3 November 2011 - The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (TLV:TEVA) said today they had formed a new Geneva-based JV, named PGT Healthcare and focused on development and marketing of branded over-the-counter (OTC) medicines in all markets outside North America and new brands for the North American market.

PGT Healthcare is expected to achieve double-digit sales growth and hit USD4bn (EUR2.9bn) in sales at the end of the decade, the partners said in a statement. The JV starts with annual sales standing at USD1.3bn.

In relation to the establishment of the venture, P&G has sold its OTC plants in Greensboro, North Carolina and Phoenix, Arizona and transferred the employees of both plants to Teva as it will be the manufacturer of PGT Healthcare business and P&G's North American OTC business.

The new entity will combine each company's complementary and OTC medicines and is to create "the broadest and deepest OTC product portfolios and geographic footprints in the industry," said Shlomo Yanai, Teva's president and CEO. The JV will expand the two partners OTC medicines portfolio into new categories. P&G will contribute with its media advertising and Teva will bring scale and efficiency to product development and manufacturing.

A supervisory board with representatives of the two companies will lead PGT Healthcare. Tom Finn, P&G's president of Global Health Care will be chairman of the board. The two companies current leaders, CEO Briain de Buitleir from P&G, and COO Eli Shani from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, will form the management team of the JV.