Embecta Corp. (EMBC) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Embecta Corp.'s Fiscal Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference call is being recorded, and a replay will be available on the company's website following the call. I would now like to turn the call over to your host today, Mr. Pravesh Khandelwal, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to embecta's fiscal second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. The press release and slides to accompany today's call, along with webcast replay details are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at www.embecta.com. With me today are Dev Kurdikar, embecta's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Jake Elguicze, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that some of the matters discussed in the conference call will contain forward-looking statements regarding future events as outlined in our slides, including those referenced on Slide 2 of today's conference call presentation. Such statements are, in fact, forward-looking in nature and are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual events or results may differ materially. The factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially include, but are not limited to, factors referenced in our press release today as well as our filings with the SEC, which can be accessed on our website. We do not intend to update or revise any forward-looking statements, including any charts, financial projections or other data referenced in this presentation, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. In addition, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures on this call, which should be considered a supplement to and not a substitute for financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measures is included in our press release and conference call presentation, which are also included in the Investors section of our website at embecta.com. Our agenda for today's call is as follows. Dev will begin with an assessment of the company's performance during the second quarter and associated financial guidance implications. We will also share the progress we have made on our strategic objectives and will discuss the expected imminent closing of the Owen Mumford acquisition. Jake will then take you through our second quarter financial results in more detail as well as our updated fiscal year 2026 guidance. Dev will then conclude with our updated approach to capital allocation, and we will open the call for questions. With that, I will now turn the call over to Dev.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I want to start the call by addressing our second quarter performance and full year guidance revision. This was a difficult quarter for embecta. Our results were below expectations with consolidated revenues down 14.4% year-over-year on an as-reported basis or 17.4% on an adjusted constant currency basis. As a result, we are updating our full year guidance to account for the underlying factors that impacted performance during the quarter and that we expect to persist for the remainder of the year. We have a number of initiatives underway already to counteract them as we transition from our roots as a spun-out insulin injection delivery company toward a more diversified broad-based medical supplies company. We are actively laying the foundation to one day serve patients beyond those solely with diabetes. Our strategic priorities, along with our recent acquisition of Owen Mumford, will help us get there. Turning to the second quarter. While our International business performed in line with our prior outlook, our U.S. business fell short of expectations due to a combination of factors that I'm going to take you through now. The largest contributor to the lower year-over-year U.S. revenue is share loss within our pen needle product category, most of which is concentrated at a single customer. We estimate that the remainder is spread across smaller regional and independent pharmacy customers. It is important to understand that the patients switching to competitive products are likely not on payer plans where we have preferred access. That means that the revenue impact of the switching is estimated to be greater than what is indicated by an average unit price. The second largest contributor is overall market volume softness for insulin pens and pen needles in the retail channel. We believe this contributes to most of the remaining pen needle revenue decline. And as it relates to the insulin pen market, we are seeing signs of decline in overall insulin pen prescriptions. This is driven by a decline in the retail channel, but is being partially mitigated by growth in the long-term care channel. We are also seeing volume softness in longstanding accounts where we have a stable share position. Additionally, more patients choosing to acquire pen needles from channels where we do not participate or where products are lower priced is driving additional pressure on retail pen needle volumes. The remaining pen needle decline is related to inventory reductions at certain accounts and additional net pricing pressure. Finally, a reduction in syringe and safety products revenue comprised the remainder of the overall U.S. revenue decline. As a