Labcorp Holdings Inc.

And thank you for standing by. Welcome to the second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To remove yourself from the queue, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Chas Cook, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, and welcome to LabCorp's second quarter 2023 conference call. As detailed in today's press release, there will be a replay of this conference call available via telephone and the Internet. With me today are Adam Schechter, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Glenn Eisenberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. This morning, in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.labcorp.com, We posted both our press release and an investor relations presentation with additional information on our business and operations, which include a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the GAAP financial measures discussed during today's call. Additionally, we are making forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimated 2023 guidance and the related assumptions, the impact of various factors on the company's businesses, operating and financial results, cash flows, and or financial condition, including the spinoff of Fortria and its treatment as discontinued operations, and general economic and market conditions, future business strategies, expected savings and synergies, including from the Launchpad initiative, acquisitions and other transactions, and opportunities for future growth. Each of the forward-looking statements is subject to change based upon various factors, many of which are beyond our control. More information is included in our recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and in the company's other filings with the SEC. We have no obligation to provide any updates to these forward-looking statements, even if our expectations change. Now, I'll turn the call over to Adam.

Thank you, Chas. Good morning, everyone. Before I cover our second quarter results, I want to first thank Chas for his leadership in investor relations over the last several years. Chas will be moving into the role of Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis, effective in August. I also want to take this opportunity to welcome Kristen O'Donnell, an accomplished leader in our finance organization who has been appointed to Vice President of Investor Relations. Both Chas and Kristen will be in attendance at our upcoming Investor Day on September 14th, and we look forward to seeing many of you in person. Beginning this quarter, Labcorp is reporting results without the inclusion of Fortria, which is now an independent, publicly held company, as a result of our successful spin on June 30th. Moving forward, we'll report our laboratory services business under two segments, Labcorp Diagnostics Laboratories and Labcorp Biopharma Laboratory Services. Biopharma Laboratory Services consists of two businesses, Our central laboratories business, which represents about 70% of segment revenue, and early development research laboratories, which although smaller, is also a leader in the market. In the second quarter, LabCorp delivered exceptional year-over-year growth in our diagnostics laboratories-based business, and generated strong growth in central laboratories. Early development research laboratories continued to be constrained by industry-related supply chain issues that we expect to be resolved in the third quarter. We enter the second half of the year with clear operational focus and enhanced financial flexibility to advance our strategy. We see strong momentum in the base business and are excited about the growth opportunities before us. Now let's discuss our second quarter performance. In the quarter, revenue totaled $3 billion Adjusted earnings per share was $3.42, and free cash flow from continuing operations was $177 million. Our business is performing well, with overall revenue increasing 4% compared to prior year. Base business revenue grew 13% to prior year. Diagnostics Laboratories' base business revenue grew 16%, driven by both strong base business volume and ascension. For biopharma laboratory services, second quarter revenue grew 3 percent, driven by central laboratories business, which grew 9 percent, partially offset by early development research laboratories, which was down 7 percent due to NHP supply constraints. We expect early development research laboratories to grow in the second half of the year versus prior year. And we do not expect impact from NHP supply constraints for the rest of the year. Enterprise-based business margin was slightly down compared to the prior year due to the impact of ascension, which we discussed previously. Diagnostic laboratories' base business margin increased versus prior year if you exclude ascension. And BioPharma laboratory services margins expanded benefiting from central laboratory strong volume increases. Glenn will provide more detail on our quarterly results as well as our updated 2023 outlook in just a moment. As we mentioned at the top of the call, we completed the spin of Fortria business on June 30th. I want to thank both the LabCorp and Fortria teams for their tireless effort in achieving this milestone that positions us to better meet customer needs and delivers immediate value to our shareholders. We announced that we'll begin an accelerated $1 billion share purchase program. We'll pay off $300 million in maturing debt, and we'll utilize