AmerisourceBergen Corporation

Good day and welcome to the Merisource Bergen fourth quarter fiscal year 21 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listening 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. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Bennett Murphy, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and thank you all for joining us for this conference call to discuss AmerisourceBergen's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2021 results. I am Bennett Murphy, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Joining me today are Steve Collis, Chairman, President, CEO, and Jim Cleary, Executive Vice President and 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.maristusbergen.com. We've also posted a slide presentation to accompany today's press release on our investor website. During a 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 filing, including our most recent 10-K. America's Bergen assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, and this call cannot be broadcast without the express permission of the 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'll turn the call over to Steve.

Thank you, Bennett, and good morning to everyone on the call. Today, we will focus our remarks on the exceptional progress that the Marisol's Bergen team has made on our strategic priorities during fiscal 2021 and how we will capitalize on that momentum to continue executing and innovating in fiscal 2022. Before I begin, I want to take a moment to comment on the distribution industry's recent milestone regarding the proposed settlement agreement to address opioid related claims of US state attorney generals and political subdivisions in participating states. Throughout the litigation process, we have been consistent in stating our desire to addressing the enormity of the OPR 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 supports. 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. Marisol Bergen will continue to work diligently and alongside partners to combat drug diversion while supporting realist solutions to help address the crisis in the communities where we live, work, and serve. In fiscal 2021, AmerisourceBergen advanced its role as a key pillar of pharmaceutical innovation and access as we lived our purpose of being united in our responsibility to create healthier futures by supporting our partners, customers, and our own team members through challenging times. As the pandemic persists, the importance of our purpose in an evolving environment and an efficient global pharmaceutical supply chain is being felt by all our stakeholders. We are proud to be able to offer our expertise, capabilities, and infrastructure as part of the solution, from facilitating the national distribution of COVID-19 therapies to supporting the distribution of more than 75 million vaccines to patients in over 30 countries through our expanded global footprint. Our business has leveraged its position of market strength to become an increasingly vital partner of choice through differentiated solutions for our upstream and downstream customers. Our continuous investments and ongoing focus on being a strategic partner for our customers have deepened our relationships with all our stakeholders during this time of increased focus on the pharmaceutical supply chain. enhancing our position as a provider of key solutions for our customers, both big and small. We also leverage our core capabilities as a leader in pharmaceutical distribution and a differentiated provider of unique solutions for manufacturers globally and healthcare providers locally. In the U.S., we are a key partner for our community pharmacies, veterinarians, and physician practice, In community pharmacy, we are particularly proud to support our Good Neighbor Pharmacy members' trusted role through our innovative tools and programs that allow independent pharmacists to optimize their operations and spend the most possible time serving their patients and communities. In July, for the fifth year in a row, and for the 10th year of the past 12 years, Good Neighbor Pharmacy Network was ranked highest amongst bricks and mortar chain drugstore Our animal health business, we support veterinary practices in similar ways to help them manage their practices as they continue to experience increased demand for their services due to growth in pet ownership. The cherished role of pets within families and increased importance placed upon ensuring health and well-being for all family members. We also continue to differentiate ourselves as the leader in specialty distribution and commercialization services. This fiscal year, we launched a variety of new services and solutions, building upon our historic investments to further drive our leadership in specialty with our customers and partners. For example, through our ION and other value-added solutions, we formed new partnerships that offer industry-leading technologies to specialty physician services customer practices, enabling them to be even more efficient while enhancing their ability to improve the patient experience and ultimately outcomes. We are also pleased to continue to support the growing adoption of biosimilar products in physician offices and community hospitals and health systems, facilitating patient access to important treatment choices to improve their health and well-being. Internationally, we remain a leading provider of global pharmaceutical distribution services and differentiated solutions in key markets across the globe. Earlier, I mentioned the distribution of tens of millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccines to patients in more than 30 countries. Through our market-leading manufacturer solutions, including our global specialty logistics and commercialization offerings, we are also facilitating direct-to-patient clinical trials and helping manufacturers around the world navigate the ever-increasing complexities of global logistics. Furthermore, we are leveraging our now expanded portfolio of international relationships, partnerships and solutions to facilitate patient access to the rapidly evolving landscape of new pharmaceutical technologies. As we continue to differentiate our business, we remain focused on being strategic partners with our customers as we help them achieve operational efficiencies and support growth in their businesses with innovative solutions. In fiscal 2021, we completed a significant technology investment by bringing the specialty distribution business onto the SAP platform, which will help improve efficiency, increase flexibility, and support continuity. As a global healthcare company, we understand and appreciate the importance of ensuring our businesses have the technology they need to support their operations and enhance their capabilities. Importantly, an increasingly critical part of our global role and responsibility is being strong corporate stewards. That is, ensuring our financial health, investing in our people and culture, and ensuring long-term and sustainable value