result, we are revising our fiscal 2026 revenue guidance to a range of between $1.015 billion and $1.035 billion. This reflects both the U.S. revenue shortfall in the second quarter and our updated expectations in the U.S. for the remainder of the fiscal year. International is performing as expected, and our outlook there is unchanged. Additionally, the revised range includes approximately $30 million in revenue contribution from the acquisition of Owen Mumford, which is expected to close by the end of this month. This compares to our previous guidance range of between $1.071 billion and $1.093 billion. As a reminder, during our first quarter earnings conference call, we had commented that we expected to be closer to the lower end of that revenue guidance range. Excluding the anticipated 4-month contribution from Owen Mumford, our current organic revenue outlook at the midpoint is approximately $995 million or a reduction of approximately $75 million from the low end of our prior expectations. Pen needles account for approximately 70% of the $75 million revenue guidance reduction or approximately $53 million. Given that pen needle market volume estimates can be somewhat imprecise, it is not possible to exactly calculate the individual contributions of competitive share loss and market volume softness on our product volumes. Our estimate is that share loss accounts for nearly half of the pen needle revenue reduction or approximately $25 million, while overall market volume softness is estimated to account for approximately $20 million. The remaining pen needle headwinds we are seeing are related to inventory reductions at certain accounts and additional net pricing pressure, which together accounts for approximately $8 million of the revenue guidance reduction. Turning to syringes. They account for approximately $13 million of the remaining $22 million revenue guidance reduction, most of which stems from lower syringe use associated with compounded drugs. While our decision to discontinue our swab products accounts for approximately $5 million of the revenue guidance reduction. For context, in late 2025, our sole supplier of the active ingredient in our alcohol swabs exited the API manufacturing space. Despite extensive efforts, we were unable to qualify an alternate supplier under applicable FDA standards. And while we remain committed to supporting our customers and patients through this transition, we recently made the decision to cease production of alcohol swaps. This product line had lower gross margins than our insulin injection devices. Finally, a reduction in estimated growth of safety products accounts for the remaining amount of approximately $4 million. Our guidance assumes that share loss and softness in market volumes persist throughout the remainder of the year without any further deterioration or recovery. Taken together, these are the drivers behind our performance in the second quarter as well as the full year revenue guidance revision. Considering the magnitude of the guidance reduction, we have initiated a review of our cost structure and organizational footprint. We will communicate findings and resulting actions as part of our standard quarterly reporting once that work has been completed. Now let me briefly touch on our strategic priorities. First, we continue to advance our global brand transition program during the quarter. More than 75% of embecta revenue is now represented by products commercially launched and shipped under the embecta label, and we remain on track for substantial completion by the end of calendar year 2026. Second, in terms of the development of market-appropriate pen needles and syringes, we continue to make meaningful progress during the quarter. These products are designed to compete in price-sensitive markets and may help mitigate share loss. Market appropriate syringes have launched commercially in China, and we are monitoring customer feedback. We plan to expand availability of these products in additional geographies upon the receipt of regulatory approvals. Regarding new pen needles, we have active regulatory submissions under review by the U.S. FDA, Brazilian authorities, and BSI for CE Mark certification in Europe. Third, portfolio expansion. During the quarter, we made meaningful progress on our GLP-1 B2B strategy, building directly on what we shared with you last quarter. At that time, we reported that we were collaborating with over 30 pharmaceutical partners with more than 1/3 having selected embecta as their preferred device supplier or having executed agreements in place. Three months later, the pipeline has continued to develop and now approximately 40% of our identified partners are either in active contract negotiations or have executed agreements in place. We also note that our partners have received Canadian approval and the first U.S. FDA tentative approval for a generic semaglutide injection product. Additionally, this quarter, we moved from pipeline to execution as several of our partners launched generic GLP-1 therapies co-packaged with embecta pen needles in India. That is a meaningful proof-point of our B2B value proposition and our commercial execution. Furthermore, our small pack GLP-1 retail configuration launched in Canada and Australia. These products are designed