Hello and welcome to BD's second fiscal quarter 2015 earnings call. At the request of BD, today's call is being recorded. It will be available for replay through May 14, 2015 on the Investors page of the BD.com website or by phone at 800-585-8367 for domestic calls and area code 404-537-3406 for international calls, using confirmation number 21629817. I would like to inform all parties that your lines have been placed in a listen-only mode until the question-and-answer segment. Beginning today's call is Miss Monique Dolecki, Vice President of Investor Relations. Ms. Dolecki, you may begin. Monique N. Dolecki - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Thank you, Christy. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us to review our second fiscal quarter results. As we referenced in our press release, we are presenting a set of slides to accompany our remarks on this call. The presentation is posted on the Investor Relations page of our website at BD.com. During today's call we will make forward-looking statements, and it is possible that actual results could differ from our expectations. Factors that could cause such differences appear in our second fiscal quarter press release and in the MD&A sections of recent SEC filings. We will also discuss the non-GAAP financial measures with respect to our performance. A reconciliation to GAAP measures can be found in our press release and its related financial schedules and in the slides. A copy of the release including the financial schedules is posted on the BD.com website. Leading the call this morning is Vince Forlenza, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President. Also joining us are Chris Reidy, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Administration; Bill Kozy, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; Tom Polen, Executive Vice President of BD Medical; and Linda Tharby, Executive…

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. (Operator instructions). Thank you. Our first question is coming from David Lewis of Morgan Stanley. David Ryan Lewis - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Good morning. I was trying to -

Good morning, David. David Ryan Lewis - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: I'm just trying to slip in two quick ones here. I apologize. The first one, thanks for the earnings bridge you provided into 2016. They're just for clarity, I think, in light of some other competitive reports. If you think about fiscal 2016 and the bridge you provide, it kind of sticks you in sort of the mid-$8s, mid-$8 range for fiscal 2016. I just wondered if you comment on whether that's a reasonable range. And my second question is just digging in deeper, Vince, on CareFusion, you have two specific elements. You talked on the deal announcement about Pyxis and the tailwind of Pyxis. Can you talk about in light of the sequential change in growth rates, how you're thinking about that Pyxis tailwind across multiple quarters and any updated thoughts on the backlog? And then, on the Respiratory recall, are we still talking about NV and (30:21) ReVel? And maybe you could quantify perhaps the impact on revs or growth that that recall is having. Thank you very much. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Well, let's do the CareFusion side first. And what I would say, and then I'll ask Tom to comment is, we really don't have any change in our perspective on the growth rate around Pyxis. We see solid customer demand. We see a continued strong backlog. The thing was quite lumpy as we went through the transition in terms of ownership, but in terms of fundamental demand, I don't think we don't see any changes. Tom? Thomas Polen - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Hi, David. This is Tom Polen. Certainly on Pyxis, we still are at a record high in terms of the backlog itself. And I think as…

Thank you. Your next question is from Mike Weinstein of JPMorgan. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Good morning, Mike.

Can you hear me okay? Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: We can now. Thomas Polen - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Now we can, yeah, Mike.

Perfect. I'm sorry. So, I've got a long list of questions, but I'm going to try to narrow it down. So, let me start with the CareFusion portfolio. The ventilator business is giving you – or at least, the Respiratory business is giving you a little bit of a headache with the recall. But can you just talk more broadly how you're thinking about some of those assets, Respiratory and other, some of the lower margin consumable pieces within the CareFusion portfolio and whether those will stay with the company longer term? Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Sure, Mike. So as we previously said, we're going through a strategic review process with those businesses. We've actually tied that process into our normal strategic planning process now, which I think you're familiar with. It goes on basically during the summer and wraps up then. So we're working hard to get to a decision. We want to go through this and look at it both strategically and financially in terms of the value that we can create. And so we want to get to answers over the next few months. We do see some opportunities in those businesses so we want to be thoughtful about this, but we haven't made a decision yet.

