AmerisourceBergen Corporation

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the AmeriSource Bergen third quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would like to now turn the conference over to our host, Mr. Bennett Murphy. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us for this conference call to discuss AmerisourceBergen's fiscal 2019 third quarter financial results. I am Bennett Murphy, Vice President, Investor Relations, and joining me today are Steve Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO, and Jim Cleary, Executive Vice President and CFO. On today's call, we will be discussing non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures to GAAP are provided in today's press release. and are also available on our website at investor.americorpsburger.com. We have also posted a slide presentation to accompany today's press release on our investor website. During this conference call, we will make forward-looking statements about our business and financial expectations on an adjusted, non-GAAP basis, including but not limited to EPS, operating income, and income taxes. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and change. For discussion of key risks and assumptions, we refer you to today's press release and our SEC filings, including our most recent 10-K. The Mayor's Horse, Bergen, assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, and this call cannot be rebroadcast without the express permission of the company. You will have an opportunity to ask questions after today's remarks by management. We ask that you limit your questions to one per participant in order for us to get to as many participants as possible within the hour. With that, I'll turn the call over to Steve. Steve?

Thank you, Bennett, and good morning to everyone on today's call. Today, I am pleased to discuss Ameris Holzbergen's continued strong performance in the third quarter of fiscal 2019, the critical role we play in the U.S. healthcare system, and how we continue advancing our people, culture, and strategy to position Ameris Holzbergen for long-term growth. First, our fiscal 2019 third quarter financial performance. Revenues increased a solid 5% to $45.2 billion for the quarter, and our adjusted diluted EPS was $1.76, an increase of 14% compared to the previous fiscal year period. We are extremely pleased with the continued overall strong performance by both the pharmaceutical distribution and global commercialization services and animal health groups. This quarter's results reflect solid execution, continued strong specialty product sales, growth of some of our largest customers, and the overall strength across our businesses. The pharmaceutical distribution services segment grew operating income quite well as our distribution business continues to work diligently to serve our manufacturer and provider customers more efficiently and effectively. First, our innovative services and solutions continue to provide our partners with access to a state-of-the-art distribution network and best-in-class customer experience offerings, enabling them to provide a more integrated, seamless, and personalized experience for their patients while enhancing their ability to maximize business performance. Next, we are leveraging our expertise, capabilities, and actionable insights to identify and execute new opportunities that create shared value for all stakeholders. Finally, our specialty distribution and practice management services are supporting market access to complex pharmaceuticals and enabling community-based providers to run their practices more efficiently while ensuring patients have access to vital pharmaceuticals when and where they need them. For Pharmadium, progress continues as expected. As we communicated this past May, the consent decree was finalized and Varmadium is currently in the midst of a third-party audit inspection of its two open facilities while they continue their commercial operations. The results from these audits will be an important input into an assessment of a future work plan to reopen the Memphis facility. Entering into the consent decree, and completing these initial third-party audit inspections are meaningful milestones for Formelium as we continue our ongoing comprehensive strategic and financial review of the business. Moving on to our global commercialization services and animal health business group, reported as other. We are extremely pleased with their performance this quarter as the group achieved double-digit year-over-year operating income growth. led by a strong performance from MWI Animal Health. During the third quarter, MWI benefited from solid demand from its strong customer base, particularly within the companion animal health segment. The business also continued to efficiently service its customers and their patients by driving additional cost efficiency through technology improvements. MWI, along with World Courier and the entire comprehensive portfolio of the Marisol's Bourbon Consulting Services businesses, are executing on their plans and continuing to find new ways to expand upon our robust and pharmaceutical-centered value proposition, creating additional value for our customers and partners. Our leading data and technology platforms, new digital tools and partnerships are creating additional efficiencies, enhancing the customer experience, and advancing patient outcomes for manufacturers. As manufacturers' needs evolve, AmerisourceBergen will continually respond with differentiated solutions that further support enhanced access for pharmaceutical commercialization and companion and production animal health products, making AmerisourceBergen the essential partner for the global pharmaceutical industry. Amerisource Bergen devotes the same relentless focus and unwavering support towards creating value for our downstream customers. Community providers are the cornerstone of access and care in their local communities. Amerisource Bergen's ongoing commitment to community providers, including independent pharmacists, reflects our continued recognition and support of the value that they bring to patients and their local communities. Last week we actively engaged a record number of our independent pharmacy partners at ThoughtSpot 2019, our annual conference and trade show hosted by Good Neighbor Pharmacy. This conference provided independent community pharmacists with practical and clinical education resources, helping them optimize their businesses, especially as community pharmacy becomes a support local movement. As resilient and customer service-oriented entrepreneurs, independent community pharmacists differentiate themselves by being hyper-local and customizing their store experience with hometown pride in mind. Amerisource Bergen is committed to empowering our 4,600 independent pharmacist customers to tell their stories and serve their patients with additional help from tools and resources that we provide. For example, our Good Neighbour Pharmacies Network's business and marketing services are enabling pharmacists to