specifically to meet the needs of the growing out-of-pocket GLP-1 user population, and we expect to extend availability of such configurations into the U.S. market in the coming months to serve those patients who need pen needles to administer Zepbound in a pen injector. Regarding our fourth priority, financial flexibility, during the first 6 months of the year, we repaid approximately $75 million of outstanding principal of our Term Loan B. Disciplined deleveraging has been a consistent priority and this repayment of debt is consistent with our track record of applying free cash flow to strengthen the balance sheet and preserve strategic optionality. That financial discipline is what creates the capacity to pursue transactions like Owen Mumford. When we announced this acquisition in March, we noted that Owen Mumford had earned a global reputation for innovation, quality and patient-centered design. The more time we spend with this team in this business, the more confident we are in that view. At its core, this acquisition accelerates our transformation into a broad-based medical supplies company, one that serves both pharmaceutical partners seeking drug delivery platforms and chronic care patients across diabetes, obesity, autoimmune diseases, and the anaphylaxis markets. More specifically, we are adding a differentiated drug delivery platform designed to support pharmaceutical companies seeking a device to deliver injectable drugs. In addition, we will expand our product portfolio beyond insulin injection devices and capitalize on our global presence, thereby diversifying our revenue base. Finally, given the nature of the products being added to the portfolio, we expect to be able to leverage our core manufacturing strengths and optimize our manufacturing and distribution network, all of which is consistent with the strategy we presented at our 2025 Investor Day. Next I'll provide a brief overview of the business we are acquiring. Owen Mumford is a privately held U.K.-based innovator with a 70-year track record of developing medical devices and drug delivery technologies. OM brings a diversified portfolio of devices that serve chronic care and point-of-care testing markets, including self-injection systems, lancing devices and venous blood collection solutions. These are durable, clinically established franchises with long-standing customer relationships. Their top 10 customers have maintained relationships averaging 20 years, which speaks to the stickiness of their platform and the quality of their execution. Like embecta, Owen Mumford also has a September 30 fiscal year-end. And during fiscal year 2025, they generated revenue of approximately GBP 69.4 million with approximately 80% of their revenue concentrated in the U.K. and the United States. Their business is split between medical devices, which represents approximately 60% of revenue, and pharmaceutical services, which represents the remaining 40%. We view the pharmaceutical services business as the higher growth area of the 2, anchored by the Aidaptus auto-injector platform, which I will discuss next. Aidaptus is an award-winning next-generation auto-injector designed with a single form factor that accommodates both 1 ml and 2.25 ml fill volumes. What that practically means is that Aidaptus has a single final assembly process and was designed from the start to address customers' needs for reduced manufacturing changeovers, simplified supply chain logistics and large-scale production. We estimate the total addressable auto-injector market to be approximately $2.4 billion, growing at a double-digit CAGR. This is driven by the adoption of biologics, the emergence of generic GLP-1 therapies and the broad shift towards self-injection as a preferred modality across multiple chronic care categories. Aidaptus is well positioned to capture a meaningful share of that growth as the platform is already supporting customer clinical development programs with a commercial contract pipeline that includes secured long-term agreements with several partners. The strategic alignment with our existing GLP-1 B2B strategy is also worth highlighting as Aidaptus deepens our relevance to pharmaceutical partners who need a drug delivery device to go alongside their injectable therapy. During fiscal year 2026, Aidaptus is expected to generate a small amount of revenue as market penetration and growth are expected in future years. To that point, the acquisition of Owen Mumford was structured as an upfront payment of GBP 100 million at closing and up to an additional GBP 50 million in performance-based payments based on the net sales of Aidaptus. Regarding synergies, we have assumed a modest level of operational synergies in our financial model, reflecting opportunities to leverage embecta's manufacturing scale and infrastructure alongside Owen Mumford's capabilities. And while we have not assumed any revenue synergies in our financial model, given that OM generates approximately 80% of their revenue in only 2 countries, we believe that the commercial opportunity of pairing Owen Mumford's portfolio with embecta's presence in over 100 countries could be significant. That completes my prepared remarks at this time. And with that, let me turn the call over to Jake to take you through the financials in more detail. Jake?

