Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.’s new Chief Executive Officer Kare Schultz proved that when it comes to saving the struggling drugmaker, he’s ready to pull out all the stops.

Just six weeks into the job, he announced plans to slash 25 percent of the Israeli company’s 56,000-strong workforce, suspend dividends and forgo employee bonuses. The plans, which envision cutting costs by $3 billion in two years, surpassed even the most aggressive forecasts from analysts and sent shares surging the most on record in Tel Aviv.

"You can expect a simpler, leaner and more agile organization organized in a much more straightforward way," Schultz said on a conference call as he outlined how the world’s biggest generic drugmaker will reduce a debt burden that’s twice its market value. “In two years from now, it’s going to look good. If we do well, then in five years it’s going to look great.”