AmerisourceBergen Corporation

Good morning and welcome to the Merisource Bergen third quarter fiscal year 2021 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Bennett Murphy, head of investor relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and thank you all for joining us for this conference call to discuss Amerisburg-Bergen's FISCO 2021 third quarter results. I'm Ben Burby, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Joining me today are Steve Collins, Chairman and President of ZEO, and Jim Cleary, Executive Vice President of CFO. On today's call, we'll be discussing non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures to GAAP are provided in today's press release, which is available on our website at investor.MaristRothbergen.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 four looking statements about our business and financial expectations on an adjusted, non-GAAP basis, including but not limited to ETF, operating income, and income taxes. Four 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 to today's press release and our SEC filings, including our most recent 10-K. America's program assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, and this call cannot be rebroadcast without the express permission of your company. You'll 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 will turn the call over to Steve.

Thank you, Bennett, and good morning to everyone joining us today. Before we discuss our results for the quarter, I want to comment on the distribution industry's recent milestone regarding the proposed settlement agreement to address opioid-related claims of U.S. state attorneys generals and political subdivisions in participating states. Throughout the litigation process, we have been consistent in stating our desire to address the enormity of the opioid challenge by bringing solutions to the table. If the industry's proposed agreement and settlement process leads to a final settlement, it would collectively provide thousands of communities across the United States with substantial financial support. Clearly, the process is in an advanced stage and we will not comment deeply at this time. We take our role in the supply chain seriously and continue to work closely with stakeholders concerning these complex matters. AmerisourceBergen will continue to work diligently and alongside partners to combat drug diversion while supporting real solutions to help address the crisis in the communities where we live, work, and serve. Turning now to our results for the third quarter of fiscal 2021, Amerisource Birmingham delivered yet another quarter of exceptional results driven by a high level of execution, purpose-minded team members, and continued focus on delivering differentiated value. As we announced earlier this morning, we had revenues of over $53 billion, representing growth of 18% from the same period last year, and we grew our adjusted EPS by 17% year over year. These results reflect continued strong performance across AmeriSource Bergen's businesses as we capitalize on our differentiated pharmaceutical-centric value proposition. and as our team successfully execute on our key strategic initiatives. This strength and execution continue to create value for our shareholders, and today we are again raising our fiscal 2021 four-year guidance, which Jim will discuss later in greater detail. I will focus my remarks today on the key strategic pillars that are driving our strong performance. as well as how, with the addition of Alliance Healthcare, Amerisource Bergen continues to be well positioned to create value for all our stakeholders. Amerisource Bergen remains next-minded, and we are focused on continuing to enhance our ability to provide global healthcare solutions as we support pharmaceutical innovation and access, both in the United States and internationally. In the United States, Our pharmaceutical distribution business continues to benefit from our industry-leading customer relationships, our leadership in special distribution and commercialization services, and strong end-market trends, including an early and unexpected return to pre-COVID prescription utilization trends in the June quarter. Our leading customer base includes our good neighbor pharmacy and Elevate provider network members. They are proving daily that community pharmacies are at the forefront of providing quality and equitable care and maintaining deep levels of trust with their patients and communities. In fact, for the fifth year in a row, Good Neighbor Pharmacy was ranked highest amongst brick-and-mortar chain drugstore pharmacies by J.D. Power. This is the 10th time we have received that honor in the past 12 years, and it is a testament to community awareness of the value of the quality care and experience patients receive at GMP member pharmacies. We held our annual four-spot conference last week, and I was touched and inspired by the stories that our members shared. Through the entrepreneurship expertise and deep community roots, community pharmacies prove that they do more than just full prescriptions. They are critical promoters of health equity across the US, often going above and beyond to provide holistic care and health education at the local level, particularly in under-resourced communities. Since the beginning of the pandemic, community pharmacies have stepped up fearlessly to meet the unprecedented challenges of a global health crisis and show the world why community pharmacies are integral to our communities. The value proposition of community-based care has never been clearer. Another relevant example is on the animal side. The growth in pet ownership has increased demand for our veterinarian customers as pets are a cherished part of the family and the care a veterinarian provides is valued. This positive trend over the last year has long-term benefits for our business as NWI is well positioned with key anchor customers and services. On the human health side, access to local trusted expertise care remains vital, particularly for those dealing with complex health challenges that bring them into the care of specialty physician providers. As I've said from the onset of the pandemic, we are conscious of the negative impact that restrictive measures have on patients. when they have less access to screenings and tests that help doctors identify serious health issues. This has particularly impacted patients who are new to a doctor or healthcare facility, but now our customers have begun to see a normalization in new patient trends, and as a result, patients are more effectively being diagnosed and gaining access to treatment. This is a clear positive for patient care. As the leading provider of specialty distribution and commercialization services, we will continue to play our role in supporting pharmaceutical innovation and access as patients' visit volumes continues to normalize. Our specialty physician services business has strong performance this quarter and continues to differentiate AmeriSol's burden with leading value-added services, such as those through our physician GPOs. Additionally, BioFenders continue to be a positive for our customers, our business, and the healthcare system overall, as they provide room for new innovative products to come to market. The innovations in CAR-T and cell and gene therapies and the potential applications of the new mRNA technology offer the medical community new potential tools in the treatment of serious