Thank you, Dev, and good morning, everyone. Since Dev outlined the items impacting Q2 revenue, I will keep my comments brief. During the second quarter, embecta generated approximately $222 million in revenue, which is a year-over-year decline of 14.4% on an as-reported basis or 17.4% on an adjusted constant currency basis. Within the U.S., revenue for the quarter totaled approximately $95 million, reflecting a year-over-year decline of 29.4% on an adjusted constant currency basis. The lower U.S. revenue is attributed to the factors that Dev described earlier. Turning to our International business. Revenue for the quarter totaled approximately $126 million, representing an increase of 2.1% on a reported basis, but a decline of 4.1% on an adjusted constant currency basis. Results within International were in line with our expectations as revenue within China was lower as compared to the prior year period, given ongoing market dynamics and the broader geopolitical and trade environment. These declines were partially offset by continued strength across Latin America, Asia, and Canada. Meanwhile, from a product family perspective, during the quarter, adjusted constant currency pen needle revenue declined 20.4%, syringe revenue declined 14.6%, safety product revenue declined 2.3%, and contract manufacturing revenue declined 43.2%. GAAP gross profit and margin for the second quarter of fiscal 2026 totaled $127.8 million and 57.6%, respectively. This compared to $164.1 million and 63.4% in the prior year period. While on an adjusted basis, our Q2 2026 adjusted gross profit and margin totaled $131.8 million and 59.4%. This compared to $165 million and 63.7% in the prior year period. The year-over-year decline in adjusted gross profit and margin was primarily driven by the lower year-over-year revenue in the U.S. as well as lower year-over-year revenue in China. These headwinds were partially offset by net changes in profit and inventory adjustments and FX. Turning to GAAP operating income and margin. During the second quarter of 2026, they were $35 million and 15.8%. This compared to $62.9 million and 24.3% in the prior year period. While on an adjusted basis, our Q2 2026 adjusted operating income and margin totaled $48.6 million and 21.9%. This compared to $81.4 million and 31.4% in the prior year period. The year-over-year decrease in adjusted operating income was driven by the decline in adjusted gross profit as operating expenses remained consistent with the prior year period. Turning to the bottom line. During the second quarter of 2026, we generated a GAAP net loss of $4.1 million and a loss per diluted share of $0.07. This compared to GAAP net income of $23.5 million and earnings per diluted share of $0.40 in the prior year period. While on an adjusted basis, during the second quarter of fiscal 2026, net income and earnings per share were $16.1 million and $0.27 as compared to $40.7 million and $0.70 in the prior year period. The decrease in year-over-year adjusted net income and diluted earnings per share is primarily due to the adjusted operating profit drivers I just discussed as well as a higher year-over-year adjusted tax rate driven by the lower U.S. revenue in the quarter. Turning to the balance sheet and cash flow. During the 6-month period ended March 31, 2026, we generated approximately $47 million in free cash flow, and we repaid $75 million of outstanding debt. While our last 12 months net leverage as defined under our credit facility agreement was approximately 3x. This compared to our covenant requirement, which requires us to stay below 4.75x. That completes my prepared remarks on our second quarter 2026 results. Next, I'd like to discuss our updated 2026 financial guidance and certain underlying assumptions. Beginning with revenue. On an as-reported basis, we are lowering our guidance from a range of between $1.071 billion and $1.093 billion to a range of between $1.015 billion and $1.035 billion. This new range assumes an organic as-reported revenue range of between $985 million and $1.05 billion. It also assumes that we will close the acquisition of Owen Mumford by the end of this month, which would then generate 4 months of contribution or approximately $30 million. In terms of adjusted operating margin, given the expected decline in U.S. revenue as compared to our prior projections, we are lowering our adjusted operating margin guidance from a range of between 29% and 30% to a new range of between 22.25% and 23.25%. We are also lowering our adjusted earnings per share guidance from a range of between $2.80 and $3 to a new range of between $1.55 and $1.75. The largest driver of this reduction is the impact of the lower U.S. revenue and associated gross profit, which accounts for most of this change. In addition to the U.S. revenue and gross profit impact, the addition of Owen Mumford, including the interest expense on the associated borrowings is expected to be dilutive by approximately $0.15. Over the longer term, we continue to expect that the acquisition of Owen Mumford will contribute to revenue growth in fiscal year 2027 and beyond, that OM will be immaterial to embecta's fiscal year 2027 adjusted operating income and to be accretive thereafter, that OM will be dilutive to adjusted net income in fiscal year 2027 to be immaterial to embecta's fiscal year 2028 adjusted net income and to be accretive thereafter, and that the acquisition will generate high single-digit return on invested capital by year 4 with increasing contribution thereafter. Lastly, because of the lower expected U.S. profitability, coupled with the addition of Owen Mumford, we now expect that our adjusted tax rate will increase from approximately 23% to approximately 28%, thereby reducing our adjusted EPS as compared to our prior expectations by approximately $0.10. Turning to the balance sheet and cash flow. Despite the reduction in our revenue and profitability guidance ranges, we continue to target repaying approximately $150 million in debt during 2026. Lastly, in terms of free cash flow and inclusive of the addition of Owen Mumford, we now expect to generate free cash flow of between $95 million and $105 million. This compares to our prior guidance range of between $180 million and $200 million. This updated guidance range includes approximately $40 million in one-time use of cash associated with brand transition and the Owen Mumford acquisition. That completes my prepared remarks. And at this time, I would like to turn the call back to Dev to discuss our updated capital allocation framework. Dev?

