In its first reaction to the hostile takeover bid by Israeli generics giant Teva, the board of Dutch-based drugmaker Mylan has unanimously rejected the more than $40 billion offer.

After a comprehensive review conducted in consultation with its financial and legal advisors, the board said it had concluded the approach "did not meet any of the key criteria that would warrant Mylan departing from its successful and longstanding standalone strategy and consider engaging in discussions to sell the company."

In a letter sent on Apr. 27 to Teva CEO, Erez Vigodman, the Mylan board's executive Chairman, Robert J. Coury, said the board had "unanimously determined that Teva's proposal grossly undervalues Mylan, and would require Mylan's shareholders to accept what we believe are low-quality Teva shares in exchange for their high-quality Mylan shares."

In Coury's words, the transaction also "lacks industrial logic and carries significant global antitrust risk. We also believe," he added " that the proposal does not address the serious challenges of integrating two fundamentally different and conflicting cultures under a Teva board and leadership team with a poor record of delivering sustainable shareholder value. We believe that these challenges would make it very difficult to generate value from this combination for Mylan shareholders.

"Furthermore," the board chairman said, "the proposal contains nothing meaningful indicating why a combination with Teva would be in the best interest of Mylan's employees, patients, customers, communities and other stakeholders." In his view, the offer is "only a mere attempt by Teva to frustrate and distract Mylan from its business plan and strategy."