the remainder of the $1.6 billion dividend to LabCorp from Fortria to be returned to shareholders through additional future share purchases and or cash dividends. The completion of the SPIN brings the growth opportunities of our laboratory businesses into full focus. We're poised to leverage our deep science, technology, and innovative laboratory network to drive growth and to deliver superior solutions to our customers. We're also in a very strong position operationally to advance our laboratory business. Here are several recent examples where we progressed our enterprise strategy in the second quarter. We continue to drive growth through healthcare system partnerships. Earlier this month, we finalized our strategic relationship with Jefferson Health, one of the largest health systems serving the greater Philadelphia area and southern New Jersey. This new collaboration will focus on future research and innovations to improve health outcomes. In May, we announced the next step in our longstanding relationship with Providence Health and Services to acquire its outreach laboratory business and select assets in Oregon. This transaction builds on our more than 20-year history with the Providence family of organizations. Finally, earlier in July, we announced a comprehensive lab relationship with Legacy Health in Portland, Oregon. Under this agreement, LabCorp will acquire select assets of its outreach laboratory business, including laboratory facilities and equipment, and manage legacies inpatient hospital laboratories. These relationships create immediate value for hospital systems, for patients, for communities, while also providing significant growth opportunities for LabCorp. The partnerships meet our criteria of being accretive to earnings and cash in the first year. Although the margins are typically lower than the company average early on, they do improve over time. We are also pleased with our progress integrating hospital partnerships and acquisitions. For example, with Ascension, which we announced in 2022, we continue to see reduced employee turnover and improved performance due to our partnership. This scalable model connects our two mission-driven organizations to provide care teams with information to make the best possible decisions for patients. We continue to look for regional laboratory acquisitions in geographies where we can increase access to diagnostics and expand capabilities. As an example, this week we completed our acquisition of certain assets of Enzo Biochem's Clinical Laboratory Division in New Jersey, which serves the New York tri-state healthcare communities. We have a very robust pipeline of potential hospital and local laboratory acquisitions and will continue to focus energy and resources on this important opportunity for growth. Additionally, we're investing in innovation and technology that supports diagnostic and drug development testing across disease areas, including cancer, Alzheimer's, and other diseases. In May, we commercially launched a new liquid biopsy test, enabling target therapy selection for patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors. The LabCorp plasma focus test allows oncologists to better evaluate tumor cells and manage the care of patients through a precision therapy plan. Additionally, our portfolio of KID solutions from the acquisition of PDDX is gaining momentum with major health systems and academic centers. Our solutions can enable operational and financial efficiencies that are making us a key partner for hospital and health systems as they execute on their precision medicine programs. Recently, we were the first laboratory to launch a test for PTAL181 in plasma, an important blood test for potential Alzheimer's patients demonstrating symptoms of dementia. Our teams are at the forefront of Alzheimer's testing, as the number of people impacted by this disease is expected to double over the next two decades. In April, we broke ground on the expansion project of our new central laboratory facility in Japan. When complete at the end of 2024, the facility will enhance our central laboratory testing capabilities to support drug development. We also opened two new facilities in China, a new kit production facility in Suzhou and an immunology and immunotoxicology lab in Shanghai. In addition, we delivered impactful digital solutions to help our customers understand, manage, and improve their health. As part of our commitment to improving the customer experience, we launched an advanced e-commerce platform to improve consumer engagement with LabCorp. The platform will support all of our businesses, including LabCorp On Demand, which offers consumers access to many of LabCorp's innovative tests online nationwide. Lastly, I speak on behalf of the entire management team when I say that we are excited about our upcoming Investor Day on September 14th in New York City. This event will highlight our go-forward strategy, offer business overviews, and provide a longer-term financial outlook. We have a value creation roadmap that we are excited to share. Today marks a new chapter in our company's history. We have a team of more than 60,000 global employees with a united focus. LabCorp's base business is performing very well. We're executing on our growth strategy and we're leveraging LabCorp's financial strength as well as operational focus to improve health, to improve lives, while also increasing shareholder value. With that, I'll turn the call over to Glenn.