Dr. Jeremy Levin has resigned as president and chief executive officer of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. The board has named Eyal Desheh, Teva’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, to fill those roles on an interim basis, effective immediately, and has formed a committee that will promptly begin to search for a permanent successor.

Dr. Phillip Frost, Teva’s chairman, commented, “On behalf of the entire board of directors, I would like to thank Dr. Jeremy Levin for his meaningful contribution to Teva during the last two years. The board and management team are fully committed to the implementation of Teva’s strategy, including the development of new compounds, making strategic acquisitions, forming joint ventures and the planned acceleration of the company’s cost reduction program.”

“I have full confidence in the ability of Teva’s management and employees to achieve our goals and execute the strategy laid out for the company,” said Eyal Desheh, who has served at Teva for over 12 years, including the last five as chief financial officer. “My colleagues in Teva’s management and I will continue to drive execution and results in full collaboration with our board, for the benefit of our patients, shareholders, customers and employees.”

Rumors of Mr. Levin’s departure swirled in the past week, citing tensions between him and Dr. Frost. Teva wil lose some patent protection for its key drug, Copaxone, next year, and recently announced plans to lay off approximately 5,000 employees in order to achieve cost savings of $2 billion by 2017. The plan raised an uproar in Teva’s home country of Israel; an Israeli TV report indicated that the men differed over how to implement job cuts there.