Bausch Health Companies Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the BAUSH Health Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero on your telephone keypad. 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 Christina Cheng, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Andrew. Good morning, and welcome to our second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. Participating in today's call are Thomas J. Appio, Chief Executive Officer of Bausch Health, and Tom Vatikas, Chief Financial Officer of Bausch Health. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that our presentation today contains forward-looking information. We would like to ask you to take a moment to read the forward-looking statements at the beginning of the slides that accompany this presentation. They contain important information. Our actual results may vary materially from these expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Please refer to our SEC filings and filings to the Canadian Securities Administrators for a list of some of the factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our expectations. We use non-GAAP financial measures to help investors understand our ongoing business performance. Non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies and should be considered along with, but not as an alternative to, operating performance measures calculated in accordance to GAAP. You will find reconciliations to our non-GAAP measures in the appendix of the slides that accompany this presentation available in Bausch Health's Investor Relations website. Finally, the financial guidance in this presentation is effective as of today only. We do not undertake any obligation to update guidance. Our discussion today will focus on Bausch Pharma and Solta. However, we will briefly comment on B&L's results. Beginning this quarter, when discussing Consolidated Bausch Health Companies, Inc. results, We will include a discussion of results attributable to Bausch Health Companies, Inc., which exclude a portion of Bausch & Lomb's results attributable to the approximately 11.3% ownership interest in Bausch & Lomb, not owned by Bausch Health. Please refer to Bausch & Lomb's separate 10Q and earnings release last week for more details on Bausch & Lomb's results. With that, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to our CEO, Thomas J. Appio. Tom?

Thank you. Thank you, Christina, and welcome to those of you joining the call today. We had a number of significant developments during the quarter that we'd like to cover. Let's start by giving you three things that I hope you will take away from this call, as you can see on slide six. First, we will vigorously defend our intellectual property in the Xifaxan patent litigation. Second, we are committed to creating value improving our balance sheet, and advancing our strategic alternatives as we work through patent litigation. Third, while we're rebasing our expectations for the year, our new leadership team is focused on driving performance and has taken a series of actions to improve results. Before I get started, it is my pleasure to welcome John Paulson as the Chairman of the Board of Bausch Health. I want to thank Joe Papa for his contributions during as many years as the chairman and CEO of Bausch Health. Let me start with the patent litigation. The U.S. District Court of Delaware indicated that they would find certain U.S. patents protecting the use of Zyfax and 550 milligram tablets for the reduction in risk of HE reoccurrence to be valid and infringed. The court also indicated that they would fund U.S. patents protecting the composition and use of Xifaxin for treating IBSD invalid. Let me take a few minutes to lay out the state of play. One, we strongly disagree with the court's anticipated decision and intend to vigorously appeal the outcome. We expect the appeal process to take 12 to 18 months. Two, Norwich doesn't have a tentative full FDA approval for generic refaxin. Three, Norwich's pending abbreviated new drug application or ANDA applies to both indications, IBSD and HE. The court's decision prevents existing ANDA approval until our HE patent expire in 2029 and therefore a generic version cannot be launched. While they could attempt to carve out the HE indication from their existing ANDA and seek modification of the injunction, they cannot launch a generic Rifaximin product until they secure full FDA approval. Four, the FDA has stated its plans to update product-specific guidance for rifaximin to include in vivo bioequivalent requirements in humans. Differences in the composition between the generic equivalent and difaxin could raise serious risk to HE patients, including hepatic coma or death. The required clinical studies to require safety and efficacy could take a number of years. Five. We have the only approved product for HE, and there are many patients depending on this drug. Xifaxin's unique properties cut the risk of OHE reoccurrence and HE-related rehospitalization by half. It reduces the risk of another OHE episode by 58% compared to placebo. Six. We will aggressively defend our intellectual property related to HE until the patent expires in 2029. As you can see, there are a number of hurdles protecting our market exclusivity. Our teams will continue to be focused on providing this important drug for patients and their families. Moving on to the next topic, we remain committed to creating value by advancing the strategic alternative process and improving our balance sheet. First, earlier in the second quarter, we suspended our plans to IPO Solta Medical due to the challenging market conditions and other factors. Solta is a leading player in the fast-growing medical aesthetics market and is an important franchise for Bausch Health. We are very excited about its significant market and geographic potential. As Salta enters its next phase of growth, it will continue to leverage the scale and the capabilities of our global Bausch Health team. Second, we continue to believe that spinning off Bausch & Lomb makes strategic sense and remain committed to doing so as soon as we are able to satisfy all applicable conditions as previously disclosed. We are evaluating all relevant factors and considerations regarding the distribution as we assess the potential impacts of the Norwich Syphaxin patent litigation. Third, we are committed to improving our balance sheet This quarter we executed an open market repurchase of our long-term paper, which retired $481 million at a significant discount. In addition, earlier in the second quarter we extended our maturity profile, which significantly reduced the debt maturities through 2025. Finally, since taking over on May 10th, our leadership team has taken a series of actions to accelerate performance. We created a flatter and more focused organization that is closer to our core businesses. We re-evaluated our operational strategy and began implementing new initiatives focused on driving near-term returns with a greater sense of urgency, ownership, and accountability. With that, I will turn the call over to Tom Vaticat, who will provide further details on our second quarter performance and our outlook for the remainder of the year. Tom.