AbbVie Inc.

Good morning and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the AbbVie First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be able to listen only until the question and answer portion of this call. You may ask a question by pressing star 1 on your phone. I would now like to introduce Ms. Liz Shea, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Good morning and thanks for joining us. Also on the call with me today are Rick Gonzalez, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Severino, Vice Chairman and President, Rob Michael, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Jeff Stewart, Executive Vice President, Commercial Operations. Joining us for the Q&A portion of the call is Laura Schumacher, Vice Chairman, External Affairs, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary. Before we get started, I remind you that some statements we make today may be considered forward-looking statements for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. ABBYY cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Additional information about these risks and uncertainties is included in our SEC filing. ABBYY undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements except as required by law. On today's conference call, non-GAAP financial measures will be used to help investors understand ABBYY's business performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are reconciled with comparable GAAP financial measures in our earnings relations and regulatory filings from today, which can be found on our website. Unless otherwise noted, our commentary on sales growth is on a comparable basis, which includes full current year and historical results for Allergan. For this comparison of underlying performance, all historically reported Allergan revenues have been recast to conform to AbbVie's revenue recognition accounting policies and excluded the divestitures of ZENPEP and BioCase. References to operational growth further excludes the impact of exchange. Following our prepared remarks, we'll take your questions. So with that, I'll now turn the call over to Rick.

Thank you, Liz. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'll discuss our first quarter performance and outlook, and then Jeff, Mike, and Rob will review our business highlights, pipeline progress, and financial results in more detail. We're off to an excellent start this year, delivering strong top and bottom line first quarter performance. We reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.95, exceeding the midpoint of our guidance by 14 cents. Total adjusted net revenues of $12.9 billion was up 5.2% on a comparable operational basis, nearly $250 million ahead of our expectations. These results include strong performance across each of our core therapeutic areas, including double-digit comparable operational revenue growth from immunology, neuroscience, and aesthetics, as well as high single-digit operational growth from hematological oncology. Additionally, we continue to see robust sales from our key and newly launched products. SkyRizzi and Renvoke contributed nearly $900 million in combined revenues this quarter, more than double the sales versus the prior year as both products continue to ramp in their initial indications. Imbruvica and Benclexta delivered combined sales of approximately $1.7 billion, reflecting continued leadership in CLL and other hematological malignancies. Valar, which remains one of the fastest-growing medicines in psychiatry, delivered more than 20 percent comparable operational growth. The leading oral CGRP for acute migraine generated revenue growth of approximately 25% on a sequential basis. And within our leading aesthetics portfolio, which is performing well above pre-COVID levels, Botox Cosmetics and Juvederm are demonstrating robust performance. Both of these brands grew more than 40% on a comparable operational basis. The integration of Allergan also continues to go very well. As illustrated by our balanced results this quarter, we are clearly demonstrating that we have created a stronger and much more diverse company with the scale and flexibility to fully invest in the business for long-term growth. While the pandemic has categorically impacted our day-to-day lives, we are encouraged by the latest recovery trends. We see market growth and new patient activity increasing overall, especially in March, although certain markets continue to remain below pre-COVID levels, including CLL and HCV in particular. We expect the increasing vaccinations globally will continue to support a full recovery across our therapeutic areas as we progress through the remainder of this year. Based on a robust performance this quarter, and the continued strong outlook for our business, we are raising our full year 2021 EPX guidance. And we now expect adjusted earnings per share between $12.37 and $12.57, reflecting growth of more than 18% at the midpoint. I'm also extremely pleased with our R&D prospects, including the number and potential of the opportunities especially within our late stage pipeline. We're on the cusp of the potential commercial approval of more than a dozen new products or indications over the next two years, including five total expected approvals in 2021. This includes a Toe Japan, a novel oral CGRP for episodic migraine, adding to our already attractive migraine portfolio, a new eyedrop for the treatment of presbyopia, as well as expanded indications for RENVOC in psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and atopic dermatitis. And we expect more than a half a dozen new product or indication launches in 2022, including Novitaclax for myelofibrosis, ABVV951 for advanced Parkinson's disease, Skyrizi for psoriatic arthritis and Crohn's disease, RENVOC for ulcerative colitis, VELAR for major depressive disorder, and additional indications for Imbruvica and Benclecta. With these collective new growth opportunities and the continued momentum of our underlying portfolio, our long-term outlook remains very strong. In closing, our focus remains on strong commercial and operational execution, as well as pipeline advancement. I'm pleased with the financial results for the quarter. and the overall pace of the recovery across our portfolio. We're off to another excellent start in 2021. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jeff for additional comments on our commercial highlights. Jeff?