Israel's Teva Pharma appoints Lundbeck's Kare Schultz as CEO

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd named H Lundbeck A/S Chief Executive Kare Schultz as its new CEO and president on Monday, as it struggles with heavy debts and fierce competition for its generic drugs in the United States.

Israel-based Teva's shares, which plunged after the company issued poor second-quarter results last month, rose 8 percent in early trade in Tel Aviv.

Schultz will succeed Yitzhak Peterburg, who will continue as Teva's interim CEO until Schultz takes over.

Schultz had been widely seen as heir apparent at the world's largest diabetes drugmaker Novo Nordisk before stepping down in 2015 when Novo's former CEO said he would stay until 2019.

Schultz was appointed CEO of Denmark's Lundbeck in May 2015 shortly after the respected executive quit Novo and Lundbeck's share price has more than tripled since he took over and returned the company to profit by slimming costs.

Teva is facing accelerating price erosion in the United States and is saddled with more than $32 billion in debt, much of it stemming from financing the purchase of Allergan's generics business. Analysts and investors believe Teva paid too much for Actavis and that led to the resignation of CEO Erez Vigodman in February.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer, Stine Jacobsen, Ben Hirschler and Abinaya Vijayaraghavan)