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 the marketing company Q2 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 Terri Locksum, SVP, Investor Relations and Global Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Darlene. Good morning. Welcome to Merck's second quarter 2019 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'm also joined by Mike Nally, our Chief Marketing Officer, and Frank Clyburn, our Chief Commercial Officer, who will 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 will 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 a 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 statement. Our SEC filings, including Item 1A and the 2018 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 forward-looking statements made this morning. Merck undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements. You can see our SEC filings as well as today's earnings release on Merck.com. We've also posted a presentation to the investor section of Merck.com, which includes some of our highlights from the quarter. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Ken.

Thank you, Terri. Good morning, and thank you all for joining the call. Our science-led strategy, together with our clinical and commercial execution, drove another quarter of accelerating revenue growth with strength across our global portfolio. Our results demonstrate the continued momentum of our business through the first half of the year and further show that our focus on the kind of innovation that significantly improves health outcomes is paying off. As highlighted in our recent Investor Day, we are confident that our innovative portfolio of product and significant pipeline opportunities, supported by unparalleled R&D and commercial execution, will continue to drive strong growth while we invest in cutting-edge science to deliver breakthroughs over the next decade and beyond. Over the past quarter, we continued to advance our pipeline and presented encouraging data across our programs, including two additional regulatory approvals and a filing acceptance for Keytruda, two new regulatory approvals in infectious diseases, as well as new clinical data on the V14114 pediatrics trials, MK8591, and many others. Our clinical and regulatory progress reflects Merck's unwavering commitment to biomedical research aimed at bringing forward products that can make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients around the world. In addition, we continue to strategically invest in business development to strengthen our pipeline through value-enhancing external opportunities. This quarter alone, we announced two acquisitions that will bolster our oncology pipeline with Peloton Therapeutics and Telos Therapeutics, respectively. We also successfully completed our tender offer for immune design and closed on the acquisition of Antelic in animal health. We remain confident that our strategy, growth prospects, outstanding scientific and commercial talent, and leadership team, together with our focus on execution, will enable us to drive significant value for patients and shareholders this year and for years to come. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Rob to review the details of our quarterly performance. Rob?