Alcon Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Alcon first quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Should anyone require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Dan Cravens, VP of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Welcome to Alcon's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Yesterday, we issued a press release, interim financial report, and presentation. You can find all these documents on our website at investor.alcon.com. Please note that starting this quarter, in order to streamline our reporting, the interim financial report and other filings will be limited to information required by regulations. Non-IFRS results, including constant currency growth and core items, will only be presented in the press release and presentation. Joining me on today's call are David Endicott, our Chief Executive Officer, and Tim Stoneciper, our Chief Financial Officer. Our press release, presentation, and discussion will include forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future developments, except as required by law. Our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements, and as such, you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements are included in our Form 20F, Earnings Press Release, and Interim Financial Report, which are all on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on their website at sec.gov. Non-IFRS financial measures used by the company may be calculated differently from and may not be comparable to similar measures used at other companies. These non-IFRS financial measures should be considered along with but not as alternatives to the operating performance measures as prescribed for IFRS. Please see a reconciliation between our non-IFRS measures with directly comparable measures presented in accordance with IFRS in our press release. For discussion purposes, Our comments on growth are expressed in constant currency. In a moment, David will begin by recapping highlights from the first quarter. After his remarks, Tim will discuss our performance and outlook for 2025. Then David will wrap up, and we will open the call for Q&A. With that, I'll now turn the call over to our CEO, David Endicott.

Thanks, Dan, and thanks, everybody, for joining us today. As we sit here in mid-May, it is remarkable to reflect on how dynamic this year has been so far. First, we've begun a cascade of product launches that will grow our business for years to come, punctuated by the launch of Unity VCS in both Japan and the U.S. Second, we acquired a majority position in a great long-term asset in Ariane Biotech, with the potential to change the standard of care in corneal transplantation. And third, there's been an obvious disruption in the global trade environment. And yet, at Alcon, I remain encouraged by the strength and resilience of our underlying business performance. So while the current tariff structure introduces new headwinds, our global network of 17 manufacturing sites and decades of operational experience position us well to implement mitigating strategies. In most cases, we make products in region for region and have the ability to transfer production across sites. However, our existing manufacturing footprint is optimized for a predominantly free trade environment. Shifting production across sites requires stable trade policy along with time and capital. We'll adapt to whatever final policy decisions are made, but in the meantime, we continue to work with AdvaMed, MedTech Europe, and our local Chinese affiliate to advocate for a MedTech exemption or a zero-for-zero tariff regime. We remain deeply committed to access to eye care, and a zero-for-zero tariff structure supports uninterrupted care by ensuring patients and providers can receive the products they need when they need them. In a few minutes, Tim will walk you through our thinking on the current tariff environment. Now I'll shift to discussing the first quarter. We delivered sales of $2.5 billion and sales growth of 3%. We also delivered a core operating margin of 20.8% and core diluted earnings of 73 cents per share. Despite another soft quarter in the U.S. surgical market, these results are a testament to the breadth of our geographic footprint and product portfolio, as well as the commitment of our talented teams across the globe. I'm pleased to report that at the recent American Society of Cataract Refractive Surgery Conference, we officially launched Unity VCS and PedOptics Pro. The Unity launch is the culmination of more than 10 years of work by our R&D and engineering teams, informed by invaluable input by key opinion leaders around the world. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank all of our teams who've been involved in this transformational change in ophthalmic surgery. Unity VCS is a combined console for both vitro retinal and cataract surgery, while Unity CS is a standalone cataract system that will be available toward the end of the year. The platform is designed to deliver superior efficiency for both types of procedures while continuing to deliver exceptional outcomes and safety. The system features many first-to-market technologies designed to deliver transformative surgical innovation. For example, 4D FACO delivers twice as fast lens removal with 41% lower energy delivered to the eye. Additionally, HyperVit 30K is the world's fastest retractor and is one and a half times faster than the existing best-in-class. Lastly, Unity Intelligent Fluidics creates