Generic maker Teva Pharmaceutical posted higher quarterly results that included stronger sales of its branded multiple sclerosis treatment Copaxone.

The Israeli company will save “hundreds of millions of dollars” starting later this year after it ends royalty payments of 25% on U.S. sales of Copaxone that it has been making to Sanofi-Aventis, Teva’s CFO told Reuters. Sales of Copaxone, the top-selling MS therapy, rose 25% to $747 million in the quarter and to $2.8 billion for the year. (Generics remain its chief business but about 30% of Teva’s product mix is from branded drugs.)

The company reported a net profit of $379 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with a loss of $694 million, or 88 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales rose 33% to $3.8 billion.

The takeover of Barr, which it acquired in 2008 for about $7.5 billion, helped boost Teva’s sales total and the company remains on the acquisition prowl, especially outside the U.S. Teva is bidding for German generic maker Ratiopharm, competing with Pfizer, Swedish private equity firm EQT and Iceland’s Actavis.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

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