Abbott Laboratories

Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Abbott's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. All participants will be able to listen only until the question and answer portion of this call. During the question and answer session, you will be able to ask your question by pressing the star one one keys on your touchtone phone. This call is being recorded by Abbott. With the exception of any participants' questions asked during the question and answer session, the entire call, including the question and answer session, is material copyrighted by Abbott. It cannot be recorded or rebroadcast without Abbott's express written permission. I would now like to introduce Mr. Mike Camilla, Vice President, Investor Relations.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. With me today are Robert Ford, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bob Funk, Executive Vice President Finance, and Phil Boudreau, Senior Vice President Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Robert and Phil will provide opening remarks. Following their comments, we'll take your questions. Before we get started, some statements made today may be forward-looking for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including the expected financial results for 2023. Abbott 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. Economic, competitive, governmental, technological and other factors that may affect Abbott's operations are discussed in item 1A risk factors to our annual report on form 10 K for the year ended December 31st, 2022. Mike SanClements, Abbott undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward looking statements as a result of subsequent events or developments, except as required by law. Mike SanClements, On today's conference call, as in the past, non gap financial measures will be used to help investors understand Abbott's ongoing business performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are reconciled with the comparable GAAP financial measures in our earnings news release and regulatory filings from today, which are available on our website at abbott.com. Note that Abbott has not provided the GAAP financial measure for organic sales growth on a forward-looking basis because the company is unable to predict future changes in foreign exchange rates, which could impact reported sales growth. Unless otherwise noted, our commentary on sales growth refers to organic sales growth, which is defined in the quarterly results press release issued earlier today. With that, I will now turn the call over to Robert. Thanks, Mike.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, we reported third quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.14. Based on our performance through the first nine months of the year, We raised the midpoint of our full year adjusted earnings per share guidance and narrowed the range to $4.42 to $4.46. Organic sales growth on the base business, which excludes COVID testing, increased double digits for the third consecutive quarter and was led by double digit growth in all four of our major businesses. This acceleration in sales growth is a result of our strong position in attractive growth markets in conjunction with the additional investments we made across the company during the pandemic. In addition to the strong top line performance, we continue to deliver accelerating earnings power on our base business and remain on track to deliver on the financial commitments we set at the beginning of the year. With a positive growth outlook for the businesses and the momentum we're building across the portfolio, we are well positioned for a strong finish to the year and heading into 2024. I will now review our performance in more detail before turning the call over to Phil. I'll start with nutrition, where sales increased 18% in the quarter. In pediatric nutrition, growth of 25% was led by continued market share capture in the U.S. infant formula business, where we have now reclaimed the leadership position. Internationally, we continue to deliver well-balanced growth coming from both infant formula products and our PediaSure toddler brand. In adult nutrition, growth of 12% was driven by strong demand for Abbott's market-leading Ensure and Blue Cerna brands across the U.S. and international markets. Turning to established pharmaceuticals, sales increased 11% in the quarter. This strong performance was broad-based and led by double-digit growth in several markets and therapeutic areas, including cardiometabolic, women's health, and CNS pain management. In September, we announced an agreement with global biotech leader MabScience to commercialize several biosimilars in emerging markets. This collaboration will help introduce cutting-edge medicines in the areas of oncology, women's health, and respiratory diseases to people in countries that have historically lacked access to these treatment options. Moving to diagnostics, excluding COVID testing, organic sales grew 10% led by CoreLab Diagnostics, where sales grew double digits, driven by above-market performance in the US and internationally. Growth was driven by a continued increase in global demand for routine diagnostic testing and a strong recovery of our blood transfusion testing business following a period of lower plasma donations that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. In rapid diagnostics, Double digit organic sales growth on the base business benefited from increased demand for respiratory tests in anticipation of an earlier than normal start to the flu season in the northern hemisphere. And I'll wrap up with medical devices, where sales grew nearly 15%, including double digit growth in both the US and internationally. In diabetes care, Freestyle Libre sales were $1.4 billion in the quarter and grew 28%. The global Libre user base now exceeds 5 million people, with nearly 2 million of those in the US, where the Libre user base has nearly doubled in the last two years. A recent analysis of our US user base showed that a growing number of Libre users are using Libre in combination with GLP-1 medications as part of a companion therapy approach for managing their diabetes. On average, those using both Libre and a GLP-1 exhibited a higher rate of use for both products, wearing Libre sensors more often and taking GLP-1 medications more frequently compared to other users. This increase in use or better compliance is a positive sign that these users are taking an even more active role in managing their diabetes. And while we traditionally think of therapy choices as having to compete against one another, this is a good example of a complementary relationship between two products that both help optimize the treatment of diabetes. In cardiovascular devices, sales grew 10% overall in the quarter, led by double-digit growth in electrophysiology and structural heart. In electrophysiology, sales growth of 17% was driven by double-digit growth across all major international geographic regions and high teens growth of ablation catheters in the US. In structural heart, performance was driven by double-digit growth of MitraClip and strong growth from several recently launched new products, most notably Navitor, our latest generation TAVR valve. In rhythm management, growth was led by double-digit growth in pacemaker sales, led by Avere, our recently launched leadless pacemaker that can be used for both single chamber and dual chamber pacing. And lastly, in neuromodulation, sales grew 19% driven by the recent launch of Eterna, our first rechargeable neurostimulation device for pain management, which targets a large segment of the market where we previously did not compete. So in summary, this was a very strong quarter, with all four major businesses delivering double-digit organic sales growth, excluding COVID testing-related sales. Growth rates in the base business have improved every quarter this year on both the top and bottom lines. And the momentum we are building positions us well for a strong finish to the year and heading into 2024. I'll now turn over the call to Phil.