Robert L. Parkinson
Analyst · Deutsche Bank
Thanks, Bob. Let me end our prepared comments this morning with a brief update on the anticipated spinoff of our biopharmaceuticals business. Our organization has been fully engaged in separation activity since the announcement that we made last March, and we're energized by the prospects of separating Baxter into 2 leading global health care companies, one focused on developing and marketing innovative biopharmaceuticals and the other on life-saving medical products. This decision supports Baxter's evolution and underscores our commitment to ensuring long-term strategic priorities remain aligned with shareholders' best interest, while creating value for patients, health care providers and other key stakeholders. The 2 businesses operate in distinct markets with corresponding underlying fundamentals and each possesses unique and compelling growth prospects, investment requirements and risk profiles. The spinoff will create 2 well-capitalized, independent companies with strong balance sheets, investment-grade profiles and disciplined approaches to capital allocation. The spin will also provide greater management focus, the ability to more effectively commercialize new and existing product offerings to drive innovation and enhance our flexibility to pursue respective growth and investment strategies. This will result in revenue acceleration, improved profitability and enhanced returns for shareholders. During 2014, we named our senior leadership teams for both companies, established the international and commercial structures for both organizations, formally unveiled Baxalta Incorporated as the name of the new publicly traded biopharmaceutical company and filed a preliminary Form-10 with the SEC for Baxalta. While we continue to work through the complexities, this process is unfolding in line with our expectations, and we continue on track toward a mid-2015 completion. We recently announced that we'll be hosting an investor conference in New York City on the afternoon of May 18 for Baxter International and on the morning of May 19 for Baxalta Incorporated. At these conferences, we'll introduce you to the new senior management teams and provide investors with more information regarding the strategies, growth prospects, capital structure and financial outlooks for each company. We'll also engage in a comprehensive Investor Relations effort, including investor road shows for both companies with their respective senior management teams several weeks before the spinoff is completed. In closing, while 2015 will be a challenging year, momentum in the core business is building and we remain excited about our future prospects, and we're poised for improved performance in 2016 and beyond. As we chart distinct and unique paths forward as separate global health care leaders, we look forward to unlocking value for shareholders, partners, employees and the patients and health care providers that we serve. As always, I'll be happy to take any questions on these or other topics during the Q&A. So with that, I'd now like to open up the call to your questions, if we might.