Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Pressure is mounting on local governments and public pharmacies to replace Teva products with alternatives not complicit in Israel’s occupation and genocide.

Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva is facing mounting pressure from Palestine solidarity groups across Europe. One of Israel’s largest drugs manufacturers and a major global producer of generic medicines, Teva has actively supported the genocide in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 and contributed to the erosion of Palestinian healthcare long before that, Giorgia Gusciglio, Europe Coordinator for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaigns at the Palestinian BDS National Committee, told People’s Health Dispatch.

Last year, as Gaza’s health services and workers faced near-total annihilation from Israeli attacks, Teva reported over USD 16.5 billion in revenue. Part of that revenue comes from the Palestinian market, where the company profits from the double standards imposed by the apartheid regime.

In contrast to Palestinian pharmaceutical producers, who face severe restrictions, prolonged import procedures, and arbitrary “dual-use” designations for essential components, Teva is free to market its products in the occupied territories, many times without adapting packaging or documentation. According to sources collected by BDS Italy, the company even sells medicines in boxes and with instruction leaflets not translated into Arabic.

The exploitation of pharmaceutical needs in occupied territories is not unique to Teva or the time since 2023. The 2012 report “Captive economy: The pharmaceutical industry and the Israeli occupation” concluded that “all Israeli pharmaceutical companies sell their products on the Palestinian market and profit from it, without paying any price for the occupation and its damage.”

A matter of Palestine solidarity and access to medicines

Beyond usurping the Palestinian market, Teva also holds an important share of Europe’s pharmaceutical landscape: not only through its large generics portfolio, but also through proprietary products for multiple sclerosis and cancer. The contradiction between Teva’s stated “commitment toward better health” and its well-documented complicity in war crimes has driven the growth of groups mobilizing to boycott and expose the company. As Gusciglio explains, these initiatives vary by country: in Ireland they have a strong trade union dimension, while in Belgium and Italy, they are primarily led by BDS chapters and activist networks. But the local campaigns still share the same goal – securing justice for Palestine.

A key moment in achieving that goal is reaching out to patients and medics. Throughout the genocide, BDS Italy has been working closely with the local collective Health Workers for Gaza (Sanitari per Gaza), achieving major milestones. According to activists who spoke with People’s Health Dispatch, one of their first actions under the Teva boycott campaign was to distribute leaflets in front of pharmacies to raise awareness among patients and pharmacists about the company’s role in the genocide. “All activists took responsibility for visiting a pharmacy, arranging meetings with the chemist, and trying to raise awareness about boycotting Teva products,” the activists explained. The same approach was extended to general practitioners and, by now, the understanding of Teva’s complicity has grown significantly among health professionals and patients alike, BDS Italy members said.

The campaign then moved to engage professional associations and pressure local governments to suspend purchases of Teva products in public pharmacies. Over recent months, several municipalities have responded, issuing guidance for pharmacies under their jurisdiction to seek alternatives. “Teva sells mostly generics, but there are also some drugs that it developed itself and are therefore not replaceable,” BDS Italy activists note. “It’s important to emphasize that we call for suspending purchases except in the case of medicines that are essential or cannot be substituted.”

The fact that some Teva products are not replaceable is often used as a misleading argument against the boycott. In reality, it points to systemic problems in the global pharmaceutical and patent system more than it identifies a concrete issue within the BDS call. One example of this is Copaxone, Teva’s multiple sclerosis treatment. Even Israel’s trusted ally, the European Union, called out the company’s attempts to shield itself from competition by artificially extending the drug’s patent protection. Through such actions, BDS Italy pointed out, Teva has likely inflated public health expenditures for multiple sclerosis drugs, with Copaxone alone costing about €500 million a year in 2022. Efforts to mobilize for alternatives to Teva’s products therefore represent a possible meeting point between Palestine solidarity and public pharma initiatives, opening the door to more just and accessible health systems.

Italian municipalities adopt guidance to replace Teva

“The first local administration to issue a recommendation to move away from Teva products was Sesto Fiorentino, near Florence,” BDS Italy activists noted. “They were soon attacked by the media, accused of antisemitism and mismanaging public funds. Some claimed that Teva drugs are cheaper, and that discouraging their purchase would raise costs for patients and the health system.”

Despite such attacks, an increasing number of municipalities have since joined the boycott call, including in Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Marche, and Trentino-Alto Adige. While many have urged public pharmacies to look for substitutes for Teva products, others have opted for different approaches.

In Rovereto, after a successful grassroots campaign, the local government asked pharmacies to display infographics informing customers that they have the right to choose safe, effective alternatives to Teva products.

While more municipalities in Italy are discussing similar moves, the global BDS campaign and the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) are considering support for municipalities wishing to introduce ethical public procurement in line with EU legislation as well as human rights standards. Meanwhile, campaigners in Europe are keeping up the pressure, turning to, among other things, Teva’s presence in hospital pharmacies and its attempts to whitewash its image through initiatives like the Humanizing Health Awards. Activists are also continuing their partnerships with health workers’ collectives, such as the Health Workers for Gaza fasting action held in Italy earlier this year, while expanding international networks.

Their campaigns might already be showing signs of success. While the company proudly reported its 2024 revenue, it was more restrained about the fact that it had also recorded net losses amounting to 1.4 billion dollars in the first nine months of the year alone. As BDS Italy noted, “Israel’s genocidal assault since October 2023 and its various consequences could be considered potential factors influencing these results.”

People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and to subscribe to People’s Health Dispatch, click here.

Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.