Bruce Downey is the former chairman and CEO of

Barr Pharmaceuticals Barr Pharmaceuticals was a global specialty and generic drug manufacturer with operations in 30 countries. Approximately 75% of the company's revenues were from the sale of generic drugs, including 18% of sales which were from the sale of oral co ...

(bought by

Teva Pharmaceuticals Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (also known as Teva Pharmaceuticals) is an Israeli multinational pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel. It specializes primarily in generic drugs, but other business interests include ...

) and in 2009 became a partner at New Spring Capital, a venture capital firm.

Career

Downey began his career in the Honors Program of the

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

. He later worked as a special litigation counsel at the

U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States. ...

and then became a partner at the law firm of Winston & Strawn. In January 1993, Downey was appointed president and chief operating officer of

. He became chairman and CEO in 1994 when Barr's founder Edwin A. Cohen stepped down. During Downey's tenure at Barr, the company grew revenue from $60 million to more than $2.5 billion and became the fourth largest global

generic drug A generic drug is a pharmaceutical drug that contains the same chemical substance as a drug that was originally protected by chemical patents. Generic drugs are allowed for sale after the patents on the original drugs expire. Because the active ch ...

company. In 2008, Barr Pharmaceuticals was acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical. Downey was named

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year The EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards previously Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards is an award sponsored by Ernst & Young in recognition of entrepreneurship. Founded in 1986 in Milwaukee as a single award, as of 2016 twenty-five pro ...

in 2009. Downey is a member of the board of directors for Cardinal Health and Momenta Pharmaceuticals. He also served as the chairman of the board of directors of the

Generic Pharmaceutical Association The Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM), Washington, D.C., is a trade association representing the manufacturers and distributors of generic prescription drugs, manufacturers and distributors of bulk pharmaceutical chemicals, and suppliers o ...

from 2006 to 2008.

Education

Downey received a bachelor's degree with honors from

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the 10 ...

Oxford, Ohio Oxford is a city in Butler County, Ohio, United States. The population was 23,035 at the 2020 census. A college town, Oxford was founded as a home for Miami University and lies in the southwestern portion of the state approximately northwest ...

. He then received a law degree from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

Moritz College of Law in 1973, where he was an editor of the Ohio State Law Journal and graduated

Order of the Coif The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of advocates, the serjeants-at-law, whose courtroom attire included a coif—a white lawn or silk skullcap, whi ...

References

Living people Miami University alumni Ohio State University Moritz College of Law alumni Year of birth missing (living people) People associated with Winston & Strawn {{US-business-bio-stub