Dave Denton
Analyst · Evercore ISI
Thank you, Albert, and good morning. I'll begin this morning by reinforcing the fact that our solid financial results demonstrate our strong executional focus. We continue to concentrate on driving positive patient outcomes and delivering on our financial commitments while navigating an ever-complex external environment. Our productivity improvement programs continue to drive a more efficient organization enhanced by our strong operating margins in the quarter. Going forward, we expect to improve our cash flows, reduce our debt leverage, and have more flexibility for three capital allocation pillars. Our focus remains on creating long-term shareholder value. We will continue to invest in our business for the long term while prudently returning capital to our shareholders. Now first, let me start with our first quarter results. Second, I'll touch on our capital allocation priorities, and then I'll touch upon our cost improvement initiatives. I'll finish up with a few comments on the macro environment and our 2025 guidance, which we are reaffirming today. For the first quarter of 2025, we recorded revenues of $13.7 billion, a decline of 6% operational. The decline was largely due to lower PAX load with revenues, in part due to last year's one-time tax lubid revenue credit recorded in Q1 of 2024. In addition, US revenues were tempered by changes in the IRA Medicare Part D redesign, which took effect in the first quarter. Partially offsetting the decline was growth in several in-line products in the US and overall growth internationally. On the bottom line, we reported first-quarter 2025 diluted EPS of $0.52 a share and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.92, ahead of our expectations due to overall strong gross margin and cost management performance. Our performance continues to show that our refined commercial approach is working. We continue to focus on key products and geographies, the deployment of our commercial field resources globally, and the continued optimization of our marketing resources into key priority areas. We saw strong contributions across our product portfolio, primarily driven by the Windekl family, Commerdy, Hatseb, Neurotech, and LoBrena, which were more than offset by declines in pack Lobid, Eliquis, Xeljanz, and Ibrance. Adjusted gross margin for the quarter expanded to approximately 81%, primarily as a result of favorability in crude royalties, partially offset by unfavorable product mix. Focus on cost management across our manufacturing network will remain a priority. Total adjusted operating expenses were $5.2 billion for the first quarter of 2025, a 12% decline operationally versus last year. Now looking at the components, adjusted SIA expenses decreased 12% operationally, primarily reflecting our ongoing productivity improvements, driving a decrease in marketing and promotional spend for various products as well as lower spending in corporate enabling functions. Adjusted R&D expenses also decreased 12% operationally, driven primarily by a decline in spending due to our pipeline optimization efforts expected to be reinvested later this year and into next year. We continue to be disciplined with our operational expense management. Q1 reported diluted earnings per share were $0.52, and our adjusted diluted earnings per share were $0.92, which benefited from our efficient operating structure, which in addition to favorable global income tax resolutions, in multiple tax jurisdictions spanning multiple tax years, as well as a favorable change in the jurisdictional mix of earnings. With that, now let me quickly touch upon our capital allocation strategy, which is designed to enhance long-term shareholder value. The strategy consists of maintaining and growing our dividend over time, reinvesting in our business at the appropriate level of financial return, and making value-enhancing share repurchases. In Q1, we returned $2.4 billion to shareholders via our quarterly dividend, invested $2.2 billion in our internal R&D, and completed business development activity as expected was minimal. In achieving our 3.25 gross leverage target at the end of 2024, a key priority towards improving our capacity for business development. In addition, the modernization of our Halion investment has contributed to our improved cash position. As a reminder, in January, we monetized approximately $3 billion of our Halyon shares, and in March, we monetized the last tranche of our Halyon shares, receiving approximately $3.3 billion in net cash proceeds. With this sale, we have now fully exited our ownership in Halyon. Overall, our objective remains to delever our balance sheet over time, which will further support our return to a more balanced allocation of capital between reinvestment and direct return to our shareholders. We continue to be disciplined on our operational expense management, progressing multiple improvement programs as we remain focused on driving long-term margin improvement over the coming years. We continue to expect initial savings from phase one of our manufacturing optimization program in the latter part of this year, with approximately $1.5 billion in savings from phase one that's expected by the end of 2027. In addition, we are progressing the evaluation of other strategies to improve our network structure and product portfolio, respectively. As part of our goal to return to pre-pandemic operating margins, we remain on track to deliver on our goal of at least $4.5 billion in cumulative net cost savings from our ongoing cost realignment program by the end of this year. And today, we've announced our expectation that this program will deliver an additional $1.2 billion in net savings, primarily in SIA and in part by leveraging digital tools, including automation and AI, as well as simplification of our business processes. The savings are expected to be fully realized by the end of 2027. Furthermore, we have identified additional opportunities to drive improvements in productivity and operational efficiency in our R&D organization, again, through enhanced digital enablement as well as automation. We expect approximately $500 million in savings associated with these efforts to be realized by the end of 2026, with the savings reinvested within our R&D program. Now in total, we expect approximately $7.7 billion in savings by the end of 2027 to drive operational efficiency, strengthening our business with the potential of contributing significantly to our bottom line over this period. Now let me turn to our full-year 2025 guidance. As you are aware, the pharmaceutical industry is currently navigating a complex global landscape, shaped by rapidly evolving trade and tariff policies. Our functional team is analyzing a range of potential outcomes while developing strategies to help us mitigate the potential impact on our business in both the short as well as the long term. These actions include the management of current inventory levels in certain jurisdictions, leveraging our domestic manufacturing footprint, and the potential production of certain API and products in the US. Should we be impacted by further tariffs in the future, we will assess the impact of these policies enacted and provide information at the appropriate time. Let me now spend just a few minutes on our 2025 guidance, which remains unchanged. To be clear, it does not include the potential impact of future changes in trade and tariff policies. We expect total company full-year 2025 revenues to be in the range of $61 to $64 billion, and full-year 2025 adjusted diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $2.80 to $3.00 a share, which reflects our expectation of strong contributions across our product portfolio and our focused discipline on cost management. As we finish Q1 with earnings strength, and excluding the potential impact related to future trade changes, we are currently trending towards the upper end of our adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance range. In closing, let me emphasize several key aspects of our business. We will continue our focus on executing to maximize the commercial value of our product portfolio. We remain committed to driving value-creating innovation while strengthening our pipeline. Additionally, our cost improvement programs are set to deliver operating margin expansion. Expected productivity gains will be driven by leveraging our digital capabilities and simplifying our business processes. Our improved balance sheet sets the stage for more balanced and enhanced capital deployment, focused on creating value for our shareholders. And with that, I will now turn it back over to Albert for Q&A. Thank you, Dave. Operator, please assemble the Q and let's start the Q&A.