Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Alexion Pharmaceuticals Incorporated First Quarter 2020 Conference Call. At this time, all participants' lines are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star then 1 on your telephone. If you require any further assistance, please press star then 0. At this time, I would like to hand the conference over to Mr. Chris Stevo, Head of Investment Relations.

Thank you, operator. Good morning. Thank you for joining us on today's call to discuss Alexion's performance for the first quarter of 2020. Today's call will be led by Ludwig Hansen, our CEO. Ludwig will be joined by Aradna Sarin, our chief financial officer, John Orloff, our global head of R&D, and Brian Goff, our chief commercial and global operations officer. I will note that we are practicing physical distancing, and each will be doing the call from home. You can access the webcast slides that will be presented on this call by going to the events section of our investor relations page on our website. Before we begin, I would like to point out that we will be making forward-looking statements, and these statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially. Please take a look at the risk factors discussed in our SEC filings for additional detail. These forward-looking statements apply only as of today, and we undertake no duty to update any of the statements after the call, except as required by law. I'd also like to remind you that we will be using non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide useful information for the understanding of our ongoing business performance. Reconciliation of our financial results and financial guidance are included in our press release. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, but not as a substitute for, our GAAP results. Thank you. Ludwig?

Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. Before we review our first quarter performance, I'd like to take a brief moment to discuss COVID-19 and elections response to this global health crisis. Above all, we remain committed to our mission of serving patients affected by rare and devastating diseases. We are focused on serving the patients who rely on us for the delivery of secure, uninterrupted supply of their medicines. We have taken proactive measures designed to mitigate risks in supply and continue to actively monitor the evolving situation worldwide. We're doing our part to protect ourselves and those around us by being smart in our interactions to minimize risk of spreading the virus and placing additional burden on our healthcare systems. Patients, families, and healthcare providers are at the front of our mind as we work to support them through new, innovative, and virtual means. In addition to patients, we also remain committed to protecting the safety and wellbeing of our global employees. As of early March, we have largely shifted to remote operating model for all non-essential employees. Essential on-site staff, including those in R&D and manufacturing, continue to report to work sites where we are taking all appropriate precautions. The transition to this new remote reality has been largely seamless. I'd like to thank our global employees for their continued hard work towards our mission. Turning to our response to this global health crisis, based on preclinical data supporting the role of complement in COVID-19 and preliminary clinical evidence from approximately 100 patients, Alexion has just initiated a Phase III clinical trial investigating the use of ultramers in adults with COVID-19 who are hospitalized with severe pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome. In recognition of the urgent needs of some patients, and in order to streamline the emergency access process, we have opened expanded access programs in the U.S. and France for the use of Solaris in severe cases of COVID-19 pneumonia. In addition, we are committed to supporting our communities and healthcare systems through this pandemic. The Alexion Charitable Foundation has made a number of charitable donations to organizations, including the WHO and AmeriCares. Given the impact COVID-19 has had on medical care worldwide, we do expect an impact on our business in 2020. As the normal access to care is challenged during this time, we expect a temporary slowing of patient starts and clinical trial enrollments. While we saw strong top-line growth in the first quarter, we expect growth in the remainder of the year to be tempered by the pandemic, which will be reflected in today's guidance. Despite this, we still see a potential path to achieving the midpoint of our non-GAAP EPS guidance issued earlier this year. Radna, John, and Brian will provide additional detail on COVID-19 impact. Turning to slide five, as we have discussed in the past, we have a vision to create long-term value for all of our stakeholders. and we remain committed to the goals we have identified to achieve this. We have an ambition for double-digit top-line growth, establishing Ultramir as the market leader in P&H and atypical HUS. That ensures a durable base business upon which we expect we can build further. Continued success in our neurology franchise, as well as the newly announced opportunity we have with Indexon. Provides new growth drivers as we continue to build our portfolio. We are on our way to delivering upon the four times expansion of our U.S. neurology business as our Solaris neurology launch trend continues. We look forward to the potential broadening of our addressable patient population with the introduction of Ultimeer in GMG and NMOSD. We have built a strong portfolio and remain committed to achieving 10 new launches by 2023. In parallel, we continue to make significant progress in diversifying our portfolio through internal R&D and further business development, where we believe we can generate the greatest return on our investments. While the current environment is dynamic and rapidly evolving, we remain focused on execution towards these ambitions. Turning to slide six, we have made meaningful progress towards our strategic goals in the first few months of 2020. Ultramir has been further established as a market leader in PNH across our three key geographies with over 67% conversion in each. I'm proud to share that our ALS trial is underway, with the first patient having been dosed in March. With regards to our diversification objective, we have made clear progress by entering into an agreement to acquire Pertola and are excited by the opportunity MDEXA brings. I'm very proud of our strong execution thus far in 2020. With that, I will now turn the call over to Obama.