diseases that previously eluded truly effective care. AmerisourceBergen is well-positioned to support all these innovations through our specialty distribution and manufacturer services offerings. our unique ability to provide value-added expertise in conjunction with innovative solutions and quality service enhance our partnerships and grow our business with strong partnerships relationships and a leading portfolio of solutions to support a wide pipeline of practices and products Amerisource Bourbon is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the market opportunities provided by global pharmaceutical innovation as we drive growth in our business and help our partners tackle some of the most critical challenges facing healthcare. We have a strong foundation in place across our businesses, and in June we took another significant step forward by closing the Alliance Healthcare transaction and welcoming their talented team to the Marisol's Bourbon family. The acquisition of Alliance Healthcare is the next evolution of enhancing our ability to provide innovative and global healthcare solutions and is a critical component to our future success. Alliance Healthcare is a strong and diversified pharmaceutical distribution and manufacturer services company with leading market positions across an attractive portfolio of both established European markets, and high-growth emerging markets. In addition to their traditional wholesale business, Alliance Healthcare operates a range of leading, higher-margin innovation businesses serving both upstream partners and downstream customers. The acquisition of Alliance Healthcare extends our distribution reach, builds on our market-leading services capabilities, Specifically, Amerisource Birmingham's leading portfolio of key anchor customers now includes a long-term relationship with Boots in the UK and a network of independent pharmacies across Europe through the Alfea Pharmacy Network. Since the completion of the transaction, we have gotten the chance to know both the business and the people at Alliance Healthcare better. and we remain very positive about the opportunity that this landmark achievement provides AmerisourceBergen as we are positioned for a differentiated global growth platform. This includes our dedication to further strengthening our portfolio of solutions and customer relationships to lead with market leaders in every segment and to supporting patient access or if ever a prescription is needed. Second, AmerisourceBurman's leadership in specialty is further enhanced with key commercialization services in new markets. By leveraging the expertise and capabilities of our world career business, along with alliances of LOGA and Alcura, we elevate our ability to be a differentiated solution provider for global manufacturers as they develop and commercialize pharmaceuticals around the world. This is complementary to the solutions that we provide at World Courier, which continues to play a key role in providing global specialty logistics through both traditional commercial offerings and direct-to-patient clinical trial capabilities. we remain dedicated to expanding on our leadership in specialty and to enhancing our capabilities to support global pharmaceutical innovation. Third, Amerisource program focuses on delivering best-in-class services and efficiency, and this transaction enhances our ability to develop innovation solutions that are fundamental to our success operationally and commercially. Our innovative mindset means that we embrace advanced technologies, data, and analytics, and now we can further support positive outcomes through our expanded global platform. This fiscal quarter We were selected as the industry leader award winner at the 2021 SAP Innovation Awards for our work in developing SAP advanced track and trace for pharmaceuticals. This technology tracks millions of daily shipments at the batch level and further strengthens the pharmaceutical supply chain in the US. The value of a resilient and sustainable global pharmaceutical supply chain is vital. and the abilities to support pharmaceutical innovation to a global footprint with broad leadership and local expertise provide differentiated value for our partners. AmerisourceBergen stakeholders recognize the value we create, the importance of our purpose, and the critical nature of the service and the infrastructure that we provide. Fourth, AmerisourceBergen continues to work upon our history of corporate stewardship which focuses on advancing our people and culture, protecting the company's financial health, and ensuring long-term sustainable value creation. With Alliance Healthcare, we are now an even more global and diverse company, and we are committed more than ever to advancing the value of our talent and culture. Over the past year, we have invested in enhancing our talent and diversity and inclusion strategies to enable more growth opportunities within our increasingly inclusive workplace. We recently launched our Executive Leadership Initiative, ongoing success of high-potential Black, Hispanic, and Latinx team members at the mid- and senior levels, addressing the most pronounced leadership and representation gaps identified over the last several months following best-in-class research-based approaches. In the future, we plan to provide dedicated development opportunities for high-potential employees of additional underrepresented groups. Investing in our leadership development and talent and culture is important to our long-term sustainable growth, which is supported by diverse and inclusive teams. This focus is important to ensuring we capture the value of our collective differences and reflect our social commitment as we continue to strategically focus on delivering on all elements of ESG. Our ESG strategy is foundational to Amerisource Birmingham. Our leadership, our board, and our people. Recently, Amerisource Birmingham joined the Science-Based Target Initiative as we continue to line our business with best practice organizations around the world. At the local level, we continue to be deeply committed to our communities. This past year, we launched My Community Impact, a matching gifts and dollar for doers program and we recently made it available to all global employees. Our philanthropic efforts have been recognized by diversity and rank us eighth in their annual 50 Best in Philanthropy rankings. As I close my prepared remarks today, I remain truly inspired by the commitment and performance of our team members who are now numbering 41,000. With their unwavering passion and support, Amerisource Bergen is well positioned to capitalize on our global footprint to provide leading pharmaceutical distribution services and to leverage our expertise as an innovative commercialization services provider internationally. We remain confident in our pharmaceutical-centric strategy, our capabilities as partner of choice with market-leading manufacturer services, and our role in continuing the acceleration of pharmaceutical innovation by providing differentiated value to our stakeholders, focusing on our customers, expanding on our leadership in specialty, and executing, innovating, and supporting pharmaceutical innovation globally. We are well positioned to create long-term stakeholder value as we remain united in our responsibility to create healthier futures. Now I will turn the call over to Jim for a more in-depth review of our results and updated financial guidance. Jim?