GSK plc

Thank you, Operator. Hello, everyone.

This is Nick, obviously, as the Operator has just mentioned. Welcome to our full year in Q4 2021 conference call and webcast for investors and analysts. The presentation was posted to gfk.com and it was also sent out by email to our distribution list earlier today. Please turn to slide two. This is the usual safe harbour statement and we'll be making comments on constant exchange rates or CR unless otherwise stated. Please turn to slide three. This is today's schedule. We'll plan to cover all aspects of our four-year results. The presentation will last around 35 minutes to maximise the opportunity for questions. For those on the phone, please join the queue by pressing star one, and we request in the first instance if you could ask one question so that everyone has the chance to participate in today's call. Today our speakers are Emma Walmsley, Luke Miles, Deborah Waterhouse, Brian McNamara, Ian Mackay, and Hal Barron. The Q&A portion of the call will be joined by Roger Connor and David Redford. And with that, I will now hand the call over to Emma. Please turn to slide four.

Thanks, Nick, and a very warm welcome to everyone. I am delighted to announce our 2021 full year results. They demonstrate strong financial performance and continued progress against our strategic priorities. For the full year, sales increased 5% and adjusted EPS increased 9%. Excluding the contribution from COVID solutions, we exceeded our raised guidance with adjusted EPS stable for the full year. Sales growth was driven by first-class commercial execution and strong uptake of new products. Pharma delivered 10% growth, new and specialty medicines growing 26%. Double-digit sales in immunoinflammation, respiratory and oncology, together with sales from Zabudi for COVID-19, all drove this performance. Vaccine sales increased 2%, and consumer healthcare finished the year with 4% growth overall, notably accelerating again in the fourth quarter, with sales up 11%. Alongside this, We increased investment for key R&D pipeline programs, expanded support for new and ongoing launches, and maintained a strong focus on cost optimization. This is also reflected in adjusted operating profit growth, which increased 9% for the full year. We see these results as very encouraging and a demonstration of the accelerating momentum we now have at GSK. As we've said, 2022 marks a step change in growth for the company and is underscored by the guidance for New GSK, the biopharma business we're giving today, of 5% to 7% sales growth and 12% to 14% adjusted operating profit growth at CER. This includes the anticipated benefit of Victavi-related royalties, but excludes any contribution from pandemic solutions. And Ian will provide more detail on this and our overall financial performance in his section. Turning to slide six. 2021 was a year of excellent progress across all three of our long-term strategic priorities. In innovation, we delivered three major product approvals, Gemperli for endometrial cancer, Zavudi for COVID-19, and Apertude, our new long-acting medicine for HIV prevention. We also presented positive phase 3 data for Daproducta, a potential best-in-class medicine for treating anemia of chronic kidney disease, And we expect to file this new and exciting medicine with regulators in the first half of 2022. These new medicines are at the forefront of an exciting high-value pipeline we continue to build across prevention and treatment of disease through organic and inorganic delivery. We now have a pipeline of 21 vaccines and 43 medicines, 22 of which are in pivotal studies. And this year, we anticipate data readouts on up to seven of the 11 new vaccines and medicines we've identified as key future growth drivers. This includes our RSV vaccine for older adults in the first half of 2022 and several new potential specialty treatments, including those for rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and hepatitis B. In performance, our decision to prioritize investment and commercial execution to specialty medicines and vaccines is evident in our improving sales growth. SINGRIX sales clearly reflected the adverse impact of COVID-19 last year, particularly in the US. But we exceeded our expectations highlighted at Q3 to deliver sales of £1.7 billion. And this year, we do expect to see strong recovery growth and loophole through the detail in a moment. And lastly, on trust. We continue to maintain sector leadership in ESG, with our number one ranking in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and our longstanding leadership in the Access to Medicines Index. Looking ahead, we also aim to deliver ambitious environmental commitments with targets of net zero on carbon and net positive on nature by 2030, and we're also making good progress on diversity and inclusion. ESG will continue to be an integral part of new GSK strategy and investment cases. And turning to slide seven, 2022 sees the biggest change in GSK's recent corporate history with the creation of a new, unique world leader dedicated to consumer health care expected in the middle of this year. This will be the culmination of a series of progressive strategic moves successfully executed over the last few years to build significant value and a new consumer health care company. We're now in full countdown mode to demerger, and by doing so, our aim is to unlock the potential of both GSK and Consumer Health, to strengthen GSK's balance sheet, and to maximize value for all our shareholders. As a new standalone company, the consumer healthcare business is a compelling prospect. It has an outstanding brand portfolio and will be a world leader in consumer health. For prospective investors, it'll offer a highly attractive financial profile of above-category sales growth, sustainable margin expansion and high stable cash generation. It will have a fantastic leadership team led by CEO designate Brian McNamara and a board with best in class international consumer sector experience as is already evident with the recent appointment of Sir Dave Lewis as chairman designate. We're going to provide a lot more detail on this business at our capital markets event later this month and Brian will give you more on this shortly. For New GSK, as we've previously shared, we've set a new purpose and new ambitions for growth. Our purpose is to unite science, talent, and technology to get ahead of disease together, to deliver scaled human health impact, improved returns for shareholders, and to be a company where outstanding people thrive. This is reflected in the growth commitments and ambition we set out in our investor update in June last year. These represent a significant step change in delivery for GSK. And as I said earlier, start now and are reflected in the guidance we're giving today and the exciting R&D catalysts ahead. Before closing, I would like to say a very big thank you to the more than 94,000 GSK people who helped to deliver our 2021 performance. and the momentum they have built as we head into this landmark year. So let me now hand over to this team who will take you through more of the details. Luke, first of all, over to you.