Amgen Inc.

Erica and I will be your conference facilitator today for Amgen's second quarter 2021 financial results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. There will be a question and answer session at the conclusion of the last speaker's prepared remarks. In order to ensure that everyone has a chance to participate, we would like to request that you limit yourself to asking one question during the Q&A session. To ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press the pound key. I would now like to introduce Arvind Sood, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Sood, you may now begin.

Erica, thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to our Q2 call. I think the three key themes for this quarter are great execution in a challenging environment, pipeline advancement, and smart and strategic business development. Lots to cover, so let's jump right in. Slides are up. Quick reminder that we'll use non-GAAP financial measures in our presentation, and some of the statements will be forward-looking statements. Our SEC filings identify factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially. So with that, I would like to turn the call over to our chairman and CEO, Bob Bradway. Bob?

Okay. Thank you, Arvind, and hello, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. Through the first six months of the year, Amgen has continued to execute well, driving demand for our current products globally while also paving the way for growth from future products. Total revenues in the second quarter increased 5% over the prior year and 11% over the prior quarter. We achieved this growth despite the lingering effects of COVID-19 and increased competition in many of our therapeutic categories. We continued to see strong, volume-driven growth from Repatha, Otezla, Prolia, and Avenity, and a number of our oncology medicines as well, all of which address significant health challenges. We also saw strong growth in the quarter from our biosimilars, supporting our commitment to deliver value to healthcare systems around the world. We generated volume growth of 22% outside the United States, and we're particularly encouraged by our progress in the Asia-Pacific region, where two notable approvals in the second quarter should provide additional growth moving forward. In China, our partner, Beijing, secured approval for Coprolis, which joins Bensido and Xgeva in our oncology collaboration there. And in Japan, the approval of Amavig for migraine marks another important milestone for us in that market. In the U.S., we're excited by the strong launch of Lumicrast, which is providing hope to lung cancer patients in need of new treatment options. We're very pleased with the enthusiasm Lumicrast has generated in the oncology community. We're also excited that the FDA granted priority review to tezopelumab, further confirming our belief that it offers significant advantages over currently available treatment alternatives for people with severe asthma, a debilitating disease that affects millions worldwide. We've long sought to complement our internal innovation efforts with the best available external innovation, and in the first half of this year, we've executed on several compelling business development transactions which fit squarely in our stated areas of interest. The acquisition of five prime therapeutics and our partnership with Kiowa Kirin, for example, have added two potential first-in-class Phase III-ready assets in cancer and inflammation, two therapeutic categories where there remains high unmet need. The acquisition of Tenayo Bio, which Dave will address in a moment, will significantly strengthen our protein engineering capabilities across therapeutic areas. Our strong balance sheet and cash flows will enable us to take advantage of additional business development opportunities like these as they arise. All the work we do is focused on advancing our mission to serve patients and to do so in a way that helps to address the many challenges facing society. You may have seen our recently announced plans to invest approximately $1 billion to build two new manufacturing facilities, one in North Carolina and the other in Ohio to meet the demand for our medicines. Both facilities will utilize cutting-edge technologies to be much more efficient and environmentally friendly than traditional plants, supporting our goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2027. Both plants will also draw from very diverse talent pools, as we, along with a number of other large companies that are part of the 110 Coalition, look to collectively hire 1 million black Americans into well-paying jobs over the next 10 years. You can learn more about our commitment to good corporate citizenship by reading our ESG report, which can be found in the Responsibility section of Amgen.com. Finally, before I turn things over to Murdo, let me thank my Amgen colleagues for their continued commitment to serving patients around the world and delivering strong performance across all aspects of our business. Murdo, over to you.