Why Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (ADR) Is Soaring

What happened

After announcing that it has officially filled its vacant CEO seat, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE: TEVA), a pharma company primarily focused on generic drugs, jumped 18% as of 1:45 p.m. EDT on Monday.

So what

Teva announced today that it has hired Kare Schultz as its new president and CEO. Schultz is an industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience who has held leading positions at pharma companies like Lundbeck and Novo Nordisk.

He will be taking over from Teva's current interim CEO, Dr. Yitzhak Peterburg, once his family officially relocates to Israel. Dr. Peterburg has held the top post since February, when Teva's former CEO, Erez Vigodman, left the company abruptly for undisclosed reasons.

Dr. Sol Barer, the chairman of Teva's board, offered up the following commentary on Schultz's hiring:

Now what

Before officially stepping aside, Peterburg shared the following commentary with investors:

That all sounds great, but there's no doubt that Schultz has a heck of a challenge in front of him to get this company back on track. During its last earnings release, Teva reported declining specialty revenue, a huge drop in margins, and falling profitability. In turn, it was forced to cut its guidance and slashed its dividend by 75% in order to preserve cash. When combined with its massive debt load, I continue to believe that the smart move is to keep far away from this troubled company.

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Brian Feroldi has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Novo Nordisk. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.