focus on the in-store experience for patients, connect effectively with providers and create a unique experience tailored to their community. We have also introduced more digital tools to help pharmacists personalise the care they provide and measure the impact of their performance. Moreover, our elevated provider network provides pharmacies with intuitive analytics and benchmarking system solutions to help pharmacies maximize profitability, improve operational effectiveness, and enhance patient care. On a much broader industry scale, Amerisource Bergen, as a driver of solutions, continues to advocate and support independent pharmacists. and all of our community-based provider customers by telling their stories to patients, providers, and lawmakers. Our passion and commitment to being a solution provider in the U.S. healthcare system has not wavered. Amerisource's work and response when customer needs or problems arise, we are a forward-thinking and creative organization that will always look to be a part of the solution and relentless in our pursuit of opportunities that can add value for our customers and partners, as well as drive efficiency, support transparency, and enhance access within a safe and secure healthcare supply chain. We also respond as a global solutions leader when industry challenges like the opioid epidemic confront the entire healthcare industry and local communities. Amerisource Berman understands and appreciates the enormity of the opioid challenge and we take our role in the supply chain very seriously. We continue to collaborate with our partners and other stakeholders to stop suspicious orders and to halt diversion. Notably, as a logistics provider and distributor, we do not have access to patient information and we are not qualified to interfere with the very personal clinical decisions made between patients and their physicians. That said, we recognize the important role we play in the supply chain and work hard every day to be a responsible company, providing daily reports to the DEA of all controlled substances shipped to our customers, including opioid-based medications. Building on the company's commitment to transparency, AmerisourceBergen will be releasing a comprehensive report next month describing how we as a company have responded to the opioid epidemic, including the board's oversight of risks associated with the company's role as a distributor of prescription opioid medications. Our actions are a reflection of the innovative problem-solving culture driven by AmerisourceBergen's 21,000 associates. who work tirelessly every day across over 50 countries to deliver on our purpose of being united in our responsibility to create healthier futures. Our people are a competitive advantage for AmerisourceBergen. Anchoring on our strongly defined purpose and under the leadership of our Chief Human Resource Officer, Savannah Battaglia, we continue to make advancing our people and culture a top priority. First, we are making investments to further engage, develop, and attract talent. We are expanding opportunities for career growth, development, and collaboration across the company to support our corporate strategy and accelerate our growth as one ABC. On the topic of attracting talent, we're excited to welcome our new Chief Strategy Officer, Leslie Donato, who joined us a few weeks ago and brings nearly 30 years of long-range strategy and healthcare industry expertise to Amerisource Bergen. Reporting directly to me, Leslie, along with her team, would help us identify and implement growth initiatives that drive value for our manufacturer partners and provider customers and continue to create long-term value for all of our stakeholders. Leslie's experience in global business development, strategy in the pharmaceutical industry make her an impeccable candidate to lead and grow our strategy function. Next, we are deepening our commitments to diversity and inclusion within our workforce and supplier base. As a company, we are proud of our perfect score on the 2019 Corporate Equality Index, the nation's premier benchmarking tool on corporate qualities and practices related to LGBTQ work-based equality, and remain steadfast in expanding our diversity and inclusion efforts to further strengthen the innovative, creative and diverse exchange of ideas and solutions that can enrich the value that we can provide to all of our stakeholders. Amerisource Bergen's culture is inspired by our purpose, shaped through collaboration and rooted in mutual respect for one another. We are leading through our guiding principles, promoting recognition and appreciation for strong performance and ensuring a safe and secure work environment in order to fortify our competitive edge. Advancing our people and culture further supports and enables AmerisourceBergen to be well positioned to continue creating shareholder value and delivering long-term sustainable growth. We appreciate the unique value each associate brings to AmerisourceBergen. while also recognizing the collective and vital role that AmerisourceBergen and our industry play in enabling access to pharmaceuticals for the patients that need them. Overall, the pharmaceutical distribution industry delivers unparalleled efficiency, access and security to the US healthcare system. In research published this week, Deloitte analyzed the critical role that distributors play in connecting two highly fragmented markets of 1,300 manufacturers and 180,000 points of dispensing. The report noted that distributors do much more than ship products from manufacturers to pharmacies and providers, highlighting that our industry's core services, which include distribution, inventory management, financial risk management, and information sharing, generate tens of billions of dollars in value annually to the healthcare ecosystem. Alongside the industry's value proposition, AmerisourceBergen possesses a differentiated and well-established strategy and unique value proposition that takes advantage of key macro trends in healthcare. AmerisourceBergen is a pharmaceutical centric leader in distribution and commercialization services. continues to benefit from growth in the U.S. pharmaceutical market, which is driven by innovation, patient demographics, and prescription utilization trends. Our focus on strong customer partnerships in each market segment and innovative services and solutions both upstream and downstream further enables us to grow and evolve to address the needs of manufacturers, providers, and the patients they serve. We are a trusted partner to manufacturers and providers, a responsible steward of shareholders' capital, and more than ever, a global solutions leader, united in our responsibility to create healthier futures. As we head into our fiscal 2020 planning process, we feel confident that our business strategy, relationships, and execution position are Marisol's burden to continue to create long-term value for all of our stakeholders. Now I will turn the call over to Jim for a more in-depth discussion of our quarterly financial results. Jim?