Okay. It sounded like from the BD side that growth actually should get better in the second half of the fiscal year. Japan and the Biosciences business sound like it will start to improve off of what was, obviously, a very difficult quarter for that piece. The Latin American business sounded like it was going to get better, China sounded like it was going to get better. So are there any offsets that we should be aware of relative to what was basically a bunch of positive comments for the second half relative to the second quarter? Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: I don't think there's any significant negatives, Mike, that we're talking about. We do think that Mexico is going to get a little better. I think that, getting into a little bit more detail, that we're not expecting Brazil to get better. We expect that to be continued softness for the balance of the year. You're right about Japan coming back because we know that the funding has been released in Japan. So we're confident on that piece. And there was, coming back to China, we do expect that was really timing within the quarter and China's gonna grow around, what, 19% or so, Chris, if I remember, 18% to 19%? Christopher R. Reidy - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: So, yeah, I would say that's a pretty good picture. For the most part, most of those items that you talked about we contemplated in the last call and pointed towards. I think the only watch-out is still Brazil. We do expect that to rebound a little bit based on timing of orders, but, as you know, the economic environment there is still under a lot of pressure. So that's still a watch-out.

Okay. And then two more real quick for you, Chris. So, one, the accelerated paydown of some of the debt is positive and it looks like there's the opportunity for the debt load to reduce faster than what we were originally assuming, so could you talk about that? And then second, on the pro forma tax rate, I just want to push back a little bit. The BD's pro forma tax rate was basically running at 22% plus or minus. CareFusion's was coming down through a number of initiatives that they had. But even if we look backward and assume that their rate stayed where it was, you guys shouldn't be at 25% plus. You guys should be probably more in the 24% to 25% range before any tax strategies. So can you just talk a little bit about that and whether there's some conservatism there on the guidance? Thanks. Christopher R. Reidy - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Sure. So let me address that piece first. That's what I was implying. We gave guidance for the remainder of this year of 23% to 24%. And the point I made that next year they still are at 27% to 29% based on their own previous guidance. And so when you put the full weight of that in next year, you are in that range of 24% to 25%. So I didn't mean to imply we're over 25%, but it's a little bit up from the 2015 guidance that we gave of 23% to 24% just based on the weighting. But that brings you to the zone that you talked about. In terms of the paydown of the debt, this was in line with what our expectations were, as we described if you recall, in 8-K in November we talked about that. And what we were guiding to is committing to be being below 3 times leverage within a couple of years. And so the $650 million of paydown was right in line with that.

Okay. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Thanks, Mike.

Thank you. Your next question comes from David Roman of Goldman Sachs. David Harrison Roman - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Good morning. David Harrison Roman - Goldman Sachs & Co.: I wanted to start on the BD Diagnostics business, which showed very strong performance in the quarter, particularly in the U.S. And I was hoping you could go into just a little bit more details into the underlying drivers there and what we're seeing from some of the new product launches that you introduced a number of years ago, whether it's Veritor or BD MAX or something going on in the underlying business. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Sure. I'll turn it over to Linda Tharby. Linda Tharby - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Good morning, David. So yes, good strength in our business in the U.S. That was driven by our core blood culture business, so a number of placements there and increased share position and the pull-through on that. And also, as you noted on our flu business continued to gain share in both our Veritor platform, and then a strong early flu season, which we saw the tail on that in the second quarter.

Thank you. Your next question - Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: So, it was really core microbiology that drove it. Thank you, David.