greater stability and control at each procedural step. Unity VCS has received CE mark and regulatory approvals in Australia, Japan, and the U.S., and we will begin delivering new units later this month. Now I'll turn to implantables, where we recently launched Panoptix Pro. We believe this next-generation technology builds on our market-leading position and keeps us on the forefront of innovation. This lens builds upon the success of the world's most implanted trifocal PCI-OL by reducing the amount of light scatter by 50%. Our surgeon research suggests that light scatter is a key driver of dysphotopsias such as halos and glare, which is why we're so excited about Panoptix Pro. This lens is now available in the U.S., and initial surgeon and patient feedback has been excellent. We look forward to bringing it to select international markets later this year. Now shift to vision care, starting with contact lenses. I've been extremely pleased by the performance of all of our innovative lenses built upon our water gradient technology. Our major recent innovations, including Precision 1 family, the Total 30 family, and Daly's Total 1 for astigmatism grew double digits in the first quarter. We launched Precision 7 at the start of this year, and it's gaining traction with both doctors and patients. Wearers benefit from 16 hours of outstanding comfort, even on day seven, due in part to our active flow system, which keeps lenses moist by leveraging a moisturizing agent in the lens with a replenishing agent. Additionally, wearers appreciate the intuitive seven-day replacement schedule, which enhances patient compliance and satisfaction, offering a great choice if a daily disposable Sci-Hi lens is not an option. For eye care professionals, this lens allows them to meet diverse patient needs with a lens that balances innovation, comfort, and cost-effectiveness. As a reminder, Precision 7 targets a reusable lens category, which we estimate is worth approximately $3.8 billion, and where Alcon is under-indexed. Now I'll turn to ocular health, but I'll start with Sustain Pro. Sustain Pro is the only triple-action, multi-dose, preservative-free formulation for all types of dry eye. The unique formulation includes hyaluronate and offers patients up 12 hours of relief. Additionally, the moisture technology helps reduce friction on the eye's surface, providing both comfort and protection while blinking. This can be a meaningful improvement for patients who experience irritation or discomfort with their current drops. SustainPro has been available in the U.S. since February, and we're continuing to expand its rollout to major retailers nationwide. Next, I'll comment on a culture on our dry eye pharmaceutical candidate. We continue to expect an FDA response to our filing at the end of May, in line with the PDUFA date that we received last year. Our team's been working hard ahead of the launch. We've expanded our eye drop sales force in the U.S. We now have a group dedicated to glaucoma and a separate group dedicated to dry eye. Additionally, we continue to engage with payers where appropriate. Now turning to BDNL activity, we have two recent exciting developments. I'm pleased to report that we acquired the majority interest in Ariane Biotech. Ariane is at the forefront of regenerative medicine. The company's flagship therapeutic candidate, AURN001, has received breakthrough therapy and regenerative medicine advanced therapy designations from the FDA. It could represent a paradigm shift in the treatment of corneal endothelial dysfunction, which is a condition leading to corneal edema, vision loss, and potential blindness. 001 is an allergenic cell therapy comprised of corneal endothelial cells derived from healthy donors and a rokinase inhibitor that enhances cell survival and integration. 001 is administered as a single intracameral injection following a surgical intervention on the corneal endothelium. This therapy offers a minimally invasive alternative to traditional corneal transplants, which are limited by donor availability and surgeon complexity. 001 is currently approved in Japan under the trade name Viznova. In the US, we plan to launch phase three clinical trial activities late this year, and we aim to bring the product to market in mid to late 2028. Given the scale of the unmet need, we expect peak sales of a half a billion dollars or greater. Now, we also entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire LensAR. The acquisition includes the Ally robotic cataract laser treatment system. We intend for this next generation technology to ultimately succeed LensX as our femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery platform. We're excited for the opportunity to bring LensAR's unique next-generation technologies into our innovative equipment portfolio. The transaction is anticipated to close in mid to late 2025, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval. Finally, I'll briefly discuss market dynamics for the first quarter. In Cataract, we estimate that global procedures grew low single digits. Additionally, global ATI oil penetration was up approximately 200 basis points year over year. In both cases, the main growth driver was international markets. In Contact Lens, the retail market remained solid in the first quarter. We estimate that it grew approximately mid-single digits in line with historical trends. Now, with that, I'll pass it to Tim, who will take you through our financial results and discuss our outlook.