Baxter International Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Baxter International's second quarter 2025 earnings call. Your lines will remain in a listen-only mode until the question and answer segment of today's call. At that time, if you have a question, you will need to press star 1 on your touchtone phone. Once again, star and the number 1. If anyone should require assistance during the conference, please press star then 0 on your touchtone phone. And as a reminder, this call is being recorded by Baxter and is copyrighted material. It cannot be recorded or rebroadcast without Baxter's permission. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Claire Trackman, Senior Vice President, Chief Investor Relations Officer at Baxter International. Ms. Trackman, you may begin.

Good morning and welcome to our second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Brent Kaeper, Baxter's Chair and Interim Chief Executive Officer, Joel Grady, Baxter's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Heather Knight, Baxter's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. On the call this morning, we will be discussing Baxter's second quarter 2025 results along with our financial outlook for the third quarter and full year 2025. With that, let me start our prepared remarks by reminding everyone that this presentation, including comments regarding our financial outlook for the third quarter and full year 2025, the anticipated impact of our strategic actions, the potential impact of various regulatory and operational matters, including matters related to the Novum IQ large volume pump and continuing fluid conservation, and the global macroeconomic environment on our results of operations contain forward-looking statements that evolve risks and uncertainties. And of course, our actual results could differ materially from our current expectations. Please refer to today's press release and our SEC filings for more details concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. In addition, on today's call, non-GAAP financial measures will be used to help investors understand factors ongoing business performance. A reconciliation of certain non-GAAP financial measures being discussed today to the comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the accompanying investor presentation and available in our earnings release issued this morning, both of which are available on our website. As a reminder, continuing operations excludes Baxter's kidney care business, which is now reported as discontinued operations. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Brent. Brent?

Thanks, Claire, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. As you saw in this morning's release, our second quarter performance for continuing operations met our previously issued guidance on both top and bottom line. Specifically, second quarter sales from continuing operations grew 4% on a reported basis and 1% on an operational basis, with growth coming from all three segments. And on the bottom line, adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations were 59 cents, increasing 28% over the prior year, These results did come in at the low end of our guidance ranges, reflecting softness and demand for certain products within the medical products and therapies and pharmaceutical segments. Heather and Joel will walk through more details on these factors during their remarks. Importantly, with the sale of ANZE now complete, we have now created a more agile and focused business designed to deliver incremental value for all of our stakeholders. We expect to continue to identify opportunities to further advance our operational effectiveness and improve performance, which will be a key focus area for our next CEO, Andrew Heider. I'll comment more on Andrew's appointment at the close of the call. We are confident in our strategy and our future opportunities to accelerate innovation, growth, and performance overall. We continue to build on the strength of our streamlined profile and to benefit from our portfolio of medically essential products. I also want to recognize our exceptional Baxter colleagues globally, united by our mission to save and sustain lives. I'm grateful for their dedication to our company and our stakeholders. Now I'd like to turn it over to Heather and Joel, who will share details on individual segment results, financial performance, and updated guidance. Heather?