The Israeli firm aiding the NHS and IDF
An Israeli pharmaceutical company that operates at the heart of the NHS has been aiding the Israeli military during its genocide in Gaza.
Teva, one of the world’s largest drugs producers, supplies around 14% of the prescribed medicine packs given out in the UK every year.
The company’s products are widely sold to UK pharmacies, and include antibiotics, pain relievers and cholesterol reducers.
Based in Tel Aviv but with several sites in Britain, Teva specialises in treatments for disorders of the central nervous system, migraine, respiratory conditions and cancer.
Declassified has found the company also has a close relationship to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Supporting combat soldiers
Several hundred Teva employees in Israel – amounting to at least 10% of its workforce there – were called up for reserve army duty after the Hamas attacks of 7 October.
One of those was Hadar Mama, the CEO of Teva’s logistics company in Israel who was reported to be “fighting in the Gaza Strip but still has his finger on the pulse of SLE”, Teva’s logistics arm.
“Hadar moves between three command posts: his family, which remained at home under the threat of missile attack, SLE**,** and his army position”, the Jerusalem Post reported in December 2023.
The paper added: “Between fighting in Gaza and resting on the base, Hadar finds time for virtual meetings with his management team, receives status updates, and makes key decisions”.
Mama was quoted as saying that “Our brigade also received deliveries of equipment collected by Teva workers for us”.
This may have been a reference to Teva’s collaboration with Israeli anti-poverty group Pitchon-Lev to collect “equipment” for IDF soldiers.
Collection points were established at Teva’s five sites across Israel, enabling employees to donate: around 1.5 tons of equipment – details of which are not specified – had been donated to the IDF by the end of October 2023.
‘Support the soul’
Teva has also partnered with Momentum, a non-profit group in Israel which helps Israeli combat soldiers address their mental health needs such as post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Teva’s ‘Support the Soul’ programme, launched in response to the 7 October attacks, supports the therapists treating the soldiers.
In a further collaboration the drugs firm has partnered with an organisation called Thank Israeli Soldiers (TIS), which is “dedicated to supporting IDF soldiers through partnerships with Israeli nonprofits”.
TIS has developed programmes “in coordination with the IDF” to support the mental or physical well-being of “the brave men and women who defend Israel”.
In June this year, TIS posted that “Teva has funded professional supervision for our facilitators, ensuring that they have a safe space to process and recharge”.
There are Boycott Teva campaigns in several countries including Britain.
Dr Tony O’Sullivan, co-chair of Keep Our NHS Public and a retired consultant paediatrician, told Declassified: “Israel stands accused of genocide, and it is wholly unacceptable for Britain to continue to contract with companies which are actively engaged in supporting the Israeli military campaign against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”
He added: “Teva is heavily involved in providing both specialist and generic pharmaceuticals to the NHS. The British government should urgently seek alternative providers of pharmaceuticals and actively disengage with this company at the earliest opportunity.”
‘Part of a war’
Three days after the 7 October attacks, Teva issued a statement saying it was “deeply saddened” by the attacks. It added: “As an Israeli company we condemn this appalling assault and Teva stands with Israel in this time of great loss and challenge”.
Perhaps in recognition of his company’s backing of the IDF, the company’s CEO, Richard Francis, said in late 2023: “Is there any other company in a country that could have been part of a war and still performed the way it did?”, referring to the company’s commercial success that year.
The firm’s links to the IDF are long standing. In past years Teva participated in the IDF’s ‘Adopt a Battalion’ programme, in which soldiers are given financial and mental health support.
In 2009 Teva was one of the Israeli companies recognised by the IDF as having an “exemplary” relationship with their reservist employees.
The company has high-level connections in Israel. Former CEO Shlomo Yanai, who was previously a major general in the Israeli military, was reportedly offered the directorship of spy agency Mossad by Benjamin Netanyahu in 2010, but turned it down.
Teva
Teva had global revenues of around $16bn in 2024, and says that around 200 million people around the world take one of its medicines every day.
The company has around 3,385 employees in Israel and is an important taxpayer to the Israeli government. In June last year, Teva and the Israel government settled years of unresolved tax litigation when the company agreed to pay $750m (£558m) in instalments during 2024-29.
Teva has also been hit by several controversies in recent years. In October last year the European Commission fined Teva 460m euros for improperly seeking to protect the patent for its multiple sclerosis drug and for disparaging a rival company’s development of a competing medicine.
In March 2023, then business secretary Kemi Badenoch visited a Teva site in Israel as she kicked off negotiations for a free trade agreement with Israel.
Teva also hosted then prime minister David Cameron, alongside prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at an event in Israel in 2014 celebrating a new collaboration between the company and the NHS.
In 2017, the government said the cost to the NHS of purchasing drugs from Teva was up to £500m a year. It estimated that some 100m prescription items for medicines used in England every year are estimated to come from companies based in Israel.
Teva operates several sites in the UK including at Runcorn in Cheshire, Larne in Northern Ireland, Harlow in Essex and Castleford, West Yorkshire.
Castleford is Teva UK’s head office and logistics centre while the company’s Runcorn site employs around 500 people working in quality assurance, manufacturing, and packaging. The firm’s Larne site focuses on research and development while its Harlow base promotes sales and marketing.
The company has numerous “collaborative working projects” with the NHS and states that it works with the health service at national, regional and local levels.
Teva claims that Britain’s use of its generic drugs — which contain the same ingredient as the original medicine brand — saves the NHS £2.4bn a year.
Alex Brummer, a former vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, hopes that Teva’s role in the NHS can divert attention away from Israel’s attacks on Gaza and its illegal occupation.
He wrote this June: “The high dependence of the NHS on Israeli ethical drugs is just one of the symbols of deepening economic relationship between the UK and Israel which with the passage of time has the power to overcome the focus of diplomacy on settlements and Gaza and to reset the dial around commercial relationships.”
Teva UK and Teva in Israel did not respond to a request for comment.