Britain's nursing union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), has ended its commercial partnership with Israeli drug company Teva UK. The RCN also removed Teva UK as a sponsor for a forthcoming event on migraine and headaches scheduled at the union’s London headquarters on 30 October 2026.
Carmel O’Boyle, chair of the RCN’s ruling council, confirmed the decision in a letter to Nurses for Palestine. She stated that further due diligence revealed a number of Teva Pharmaceuticals’ operations had been subject to legal sanction and public scrutiny, which were not aligned with RCNi and RCN values.
The RCN, which represents over 500,000 nurses in the UK, acted after receiving pressure from campaign groups Nurses for Palestine and UK Healthcare Petitions to Royal Colleges (UKHPRC). Teva UK is the British arm of Teva Pharmaceuticals, a global drug company and one of the NHS’s largest medicine suppliers.
Teva expressed disappointment at the RCN’s decision, stating that healthcare had been ���politicised.” The company has faced approximately £1bn in fines and other payments from the European Commission and US authorities over the past decade for issues including bribery, price-fixing, and abuse of market position.