Buyers remorse or fraud? Teva and Mexican brothers slug it out over sour deal

Drug makers are constantly foraging for deals to bulk up their pipelines, but not all go according to plan.

Consider the nasty spat between Teva Pharmaceuticals and two Mexican brothers, Fernando and Leopoldo Espinosa. Over the past two weeks, they have filed dueling lawsuits after their $2.3 billion deal went sour and now both sides are blaming the other for the debris.

At issue was a move made last year by Teva, which is one of the world’s largest generic drug makers, to expand in Mexico by purchasing Rimsa, one of the country’s largest independent pharmaceutical manufacturers, from the Espinosa brothers. At the time, Teva hailed its acquisition, which closed last March, as a “significant platform for growth” in the second-largest market in Latin America.

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