Thomas Triomphe
Management
Thank you, Bill. Q4 performance in vaccines generated significant sales of €2 billion, including the strong increase in flu in Europe, as well as growth supported by our PPH and travel franchises. The lower GBU sales as of last year were mainly due to the U.S. influenza market. We have two factors combined; first, the low immunization rate due to the priority given to COVID-19 vaccination in November and December; and second, a record product shipment in the third quarter, leading to a 65%, 45% split for the Q3, Q4 period. The U.S. performance was partially offset by the strong Q4 demand in other geographies, especially Europe where Efluelda was very successfully launched. The PPH franchise recording a strong fourth quarter growth despite lower birth rate around the world, mostly driven by Pentaxim performance in China. Finally, we are also pleased to see some recovery of the travel franchise, even though we are still far from the pre-pandemic level. Of note, on a full year basis, despite the pandemic environment, all 5 vaccines franchises have demonstrated growth in 2021 compared to 2020, illustrating again the robustness of our vaccines business. Next slide, please? On the next slide, let’s look at our record flu performance in 2021 with a 6% growth over last year’s record. On the left chart, you can see that the impact from the U.S. market contraction was more than compensated by the strong performance of Europe and rest of the world. Let me be very clear. The U.S. sales reduction has nothing to do with our product’s performance. COVID boosters were given the priority by retailers and health care providers, and as a result, the total number of U.S. flu doses injected this season decreased by 17%. Despite that challenging environment, Fluzone High-Dose continued to expand market share and gained 3.5-point share in the senior segment in the U.S. In Europe, the stronger Fluzone launch execution in Germany enabled us to reach a spectacular 64% growth following the positive STIKO recommendation. I’m glad to report that for the first season, 3 out of 4 German senior citizens have benefited from Efluelda’s demonstrated protection beyond flu. The right graph shows the continuous progress of our flu franchise. All incremental sales in 2021 were driven by our differentiated flu vaccines, thanks to the proven ability to protect against cardiovascular events and against pneumonia hospitalization. For the first time ever, our differentiated flu sales represented the majority of annual sales, indicating that the importance of providing protection beyond flu resonates well with external stakeholders. I’m confident that our flu franchise will continue to grow in 2022 and that this year, we’ll see another record year. With that, I hand over to Olivier.