging markets.”

“Sometimes your timing can be good, or can be bad, I think in this instance the timing is very good because we have little exposure to those markets today.  We are going to be able to build in a very measured way.”