Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world’s biggest maker of generic drugs, announced an ambitious plan to reshape the company yesterday aimed at streamlining operations, cutting costs and improving profitability.

The Israel-based company also forecast 2013 sales and earnings below Wall Street expectations, and its shares fell 2 per cent in early trading.

Teva said it plans to discontinue certain research programmes, make targeted acquisitions to complement its core areas of expertise, and streamline functions ranging from ordering to inventory control.

It plans to cut $1.5 billion to $2 billion in costs, with most of those savings coming over the next three years and the rest over the following two years. The savings will come from every aspect of its business, Teva said.