Thank you. Your next question is from Brian Weinstein of William Blair. Brian D. Weinstein - William Blair & Co. LLC: Thanks for taking my question. Vince, you had mentioned some acceleration in spending for product registrations. Maybe Tom can speak a little bit to specific products that you're talking about, and does this change the timing of expected revenue synergies that might come from those products? Thank you. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Tom, you want to talk to that? Thomas Polen - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Yeah. Hey, Brian. This is Tom. We're specifically focused right now on – we've talked a lot about China, obviously being a high area of interest for us from a synergy perspective. And so, that's right now, the primary area that we're focused on registrations in. There are other geographies. So as we have shared in the past, we're looking at -- the revenue synergy opportunities being more in the 2017-plus window. And as you know, registrations in China typically can be up to a two-year process. And so, we don't see that changing, but we see us just getting a jump start on moving forward with what we've already shared. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Thanks, Brian.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Brandon Couillard of Jeffries.

Thank you. Good morning. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Good morning.

Quick one for Chris. In terms of the operating cash flow outlook for the year, are there any discrete cash outlays related to the acquisition to be aware of, either in the back half or as it relates to next year? Christopher R. Reidy - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: I wouldn't say anything specific to point to. Obviously, we have impacts of the cost that we're driving to get synergies, so that's obviously cash, but that's one of the reasons why we wanted to give some guidance on what the combined company was. And that would be about $2.1 billion on that NewCo basis for the remainder of the year. If you remember, we were at about $1.85 billion and about half of the CareFusion operating cash flow runs around $250 million or thereabout. So, on a combined basis, so nothing really to point to there.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Next question comes from Rick Wise of Stifel. Rick A. Wise - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Good morning, everybody. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Good morning. Christopher R. Reidy - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Good morning, Rick. Rick A. Wise - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Maybe just to start with a bigger picture question, Vince, for you, just reflecting again on the strategic rationale for CareFusion. I know it's early in the process, but, Vince, do you feel like you're seeing any early indications that putting CareFusion in Becton is having, just an impact on the kinds of conversations you're having with hospitals about your concept of continuum of care? I'm asking less about new business one, but is it changing conversations? Do you feel more optimistic that it's going to change your dialogue with these customers? Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Rick, absolutely. I had the opportunity to go out in the field, and I visited quite a few customers. In fact, we had a number of people from the management team out with CareFusion and BD sales reps. And I would say it is a – it's a very full and deep conversation around the process. It's not just about the product. It's about the integration of that product into the process and the IT components. And so, it's – it is a very different conversation with the management team at these hospitals. So I was very encouraged by the feedback that I got directly in person from these accounts. So, yeah, I would say so. I feel real good about it. Tom was out there with me. He was on a second team, and we hit quite a few large customers.

Thank you. Your next question is from Kristen Stewart of Deutsche Bank.

Hi. Thanks for taking the question. Just wanted to, I guess, talk through – I guess for clarification, I guess you mentioned that the U.S. benefited from – in the Diagnostic business a stronger flu season. Any way to quantify that from a broader top-line perspective? Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Yeah, I think the comment was really back about the previous quarter, not so much in this quarter. Very small in this quarter. I mean, we're talking like $3 million. So, negligible.

Thank you. Your next question is from Vijay Kumar of Evercore ISI.

Hey, guys. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Good morning.

