Alcon Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Alcon third quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Dan Cravens. Please go ahead, sir.

Welcome to Alcon's third 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. Joining me on today's call are David Endicott, our Chief Executive Officer, and Tim Stonecipher, our Chief Financial Officer. Our press release, presentation, and discussion will include forward-looking statements, including statements about our future outlook. we undertake no 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 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 third quarter. After his remarks, Tim will discuss our performance and outlook for the remainder of the year. Then David will wrap up, and we will open the call for Q&A. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to our CEO, David Endicott.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We entered 2025 knowing that it would be a year of building toward the second half, and the third quarter reflects that progress. While there's still work ahead, we're encouraged by the momentum we're seeing in equipment and ocular health. I'll begin with surgical equipment, where we're seeing clear signs of strength with Unity VCS. As expected, the launch is delivering on its promise of greater efficiency and workflow optimization in vitro retinal and cataract procedures. Surgeons are responding positively to the introduction of 4D FACO technology. Unlike traditional systems, the 4D FACO tip moves in a unique multi-directional pattern that enables more efficient lens removal while delivering significantly less energy into the eye. This motion combined with real-time fluidics is designed to enhance chamber stability. The result is greater control and competence for surgeons and greater efficiency for the hospital or ASC. Importantly, as we articulated in the past, we're being deliberate in pacing installations so that surgeons can observe these significant gains in efficiency. We're investing heavily in training, clinical support, and workflow integration so that each site can fully realize the benefits of Unity. This approach is helping us build durable momentum and strong customer advocacy, and it reflects our longstanding commitment to customer-backed innovation with the surgical community. We're also gearing up for the launch of Unity CS, the standalone cataract version, which will be widely available in the coming months. Together, Unity VCS and CS represent a step change in surgical performance, and we're excited about the momentum heading into next year. Turning to implantables, Panoptix Pro is proving to be a meaningful differentiator. It builds on the success of Clarion Panoptix, but now with 94% light utilization and half the light scattered compared to its predecessor. These enhancements reflect a significant advancement in optical design by providing more uninterrupted light distribution and greater image contrast. Importantly, the launch of Panoptix Pro is beginning to stabilize market share dynamics in the U.S. trifocal IOL category. Now, turning to contact lenses, I was pleased with our results this quarter as we continued to outpace the market. Our toric modalities, in particular, delivered double-digit growth in the quarter and are expanding access for astigmatic patients. This is important because studies show that more than 40% of patients are astigmatic, yet less than half are fitted with toric lenses, representing significant growth opportunity. These lenses feature our proprietary 8 and 4 design, which helps reduce eyelid interaction and allows these lenses to settle quickly. And for wearers, this means clear, stable vision and exceptional comfort. This enhances the patient experience as well as supports practice growth, and retention for eye care professionals by expanding access to more astigmatic patients. Now, moving to ocular health, I'm very pleased with the continued strength of the SUSTAIN family of artificial tears, which delivered high single-digit growth in the quarter. We continue to see encouraging momentum in the adoption of our multi-dose preservative-free formulations led by SUSTAIN Pro, which we launched in January. These formulations are helping us meet the growing demand for preservative-free artificial tears. We're also encouraged by the early performance of Triptyr, which we launched in August. Unlike traditional prescription dry eye drops, Triptyr is the first and only prescription drop that stimulates natural tear production as early as day one. This mechanism of action directly and rapidly addresses the core problem in dry eye disease, rather than supplementing for evaporation or treating the resulting inflammation. This makes Triptyr a meaningful advancement for both prescribers and patients. While it's still early, the breadth of initial uptake has been very encouraging. Prescribable trialing is high, and we're seeing adoption from both ophthalmologists and optometrists. To support access and streamline the patient experience, we've partnered with an easy-to-use digital pharmacy platform to simplify fulfillment. This collaboration is helping patients start the therapy quickly and conveniently, which is especially important in the early stages of launch. Now, more broadly, our commitment to innovation and clinical excellence was on display at the recent ESCRS and AAO conferences. We supported over 40 studies reinforcing the value of our technologies across cataract and refractive care. I'll take a few moments now to highlight three topics. First, there was new data on Vividi ATI wells showing strong patient satisfaction in complex cases like early AMD and mild corneal irregularities. These findings reinforce Vimity's differentiated value proposition in the premium IOL segment. Second, there were time and motion studies that demonstrated statistically significant efficiency gains with Unity VCS compared to the legacy systems. With cataract volumes rising and incidence of retinal disease increasing, demand for ophthalmic care is outpacing the supply of eye care professionals. These results demonstrate that Unity helps address this imbalance by enabling more efficient procedures and supporting higher patient throughput. Finally, a head-to-head study comparing WaveLight Plus and SmilePro revealed that WaveLight's ray tracing technology significantly outperforms Smile in visual outcomes. Using a three-dimensional digital twin of the eye, WaveLight Plus achieved 20, 12.5 vision or better in 98% of the cases versus 82% with SmilePro. It also delivered superior precision, astigmatism correction, and contrast sensitivity. These results underscore the potential of personalized LASIK to set a new benchmark for refractive surgery and reinforces Alcon's leadership in ophthalmic innovation. Moving now to market dynamics, global cataract procedure volumes grew approximately 3% in the quarter, which is an improvement but remains below historical averages. Additionally, global ATI well penetration was up 130 basis points. In vision care, we estimate that the global contact lens market grew approximately 4% in the quarter, with a strong U.S. market partially offset by weaker growth internationally. And before I pass it to Tim, I'll briefly comment on our proposed acquisition of Star Surgical. We continue to view the transaction as attractive and believe that Alcon is best suited to maximize the value of their implantable columnar lens. And we believe that the ICL is complementary to our refractive laser business. So we like this deal. but it isn't essential to our long-term growth plan. Last week, we published a presentation expressing our perspective on the upcoming shareholder vote. We believe our offer represents an attractive premium across multiple measures and creates value for both Alcon and Star shareholders. So to wrap up, despite a soft first half, we're encouraged by recent signs of improving market conditions and the robust performance of our recently launched products. Our innovation pipeline is strong, our execution is focused, and our teams are energized. I want to thank our associates around the world. Your dedication and passion continue to drive Alcon forward. We're proud of what we've accomplished together. I'm excited for what's ahead. With that, I'll turn it over to Tim, who will walk you through the financials.