Teva offices
Teva officesFlash90

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. will receive $50 million from former senior Teva executives, directors and board members as partial compensation for fines the Israeli pharmaceutical company was forced to pay for bribery charges to the US and Israel, according to Israeli business reports on Thursday.

In 2016, Teva admitted using bribery to promote sales of Copaxone, an immunomodulator medication used to treat multiple sclerosis, in Russia, Mexico, and Ukraine. The Israeli drug company was ultimately forced to pay over $500 million to the US on charges of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provision of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In 2018, Teva paid $22 million to Israel to avoid being charged by similar bribery violations in the same case.

A settlement was reached in a Tel Aviv court on Thursday for insurance companies of the Teva executives involved in the bribery to pay $50 million in compensation to shareholders in exchange for complete elimination of liability for any remaining lawsuits in the affair.

The settlement comes after several lawsuits against Teva executives from shareholders in the wake of the bribery payments. Teva established an independent claims committee which concluded that due to the low possibility of proving responsibility against individual executives, the lawsuit was unlikely to succeed and a settlement with Teva's insurer was preferable.

The settlement is pending on the approval of the Tel Aviv district court.