creation. In terms of our financial health, We continue to take a thoughtful and strategic approach to capital deployment that focuses on value creation and maintaining financial strength. This includes a focus on maintaining our strong investment-grade credit ratings, and we remain on track to delivering on our commitments to the rating agencies. Notably, our financial and strategic position has enabled the continued enhancement of our healthcare capabilities, including the acquisition of Alliance Healthcare which we completed in June. Since then, our culturally aligned teams have worked diligently to integrate our teams and businesses, conducting deep dive into strategically optimizing our operational and business development synergies to exploring ways to enhance the value we create for our partners. As we are seeing through financial results and expectations, our new team members are talented, and I thank the combined Amerisource Bergen and Alliance Healthcare teams for their ongoing support of our integration efforts. Our financial strength also enables us to continue to invest in our people and culture. At Amerisource Bergen, we know our team members are our most valuable asset, and we are committed to inspiring them to achieve their fullest potential. Our efforts go well beyond the table stakes of offering market-aligned pay, and we understand the long-term advantage of being a fair and equitable employer who offers competitive wages at all levels. We have surveyed our team members to find out what is most valuable to them and have invested in attractive benefit programs such as increased paid parental leave, child independent care, and enhanced mental health and wellness programs. Our team members also value a culture of flexibility and we responded with a thoughtfully designed new way of working that provides options for flexibility while balancing the need for in-person connection and innovation. From ensuring the safety of themselves and their loved ones during the pandemic to investing in world-class learning technology and models, we understand that it is absolutely critical that our talent is cultivated and empowered to help drive our long-term growth. Our efforts have been recognized, and we have once again been certified as a great place to work company and named a best place to work for LGBTQ equality by the Human Rights Campaign. Meaningful value can also be unlocked when individuals are empowered to bring their whole selves to work, and we embrace our collective differences. This year, we furthered our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. with the rollout of new employee resource groups and new diverse candidate slate objectives. To further align our people strategy with our business strategy, we also introduced a new leadership competency model that will be embedded throughout all of our talent programs. Based on the collective feedback from team members across Amerisource Bergen, the new model focuses on developing leadership competencies aligned to four key business and cultural goals. diversity, equity, and inclusion, collaboration, innovation, and executional excellence and purpose. As a foundation for how we will recruit, engage, and develop our people, this new model and the principles behind them will enable us to create value now and for the long term. Another aspect of our culture, one which helps ensure sustainable value creation, is our dedication to operating in a sustainable and responsible manner and to supporting healthy and resilient communities where we live and work. During the quarter, we are proud to have become a participant of the UN Global Compact, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative. We also held our third annual Marisol Spurgeon Foundation Conference, which helps foundation grantees connect and learn from each other and the foundation team to help them become even more effective in their work positively impact local communities around the world. Our continued progress in areas like ESG, diversity, equity and inclusion, and strategic planning are made possible by the expert oversight and guidance of our board, as well as the ability of our management team to drive execution and operational excellence. Looking ahead, our key growth pillars enable us to maintain our leading market position and to solidify our differentiated value proposition in fiscal 22 and beyond. First, we are focused on our customers. Through our unique partnership model, we form long-term lasting relationships that integrate us operationally and enable us to provide value-added solutions that help further strengthen our ability to lead with market leaders. We are focused on expanding on our leadership in specialty. By leveraging our global reach, market-leading capabilities, and ability to support rapidly accelerating and global pharmaceutical innovation, we strengthen our capabilities to support both upstream partners and downstream customers. Third, we are focused on execution excellence. This includes continuously investing in our business, which increases our flexibility, expands our suite of capabilities, and enhances our customer experience. Fourth, we are focused on supporting pharmaceutical innovation around the world. With a global manufacturer service platform, we aim to be the strategic partner of choice to global manufacturers as we help them innovate, solve the complex challenges of global logistics and market access, and capture the opportunities of rapidly accelerating pharmaceutical innovation. Downstream, we provide data-driven insights, efficiency solutions, and our unmatched scale to help optimize customer operations and support access for patients in need from the smallest to largest populations across all types of care and across all classes of trade. And finally, our growth is supported by investments in our people, culture, and all dimensions of ESG. By investing in our people and culture, we advance our most important resource. By committing to ESG, we create healthier futures around the world and unlock the added value of being a responsible and impactful enterprise, which ultimately enables a strong and healthy financial position to achieve long-term sustainable value creation for all of our stakeholders. Marisol Spurgeon has made exceptional progress on our strategic priorities, further enhancing our differentiated value proposition and driving consistent art performance throughout the year. As we continue to capitalize on our positive momentum into fiscal 2022, we remain driven by our purpose of being united in our responsibility to create healthier futures. Now powered by 42,000 team members globally, we remain confident in our pharmaceutical-centric strategy and capabilities as a leader in pharmaceutical distribution services and differentiated manufacturer solutions. Thank you to all our team members for their inspiring dedication this year, and we look forward to a great year ahead. Now I will turn the call over to Jim for a more in-depth review of our fourth quarter and fiscal 2021 results and to discuss fiscal 22 guidance.