Merck & Co., Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Good morning. My name is Leah West and I will be your conference moderator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Merck and Company Q3 Sales and Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press 1 then 0 on your telephone keypad. You may withdraw your question at any time by repeating the 10 command. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset before pressing the numbers. If you should require assistance during the call, please press star, then zero. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Peter Tannenbaum, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning. Welcome to Merck's third quarter 2022 conference call. Speaking on today's call will be Rob Davis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Caroline Litchfield, Chief Financial Officer, and Dr. Dean Lee, President of Merck Research Labs. 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 provide a reconciliation in our press release. I would like to remind you that some of the statements that we make today 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 and the 2021 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. During today's call, a slide presentation will accompany our speaker's prepared remarks. The presentation, today's earnings release, as well as our SEC filings are all posted to the investor relations section of Merck's website. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Rob.

Thanks, Peter. Good morning, and thank you for joining today's call. Our strong performance this quarter reflects sustained momentum across our key growth drivers and steady progress in our pipeline. We're well positioned to successfully close out the year, and we look forward to building on this momentum in 2023 and beyond. We're delivering across our strategic priorities and executing well scientifically, operationally, and commercially. As a result, our pipeline is advancing our business is healthy, our growth pillars are intact, and our financial performance is strong. We remain keenly focused on sustaining the success by driving continued growth and delivering long-term value to patients and shareholders. With that, let's turn first to our results. We're pleased to report exceptional revenue and underlying earnings growth again this quarter. We continue to see robust demand for our innovative human and animal health portfolios, including for products such as Catruda, Gardasil, Brideon, and Bravecto. Our updated guidance reflects our expectation of truly standout full-year growth. Moving to our research organization, we've made considerable progress across multiple therapeutic areas. In cardiovascular, the top-line results of the STELR Phase III trial evaluating cetatriceps in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension achieved successful outcomes across both the primary and almost every secondary endpoint, suggesting the potential to transform the treatment of patients suffering from this devastating disease. I'm proud of the way our research organization has moved swiftly following last year's acquisition of Acceleron to advance Sertariceps development. We continue to advance other programs across our broad cardiovascular pipeline, including our Factor XI inhibitor which recently received an FDA fast-track designation for patients with end-stage renal disease. Turning to oncology, we presented encouraging results at ESMO across our broad portfolio and promising pipeline. Long-term survival data reinforces the durable benefits of Keytruda and Wimparza for certain patients. We remain enthusiastic about the potential of Keytruda in earlier stages of cancer, as well as in combination with other agents. In vaccines, we launched vaccine advance in the pediatric setting and are progressing our phase three trial of B116 in adults, an important component of our population-specific approach to invasive pneumococcal disease and part of our broader efforts to provide strong protection to both infants and adults. And finally, in HIV, we are pleased that there is a path forward for Zolotavir clinical trials in the treatment setting. we remain committed to helping address unmet needs in both treatment and prevention. Moving to our efforts around sustainability, we continue to execute on our priorities, further demonstrating our long-standing commitment to delivering value to society, which in turn creates value for shareholders. In August, we published our annual ESG progress report, which provides a comprehensive review of our sustainability strategy Initiatives underway and progress against our goals. Consistent with our mission, we're focused on access to health, ensuring that our inventions reach as many patients as possible. To enable access, we're committed to responsibly discovering and manufacturing our medicines and vaccines, to bringing our best ideas forward through the empowerment of our talented and diverse employees, and to always operating with strong ethics and values. Some of our initiatives include a commitment to providing 91.5 million doses of HPV vaccines in Gavi-supported countries, advancing our goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025, and supporting projects and partnerships in our priority areas through the issuance of an inaugural $1 billion sustainability bond. Our approach to sustainability helps propel and enable our business strategy in ways that align with our operating priorities. This makes us a better company and global citizen, creating value for society and for shareholders. Yesterday evening, we also announced that Ken Frazier will be retiring from his role as Chairman of Merck's Board of Directors at the end of November. I know I speak on behalf of the entire company and our board in expressing our deepest appreciation for Ken, his principled leadership, respect for science, passion for engaging with employees everywhere, commitment to patients and health equity, and contributions to communities around the world. Speaking personally, I'm deeply grateful for the inspiration, mentorship, and support Ken has provided to me. Moving ahead, I look forward to working with the board in my new role as chairman as we continue to build on Ken's legacy and drive toward our purpose of using leading-edge science to save and improve lives globally. I'm confident that we have the fundamental building blocks in place to achieve sustainable growth and value creation. This is exemplified by our talented team of scientists and our colleagues all around the world who are dedicated to discovering, developing, and delivering life-changing medicines and vaccines. I'm very confident in the short and long-term outlook of our company, and I look forward to continuing to show progress as we move into the future. With that, I'll turn the call over to Caroline.