Britain’s nursing union has cut its ties with an Israeli drug company over the firm’s links to the country’s military and track record of corporate misconduct.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has axed Teva UK as a commercial partner and as sponsor of a forthcoming event on migraine and headaches at the union’s London headquarters.
Pro-Palestine groups who were pushing the RCN to drop Teva UK claimed the decision was “a major breakthrough for grassroots healthcare organising and the international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement” aimed at isolating Israel worldwide.
The RCN represents more than ۵۰۰,۰۰۰ nurses in the UK. Teva UK is the British arm of the global drug giant Teva Pharmaceuticals, which is one of the NHS’s biggest suppliers of medicines.
It acted after coming under pressure from campaign groups Nurses for Palestine and UK Healthcare Petitions to Royal Colleges (UKHPRC) to end its relationship with Teva UK.
Carmel O’Boyle, the chair of the RCN’s ruling council, confirmed the decision in a letter to Nurses for Palestine.
“Going forward [the] RCN is ending its commercial partnership with Teva UK. Teva UK will no longer be a sponsor of the RCNi nursing leadership summit: migraine and headache services event on ۳۰ October ۲۰۲۶. The event will go ahead as planned,” she said.
“We are taking this action because further due diligence showed that there are a number of Teva Pharmaceuticals’ operations, which have been the subject of legal sanction and public scrutiny, which are not in line with RCNi [the union’s publishing and education arm] and RCN values.
“We know how important it is that the RCN only enters commercial relationships with companies that represent the values of the nursing profession.”
Teva said it was “disappointed” at the RCN’s decision and that healthcare had been “politicised”.
Nurses for Palestine welcomed the move. “Teva has no place sponsoring professional bodies dedicated to healing, care and preserving human life,” a spokesperson said.
UKHPRC said: “It is unthinkable that in this day and age healthcare organisations continue to enter into commercial relationships with companies linked to sustaining state systems accused or found by international bodies to involve grave violations of international law, including crimes against humanity, apartheid and genocide.”
Pro-Palestine campaigners are now calling on the Royal College of Pharmacy to drop Teva UK as a sponsor of its annual conference next month and cancel the exhibition stand the firm has booked.
Teva has been ordered to pay about £۱bn in fines and other payments by the European Commission and US authorities over the last decade for bribery, price-fixing and abuse of its market position.
In ۲۰۲۴ the European Commission fined Teva €۴۶۲.۶m for blocking rival firms from competing with Copaxone, its treatment for multiple sclerosis, in seven European countries for between four and nine years.
In ۲۰۲۳ it agreed with the US Department of Justice to pay $۲۲۵m in fines as an alternative to prosecution after it was charged with fixing the price of three drugs.
And in ۲۰۱۶ it struck a deal with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Department of Justice to pay $۵۱۹m to settle civil and criminal charges involving its bribery of government officials in Russia, Ukraine and Mexico.
A Teva spokesperson said: “As one of the largest suppliers of medicines to the UK we have valued our longstanding partership with the RCN and the opportunity it has provided to support healthcare professionals and the patients they care for.
“We are disappointed by the RCN’s decision to end this relationship and are seeking further dialogue with the organisation. Healthcare is at its best when it remains focused on patients rather than being politicised.”