Thanks for taking my question. So, Vince, I just want to go back to the earlier question on sort of having this breadth of product portfolio. I think in your prepared comments, you sort of touched upon it. And we certainly see consolidation being a team within the whole med supplies channel. Now, I'm just curious, do you feel like from an assets perspective, do you have the right mix of assets? Do you have the right breadth as you go after these larger accounts in a changing healthcare environment? Sort of, what are your longer term thoughts on the mix of assets? Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: So I think in terms of the medication management space, if you go back and look, and remember that chart we showed you about medication management being a $20 billion industry and the breadth that we have across that, I think we feel very good about that breadth. I would say what was new for me in the field was the excitement that combining BD and CareFusion was bringing, as the customers saw both the concept of Intelliport and CRISI added to what CareFusion already had. And so I think with that, we're in very good shape in terms of the portfolio. I think that we're also excited about the small pump from Cesar Medical (46:15). And including that in the portfolio, we see opportunity there. We do think that we will have to do more work in the long run as we think about expansion in emerging markets. And as Tom mentioned earlier, we've started the whole registration processes for the products that fixed. But we do believe over the long run, it's not so much an asset purchase as it is market development and it is strategic marketing to understand the needs in those areas and how we can drive that further. Tom, would that be consistent with your thinking? Thomas Polen - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Absolutely. I think one of the other things is maybe, Vijay, to answer your question around longer term is how we in the longer term leverage now the strength that we have in the hospital and begin to follow that into new care settings that are being driven by payer changes, right, as patients are moving into lower cost settings. So we think we have optionalities going forward that maybe we didn't have in the past. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Yeah, I think that's a great point. Thanks, Vijay.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Bill Quirk of Piper Jaffray. William R. Quirk - Piper Jaffray & Co: Great, thanks. Good morning, everybody. Christopher R. Reidy - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Morning, Bill. William R. Quirk - Piper Jaffray & Co: So, on microbiology, we certainly noticed a trend over the past couple of years where we're seeing a relatively dearth of new products coming out of the chemistry and the immunochemistry side of the market. On the other hand, we're seeing a lot of innovation coming out of microbiology, broadly speaking. So, can you comment a little bit on the drivers here for BD. And I guess, specifically, help us think about how sustainable this increase that you saw in the quarter is, maybe over the year and the next couple years. Thanks. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Yeah, I think Linda can talk to that. Linda Tharby - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Sure. So let me maybe handle the second part of the question first, which is the sustainability of the growth. So, certainly for the U.S. market, we have been seeing improvements in that platform broadly on our core blood culture business. bioMérieux had some issues in the front half. We see them coming out of that now in the back half. So, we will see some stabilization back to more normal market growth rates in the back half. But more broadly, for our microbiology business, we have been focused very much on improvements in our ID/AST platforms, and also in our lab automation. So, our KIESTRA platform now, we're very excited. We're really starting to see increased placements now in the U.S., which we'll start to see in the coming year. So, a lot of evolution in the core micro lab that BD is really driving. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Yeah. We're just getting started with KIESTRA in the U. S. We're just making our first placements. We think that we have a long way to go, as Linda was indicating, with lab automation there. As Linda also indicated, we have gained some share in that business because both some competitive difficulties, but some new products and new resins we've had out in the marketplace in blood culture. So we're performing very well in that core business, and, of course, on top of that then, we're looking to continue to drive BD MAX and get that menu done, but I think the business is doing a good job.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Larry Keusch of Raymond James. Lawrence S. Keusch - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Hi. Good morning. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Morning. Lawrence S. Keusch - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Wondering if you could just go back into the emerging markets growth, which is, you pointed out, was slower than we'd been seeing in the past. And I think you called out some timing of orders and some other things. But I'm wondering if you could kind of dive back into that and help us understand why those businesses, particularly China, comes back. And then, also, just so I understand, the gaining of the synergies, are you basically saying what's left over, the $40 million to $50 million that you get this year, what's left over from that out of the $250 million is ratable through fiscal 2018? Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Chris, why don't you start? Christopher R. Reidy - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Okay, let me start with that one. So the way I would talk about the synergies, if you think about the $250 million over a three and a half year period, kind of implies $70 million a year and about half of that – and half year would be $35 million. That's why we're saying we really got a little bit more than that from a ratable standpoint in the initial six months. But as we look out, we see that as more of a pull-forward, so the remainder of the next three years kind of gets you to that $250 million on a ratable basis. Moving to your other question, I think that what we were pointing to in the timing, particularly in an area like China, is…

Thank you. Your next question comes from Richard Newitter of Leerink Partners.