Recently, our Board authorized a 3-year share repurchase program of up to $100 million and concurrently reduced our quarterly dividend from $0.15 per share to $0.01 a share. We believe that this change in our capital allocation will provide us with additional flexibility to deploy capital towards share repurchases or additional debt reduction, which are currently our primary focus areas. We expect to commence share repurchases beginning in the current quarter, subject to market conditions and our share price, amongst other factors. That completes my prepared remarks, and I will now turn the call over to the operator for questions. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Marie Thibault with BTIG.

I want to spend a little time better understanding the U.S. weakness this quarter and assumptions going forward. I think you said in your commentary that in the U.S. pen needle segment, the losses were concentrated at a single customer. I wanted to understand if that was the same customer as was referenced last quarter, where there were pricing concessions made and why, if so, the volumes weren't stabilized by that move? And then secondly, you called out weakness in insulin pen prescriptions. Can you tell us a little bit more about what's driving that? Could that be short-lived? Or is that a long-term trend?

Let me start by taking the market question first on insulin pens and pen needles, and then go to the competitive loss question. So first on insulin pens, if we look at prescriptions for insulin pens, we have now begun to see a decline maybe more pronounced in the most recent quarter that we reported. That decline is actually greater in the retail channel than it is in other channels. And insulin pens are sold primarily in retail, but some in long-term care and very little in the specialty care channel. So insulin pen is mostly stored and sold in retail, and there has been a decline. That decline is greater in long-acting than fast-acting. And it seems to be driven by a decline in new prescriptions. That obviously translates into the pen needle market as well, but maybe a bit exacerbated in the pen needle market because what we are also seeing is a decline in retail that maybe is a little bit faster for pen needles than there is for insulin pens. Now some of this is likely being caused by shift in purchasing patterns from retail to perhaps lower cost channels or where pen needles are available at a lower price. We've also seen declines in accounts, as I referenced, where we believe we have a stable share position, so more indicative of market than anything else. And those are the market trends that we are seeing. Of all the variables that we try to account for in our guidance, this is perhaps the one where there is maybe more uncertainty because what we are observing is more of a recent shift than certainly what we've seen over the past several years. So that's about the market. Now with respect to the competitive loss, yes, it was the same customer that we had referred to earlier. Obviously, I don't want to talk about pricing at any specific customer or even broadly in the U.S. market. But I think what we've ended up is the share loss at that customer is a little bit deeper than we anticipated. But I want to point out a couple of factors that I referenced in my prepared remarks. So when there is a shift in share at a particular retailer, we believe that much of that share loss occurs with patients who are not on preferred plans with us. And so they can move to a different brand of pen needles and still use their insurance plan. And so when that happens, the revenue impact of that share loss is higher since if we are not on a preferred plan for that patient, obviously the rebate amount for that payer plan is less for us. Secondly, while, yes, most of that competitive loss was concentrated at the aforementioned account, we are seeing some declines in smaller regional players as well as independent pharmacies. Now with these smaller regional players and independent pharmacies, the rebates that these retailers get are obviously less than our large customers. And so that has an impact on the revenue as well. And so the competitive share loss affects us maybe at a higher rate than one might imagine just by using an average unit price. So those are the 2 factors that are impacting the U.S. results this quarter and drove the majority of the guidance revision for the year.

Okay. That's helpful. And just to clarify, could GLP-1s be an impact on the insulin prescriptions? Is that anything you're seeing in the field?

It's hard to definitively state what it is. But certainly, as we explored what the factors were that could be leading to market softness, right? The 2 factors that actually bubbled to sort of the top of the mind are, one, GLPs. And now you could ask sort of what's changed in GLP-1s and GLPs have been around. And we do wonder whether the increasing affordability of GLP-1 drugs certainly over the past several months could have played a factor in increasing penetration rate. Now if that were to be the case, what would result is obviously a larger number of patients sort of would try GLP-1s before they start insulin. And could that be having an effect? Certainly, that's possible, but it's hard to conclusively state that. The second thing, obviously, that occurred in December of 2025, so the beginning of our fiscal second quarter, is the expiration of the ACA subsidies. And could that be having an impact on the insured population, particularly as it affects sort of insulin uptake and doctors' visit and getting sort of progressively treated for type 2 diabetes? Maybe. Those are the 2 factors that potentially have shown an inflection point at the beginning of the quarter, Marie, but it's hard at this point to conclusively state the contribution of those factors or whether there are others.

Yes. Lastly for me, and then I'll hop back in queue. I understand it's early right now. But as we think about embecta long term, beyond this fiscal year, do you envision that you can return to sales growth here from this level?

