Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

Welcome to the Bristol-Myers Squibb first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. 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, today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tim Power, Vice President and Head of Investor Relations.

Please go ahead. Thank you and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us this morning for our first quarter 2024 earnings call. Joining me this morning with prepared remarks are Chris Berner, our Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer, and David Elkins, our Chief Financial Officer. Also participating in today's call are Adam Lankowski, our Chief Commercialisation Officer, and Sumit Hirawat, our Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Drug Development. As you'll note, we've posted slides to bms.com that you can use to follow along with for Chris and David's remarks. Before we get started, I'll read our forward-looking statement. During this call, we make statements about the company's future plans and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the company's SEC filings. These forward-looking statements represent our estimates as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our estimates as of any future date. We specifically disclaim any obligation to update forward-looking statements, even if our estimates change. We'll also focus our comments on our non-GAAP financial measures, which are adjusted to exclude certain specified items. Reconciliations of certain non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are available at bms.com. And with that, I'll hand it over to Chris.

Thank you, Tim, and good morning, everyone. Q1 was a busy quarter for us and a good start to 2024. Starting on slide four and knowing what an active quarter we had, I wanted to start by telling you how we think about our performance across four dimensions. First, the performance of our commercial portfolio was good and broadly in line with our expectations, even with some products impacted by inventory or gross to nets. Second, we made solid progress advancing our pipeline. Third, we closed four important transactions that strengthen our long-term growth profile during Q1. And fourth, we're taking decisive actions to improve productivity. Taken together, Q1 performance was broadly aligned to our internal expectations. And importantly, there is no change to the underlying business outlook we provided in February. As you know, we've included the accounting impact of the recently closed transactions in our non-GAAP EPS guidance. Let's turn to slide five for some details. I'll start with some highlights on commercial performance. We've seen real strength across key brands, including Eloquus, Optulag, Roblozil, Yervoy, and Brianzi. And though the BCMA space remains competitive, our objective is to return Abecma to growth over time with the CARMA-3 approval as we move into a larger patient population. Turning to Abdevo, Chemzios, and Sotictu. What's important about all three brands is that demand grew, while revenue was impacted by other factors such as inventory and gross to NETs. Today, we are seeing the inventory patterns for Obdivo and Camxios normalizing, and for SOTIC2, we're steadily building commercial script volume as access continues to improve this year. David will give you more details, but taken together, the commercial performance in Q1 is in line with our expectation and sets us up for the year. Second, we made important progress advancing our pipeline. This includes two important cell therapy approvals, the initiation of new registrational trials, and important proof-of-concept data for opti-lag and lung cancer from a pre-specified analysis of our Phase II during Q1. We're looking forward to starting a Phase III registrational trial versus standard of care in a segment consisting of about 20 to 30 percent of non-small cell lung cancer patients. And, not on the slide, but important for patients is Milvexian, which has the potential to be the only oral factor 11a medicine in AFib and ACS. The trials are continuing following the most recent DSMB review, with enrollment accelerating. Third, we closed four important deals during the quarter. Across all four, we have added assets, capabilities, and expertise that strengthen our ability to drive long-term growth as we exit the 2020s. Our team is driving performance of Corsati. The RAISE radioligand plant in Indiana is now operational. We're in the process of filing an application to supply clinical product for RAISE 101 from the site. SystemUne's first-in-class bispecific ADC is advancing into global clinical trials in tumors including lung and, over time, breast cancer. And we are very excited about the potential of CAR-XT from Karuna. which I will review on slide six. The team is on track and focused on two objectives. First, launch preparations are underway and on track for CAR-XT. Second, we are executing against a robust clinical program for this important asset. On the slide, you can see the significant unmet need in schizophrenia and highlights of data recently presented for CAR-XT. These data demonstrate its compelling long-term efficacy as CARXT was associated with significant improvements in symptoms of schizophrenia across all efficacy measures without evidence of metabolic or movement disorder side effects. This reinforces the very attractive profile for this medicine as an important advancement for patients and a significant commercial opportunity for the company. Underpinning our efforts to navigate this decade is an enhanced focus on driving operational productivity and efficiency. and we have made some notable progress already this year. Let's go to slide seven. At a company level, we have clearly identified brands and programs that are most critical to both near and latter half of the decade performance. Across the organization, we have initiated efforts to do layer and streamline decision making. And within R&D, we are optimizing the portfolio to focus our internal efforts on higher ROI programs. These are programs with compelling science, significant commercial value, and in therapeutic categories where BMS is positioned and resourced to win. As a result of these actions, we anticipate cost savings of approximately $1.5 billion by the end of 2025, which will allow us to reinvest in high priority growth brands and R&D programs. With our heightened focus on improving productivity and efficiencies, we're strengthening the company's long-term growth profile. This is a snapshot of what has been a very busy start to the year, and while we clearly have more work to do this year, we're off to a good start. Let me close on slide 8. Overall, our business outlook remains unchanged. We remain confident that we will deliver top-line growth for the year consistent with what we communicated in February, and our underlying non-GAAP EPS forecast has also remained unchanged. We are taking important actions to effectively manage the decade. Our management team is focused on ensuring the discipline execution required to deliver both this year and set us up for the longer term. I want to thank the employees of BMS, including new team members from our recent acquisitions, for their contributions and commitment to delivering for patients. Let me now hand it over to David.