Hi. Thanks for taking the questions. Just a quick one on buybacks. Can you just remind us what and when you might resume buybacks? Christopher R. Reidy - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Sure. So we mentioned that we would be committed to paying down the debt, and so that's our first order of priority. And we're committed to getting under 3 times leverage in the next couple of years. That'll be the priority. So we don't envision any share buybacks during that period of time.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Doug Schenkel of Cowen & Company. Doug A. Schenkel - Cowen & Co. LLC: Hi. Good morning. I guess I have a question for each of you. Vince, in one of the opening lines to your prepared remarks, you indicated that CareFusion was performing largely in line with your expectations. Did you use that language specifically and solely because of the AVEA recall? And then, Tom, what's the criteria you're using to evaluate potential divestitures and what's the associated timeline? Chris, your comments on tax rate for fiscal 2016, just to be clear, that guidance is based on weighting of geographic exposure solely and doesn't seem to incorporate assumptions for further tax optimization efforts. And then, Linda, any update on Viper LT? It's been quiet on that front for a little while. Thanks. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: There you go. A good five-part question that you have. It's funny because when I read that line, I was wondering if somebody would ask me that question. But the answer is, yes, it was the AVEA recall that I was referring to specifically when I said that. So that's part number one. Part number two was around I think the timing in terms of the portfolio, if I remember correctly. What we're working on is a process that is integrated with our strategic planning process. So in terms of making the decisions, we said that process is going to continue through the summer. But we're looking to try to get to a real conclusion around that in that kind of timeframe. Christopher R. Reidy - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: And with regard to the tax issue, from the very beginning we were saying that tax optimization is something we would expect…

Thank you. Your next question comes from Derik De Bruin of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Hi. Good morning. I only... Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Good morning.

HHave a two-part question. So just thinking about the CareFusion organic revenue growth rate of the business going forward, I mean you're talking about exiting in your Q4, their first quarter, in that 3% to 5% range. Is that a sort of a good basis just to think about the long-term organic revenue growth rate characteristics of that business? Assuming we're not talking about the synergies coming from international sales, your base assumption for the core. Christopher R. Reidy - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Yeah, the way I would say that starts getting back into the range. We've been saying all along that we see it more as a kind of a 3.5% underlying organic. And I think that's about right. If you notice on my chart 15, we said for the pro forma fiscal year 2015, it was around 3%. But they had a particularly difficult compare in their fourth quarter, which we pointed to, of 5% to 7% down against a very significant quarter they had the prior year. So, if you normalize for that, it takes you up to that kind of 3.5%. So that's probably the way to be thinking about that going forward.

Thanks.

Thank you. Our final question is coming from Mark Massaro of Canaccord Genuity.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question. This will be a two-part question here. So, you guys called out good performance in Western Europe on BD MAX. Would be curious if you could describe the competitive environment in the U.S. and what you're seeing, and if that increased year-over-year in the United States. And then, secondly, on Veritor, could you update us maybe on your install base and thoughts on what the next gen Veritor will have that the existing platform does not have? Thanks. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Sure. Linda Tharby - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Okay, so on the MAX platform specific to the U.S., what we're seeing there is we have got – now we're seeing increased placements but leveled off in terms of quarters. And we're really working on the efficiency of that platform and the reliability of that platform, as well as the expanded menu. So we're encouraged by what we see in Western Europe. It's just going to take us time to get those assays through the FDA. So look for more to come towards the back half of 2016 and 2017 on that platform. And then the second part of the question is on the Veritor. We continue to see expanded share placements on that platform. I don't have the total number of placements now in the U.S. market. But continue to see expanded placements, particularly in physician offices and in the retail setting. The second generation, we're really going to be working on, as Tom mentioned earlier. As we see care shifting to new environments, it's really important for us on the interconnectivity of IT on those platforms. So that's what the next generation of Veritor will bring in 16. So total placements now on Veritor, just over 15,000 placements globally. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Okay, thank you for your questions. Any more questions? That's it. Okay. So thank you very much for being with us today. It was an exciting start to bring in these two companies together. As I mentioned in my remarks, we look forward to the future with a lot of confidence. We're excited about the solution that we have pulled together and look forward to talking to you about it as the year progresses. Thanks very much. Christopher R. Reidy - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Thanks, everyone.

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.