Merck & Co., Inc.

Good morning. My name is Darla, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Merck's fourth quarter 2018 sales and earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press the pound key. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Terry Lockson, SVP Investor Relations and Global Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Darlene. Good morning. Welcome to Merck's fourth quarter and full year 2018 conference call. Today I'm joined by Ken Frazier, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Rob Davis, our Chief Financial Officer, and Dr. Roger Perlmutter, President of Merck Research Labs, who will each have prepared remarks. In addition, I am joined by Mike Nally, our new Chief Marketing Officer, and Frank Clyburn, our new Chief Commercial Officer, who will both be available for the Q&A portion of the call. Before I turn the call over to Ken, I'd like to point out a few items. You'll see that we have items in our GAAP results, such as acquisition-related charges, restructuring costs, and certain other items. You should note that we have excluded these from our non-GAAP results and provide a reconciliation of these in our press release. We have also provided a table in our press release to help you understand the sales in the quarter for the business units and products. I would like to remind you that some of the statements that we make during today's call may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provision of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are made based on the current beliefs of Merck's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. If our underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Our SEC filings, including Item 1A in the 2017 10-K, identify certain risk factors and cautionary statements that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected in any of our forward-looking statements made this morning. Merck undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements. You can see our SEC filing as well as today's earnings release on Merck.com. Finally, similar to last quarter, we have posted a presentation to the investor section of Merck.com, which highlights some of our financials from the quarter and the year. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Ken.

Thank you, Sherry. Good morning, and thank you all for joining the call. In 2018, Merck distinguished itself through its strong performance across its businesses. Perhaps most significantly, Our full year results demonstrate that our strategy to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company is working. The investments we've made in R&D over the past several years and our commercial execution have culminated in the highest top and bottom line growth the company has seen in years. And we expect our momentum to carry over into 2019. At its core, Merck is a science-driven organization motivated by a quest to improve human and animal health. We've spent the last several years reinvigorating our labs, investing in three new research centers in South San Francisco, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, and refocusing our efforts on creating truly differentiated medicines that help solve big health problems for now and the future. This unwavering commitment to science and innovation enables us to retain the best talent in the industry, to drive our strategic priorities, and to continuously enhance our pipeline of medically significant treatments and vaccines. Our clinical and commercial execution in the I.O. space has further separated Keytruda from its competition, and our leadership in oncology is further bolstered by the growth prospects for Lenparsa and Lenvima. Gardasil is not only driving meaningful growth for the company after a decade on the market, but is also instilling optimism around the world that this vaccine could help prevent and maybe eliminate certain HPV-related cancers. We are confident in our broad portfolio of market-leading products and our diversified high-potential pipeline, which includes significant innovations in oncology, vaccines, and other special and hospital care. along with a robust industry-leading animal health business. In fact, Merck is one of the broadest and most promising pipelines we've had over the past two decades. In summary, we are excited by our progress, our pipeline, and our future. We are energized by the work that we do, and most importantly, by our ability to help patients around the world while also creating sustainable long-term growth and strong shareholder returns. Before I turn the call over to Rob, I'm pleased to announce that we will be hosting an investor event on June 20th, during which we will provide an update on our strategic progress and outline how Merck will continue to deliver innovative science and create value for all of our stakeholders. We will be back to you with the details on location and other logistics, but we ask that you save the date. Now I'd like to turn it over to Rob for more color on our financial and operational performance. Rob?