Yes, absolutely. That's certainly what our intention is, that's what our target is, and that's what we believe the Owen Mumford acquisition will position us for, right? So let me zoom back a little bit. Almost 1.5 years ago, we announced the termination of the patch program. And then at the Analyst Day a year ago, we sort of conveyed our strategic intent to diversify into being a broad-based medical supplies company and really get further into chronic care drug delivery and build out our B2B segment. Prior to the acquisition of Owen Mumford, we started some initiatives. We wanted to expand our portfolio of syringes and pen needles, and you heard today about the advances that we've made over there. And we laid out a plan to really go deeper into the B2B segment and establish relationships with generic drug companies wanting to enter the generic GLP-1 market. And we, at that point, pointed out that that was a $100 million opportunity for us. Everything that we've seen since then, I think, further validates that $100 million opportunity, including the launch of generic GLP-1 therapies in India that actually have our pen needles co-packaged with them. Obviously, we noted with excitement, Canadian approvals. We still expect Brazil and China to launch generic GLP-1s as well. Obviously, timing is a little bit uncertain. China might actually end up being in 2027 rather than 2026. But certainly, the advances that we are making over there do position us to get back to revenue growth. And then on top of that, if you add the Owen Mumford acquisition, it really diversifies our product portfolio into chronic care, broad-based medical supplies. Their medical devices business is really concentrated in a few countries. And while we haven't assumed any revenue synergies in our model, certainly we are excited about the prospect of taking that bag of products and putting it into the hands of our commercial people all over the world. And then the auto-injector platform that I talked about Aidaptus, we believe that that is certainly a product that's differentiated. It allows for reducing supply chain complexity and manufacturing changeovers, which we believe pharmaceutical partners will accept. And over time, by the way, it has a list of secured customers, a pipeline that's developing, and it fits in very nicely with what has been our focus, which is establishing smaller -- deeper relationships with pharmaceutical companies that are looking for drug delivery options. I think you take that and you combine it with our efforts on developing a pen injector, certainly will leverage Owen Mumford's expertise since they have right now a reusable pen injector in their portfolio. And over time, we see ourselves as being a company that can provide an auto-injector, a pen injector and pen needles as a suite of products that will be available to pharmaceutical companies. And I think all of these initiatives absolutely are designed and with the intent of really returning us to revenue growth. One final point I want to mention, sorry Marie, is talking about Aidaptus. I mean, we certainly believe that that could be a $100 million product line for us.

Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Petrone with Mizuho Financial Group.

So maybe on the pen needle contract, obviously a competitive loss there. But just wondering the length of the contract in terms of the loss there and when maybe it comes up for renewal, do you think looking ahead, whenever there is another request for proposal there, an RFP that you can look at that contract and be more competitive on the next go around. And then I'll have a couple of follow-ups.

Yes. Anthony, on that, maybe it's worth clarifying. It's not like we've lost all the share. It's just our share position is reduced versus what it was. So it's not like we are out of that customer entirely. Now with respect to when we can get back, look, I mean, we have action plans right now underway to not only stem competitive losses, but also figure out ways to get back and win that share. So I don't want to sort of forecast exactly when that will happen, but I do want to convey that we are not going to be standing still waiting for contract renewals or what have you since it's not like we are completely out of those accounts. I think our share position has been reduced in those accounts, and we are certainly going to work as hard as possible to bring our share position back up.

That's helpful. I don't know, is there any timing you can put around those efforts? Is that a multiyear effort? Or is it something that you can see in a range of a 12- to 15-month time frame? Or is it, again, longer term?

Yes. Look, I don't expect it to be a multiyear effort, honestly. So again, I don't want to put a specific time frame on it, obviously, for competitive and other reasons, but maybe I'll leave it at that. I don't expect it to be a multiyear effort, no.

No, all good. And then just when you think about the pressure, you kind of highlighted almost 3 areas here. There's lower-cost providers coming in. There's the GLP-1 question that Marie asked. And then just legacy, there was this pressure moving away from multiple daily injections to patch pumps as well as automated insulin delivery devices. When you think of those 3 buckets, it seems like the lower cost strategy kind of won the day here. But if you had to bucket those 3 headwinds, how would you kind of weight, if you had to put a weighted average on those 3 competitive headwinds in the pen needle business, how would you weight those? And then just a real quick one here would be, you had a trade receivables factoring agreement where there were receivables sold, I think, to Becton. It was roughly like $64 million. Just given the impacts in the business here, I want to make sure that that trade receivable agreement is intact.

