Merck & Co., Inc.

Good morning. My name is Lara, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Merck & Co. Q1 Sales and Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed in 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 respond to your question, press the pound key. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Peter Dannenbaum, Vice President, Investor Relations. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you, Lara, and good morning. Welcome to Merck's first quarter 2021 conference call. Today I'm joined by Ken Frazier, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Rob Davis, our President, Dr. Dean Lee, President of Merck Research Labs, Frank Flyburn, President of Human Health, and Caroline Litchfield, Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, 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 provided a reconciliation in our press release. I would also 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 release of market 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 foreign-looking statements. Our SEC filings, including item 1A and the 2020 10-K, identified certain risk factors and cautionary statements that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected in any of our foreign-looking statements made this morning. Merck undertakes no obligation to publicly update any foreign-looking statements. Our SEC filings, today's earnings release, and an investor presentation with highlights of our results are all posted on Merck.com. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Ken.

Thank you, Peter. Good morning, and thank you for joining today's call. 2021 marks Merck's 130th year, which provides an opportunity to reflect on our company's heritage of bringing forward transformative innovations that have changed medical paradigms across many therapeutic areas. Today, we are well positioned to achieve sustained future success given our highly talented employees, our scientific expertise, our promising pipeline, and our financial and operational strength. We also are taking the right steps to evolve Merck's operating model to best position the company for the future as the industry landscape continues to evolve. The upcoming spinoff of Organon, will further enhance our focus on innovation and on our key growth drivers, and this will enable necessary investments in cutting-edge science. Merck's leadership progressions have been thoughtfully planned and seamless succession is well underway. Each of our newly appointed leaders has a proven track record of success and embodies the mission of the company. I am confident that this team, led by Rob, is more than ready to take the helm and lead this company into the future. Reflecting on the results this quarter, while the pandemic continued to impact both patient access and healthcare provider capacity to treat, we delivered solid performance, especially considering the high proportion of physician-administered products in our portfolio, particularly our vaccine. And speaking of the pandemic, Merck remains committed to the development of model pure beer as an important potential treatment for COVID-19. We are proud to partner with Johnson and Johnson on the production of their vaccine. This will be my final earnings call as CEO before I retire from the role on June 30th. I want you to know that I appreciate the helpful and constructive input you all have given me over the years. And I look forward to serving as executive chairman of the board of directors and acting in an advisory role, and importantly, to watching Merck achieve even greater success. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Rob Davis.