Yes. I'll let Jake take the trade receivable agreement. But with respect to sort of putting a weight on each of the factors, maybe there are 3 different things, I think, factors that affect the market in 3 different ways, right? The increasing affordability of GLP-1 drugs potentially affects insulin pen prescriptions. And we have seen insulin pen prescriptions trend downwards most recently. Could that be because of the increasing affordability of GLP-1 drugs? Maybe so. And what we've seen over there is the long-acting insulin, which is what you would expect the GLP-1 effect to be concentrated on, is decreasing faster than long-acting insulin. With respect to movement towards maybe lower-priced products, what it is is really maybe more a shifting of where patients are buying pen needles. So instead of the traditional retail channel and maybe they are going to retail, but maybe more patients buying sort of cash pay products or over-the-counter products or in channels where lower-priced products are available, that affects the pen needle market. And then thirdly, you asked about pump adoption. The way sort of we think about that is we look at fast-acting, right, so mealtime insulin prescription trends. And yes, while there has been a decline in fast-acting insulin, really what's driving, I believe, the total prescription decline has been the decline in long-acting. So really, pump adoption is something that, as you know, this business has been dealing with for a number of years. It's hard at this point to look at the data and say that that is the primary factor, Anthony. So I would say it's more towards a shift towards lower-priced products and potentially the 2 other factors I outlined earlier in my question -- in my answer to Marie, is that the increasing affordability of GLP-1 drugs. Could the impact of the ACA subsidies have had some impact on the overall market volume as well? Potentially. But it's going to take months, maybe a couple of quarters to really get the data.

And then, Anthony, on the receivables factoring program, this is a standard AR factoring program that we have actually with a third-party bank. So very common in the industry to have something like this. It doesn't have anything to do with Becton, Dickinson in any way. It was something, I think, that we put into effect around a year or so ago. We continue to factor receivables under normal due course, and we would continue to expect to do so in the future. So none of that has necessarily really changed by this. And in terms of liquidity and whatnot, we continue to expect good free cash flow, continue to expect to repay $150 million in debt during the course of this year, which was our original guidance assumption coming into the year. And obviously that's despite the revenue call down in the U.S. today.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Schiller with Wolfe Research.

I was hoping we could look out further to next fiscal year. Understanding there is no formal guidance in place, but maybe how are you thinking about the FY '27 revenue growth given all the pressure in the U.S.?

Yes, Ryan, I think it's too early to comment on that. As you heard me say, right, some of the trends that we are observing now in the most recent quarter are all sort of early. So really, our plan right now is to focus on executing on 2026, closing the impending Owen Mumford acquisition, getting those products in our bag, advancing the pipeline, both on our B2B products for pen needles as well as the auto-injector platform. And really, then we'll talk about 2027. It's far too early at this point for me to comment on 2027.

Okay. And then OUS finished in line with your expectations in the quarter. I'm hoping you can give us the latest on what you're seeing in China and any updated growth outlook there?

Yes, very pleased with our International performance, certainly performing per expectations. With regard to China, just as a reminder, obviously we don't disclose China separately, but we think about Greater China, which includes Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. And over there, we sell the product to 3 or 4 national distributors that then go on to sell to sub distributors. Certainly, last year, fiscal 2025, there were significant declines and we took a bunch of steps to stabilize the situation. We are seeing early signs of sequential stability. We really reordered our sales team, that had a more price competitive pen needle that we launched over there. We will see likely some headwinds this year, but certainly it's going to be significantly less than what we saw last year. And look, over the long term, our view on China hasn't changed, right? The market is growing there in mid-single digits. We have a strong commercial and manufacturing infrastructure over there. The new pen needle that I referenced where we've already submitted for regulatory approvals, that is being developed and manufactured over there. And finally, I also mentioned in the GLP-1 generic space that there are Chinese companies that want to get into the generic GLP-1 market as well. And obviously, we want to partner with them. So for all those reasons, we continue to remain optimistic on how China will end up. Now obviously cognizant of the fact that China -- the geopolitical considerations when it comes to China can impact in the short term, but we still remain optimistic in our long-term view on China.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm showing no further questions in the queue. I would now like to turn the call back over to Dev for closing remarks.

As we close the call, I just want to thank my colleagues across embecta for their continued focus and commitment. This was a difficult quarter. But I do want to be clear, we are not standing still and actions are already underway to address the issues we face. The steps that we are taking, closing the Owen Mumford transaction, reshaping our capital allocation and executing on our strategic priorities, are purposeful steps to build a stronger, more flexible company for the long term and are aligned with our strategic road map. Thank you for joining us today and for your continued interest in embecta.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.