Jessica Moore: Thanks, Joaquin. Unless otherwise stated, the financial results and guidance highlighted reflects the continuing operations of Johnson & Johnson. We will report the consumer health financial results as discontinued operations. Furthermore, the percentages quoted represent operational results and therefore, exclude the impact of currency translation. Starting with Q4 2023 sales results. Worldwide sales were $21.4 billion for the fourth quarter of 2023. Sales increased 7.2%, with 11% in the U.S. and 2.7% outside of the U.S. Excluding the net impact of acquisitions and divestitures, adjusted operational sales growth was 5.7% worldwide, 8.8% in the U.S. and 2.1% outside the U.S. It is important to note that sales in Europe were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 vaccine and loss of exclusivity of ZYTIGA by approximately 1,500 basis points operationally. Turning now to earnings. For the quarter, net earnings were $4.1 billion, and diluted earnings per share was $1.70 versus diluted earnings per share of $1.22 a year ago. Excluding after-tax intangible asset amortization expense and special items for both periods, adjusted net earnings for the quarter were $5.6 billion and the diluted earnings per share was $2.29, representing increases of 2.4% and 11.7%, respectively, compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. On an operational basis, adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 11.2%. For the full year 2023, sales were $85.2 billion. Sales grew 7.4%, with 10.6% in the U.S. and 3.8% outside of the U.S. Excluding the net impact of acquisitions and divestitures, adjusted operational sales growth was 5.9% worldwide, 8.2% in the U.S. and 3.4% outside the U.S. Sales in Europe were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 vaccine and loss of exclusivity of ZYTIGA by approximately 1,000 basis points operationally. Net earnings for the full year 2023 were $13.3 billion and diluted earnings per share was $5.20 versus diluted earnings per share of $6.14 a year ago. Full year 2023 adjusted net earnings were $25.4 billion, and adjusted diluted earnings per share was $9.92, representing increases of 6.8% and 11.1%, respectively, versus full year 2022. On an operational basis, adjusted diluted earnings per share increased by 10.8%. I will now comment on business sales performance in the quarter. Beginning with Innovative Medicine. Worldwide Innovative Medicine sales of $13.7 billion increased 4% with growth of 9.5% in the U.S. and a decline of 3.1% outside of the U.S. Excluding COVID-19 vaccine sales, worldwide and U.S. sales growth was 9.5%, and growth outside of the U.S. was 9.4%. Sales outside the U.S., excluding the COVID-19 vaccine were negatively impacted by approximately 120 basis points due to the loss of exclusivity of ZYTIGA in Europe. Innovative Medicine growth was driven by our key brands and continued uptake from recently launched products, with nine assets delivering double-digit growth. We continue to drive strong sales growth for both DARZALEX and ERLEADA, with increases of 22.2% and 19%, respectively. Within immunology, we saw sales growth in both STELARA and TREMFYA, with increases of 14.5% and 20.5%, respectively. This growth was driven by market growth and share gains as well as favorable patient mix in TREMFYA. Growth of 17.4% in pulmonary hypertension was driven by favorable patient mix, share gains and market growth. Turning to newly launched products. We continue to make progress on our launches of CARVYKTI and SPRAVATO. We are also encouraged by the early success of our launches of TECVAYLI and TALVEY, sales of which are driving the growth in other Oncology. As a reminder, we expect to begin disclosing TECVAYLI sales in Q1 2024. Total Innovative Medicine sales growth was partially offset by unfavorable patient mix in XARELTO, a decrease in IMBRUVICA sales due to competitive pressures and a loss of exclusivity of ZYTIGA, REMICADE and PREZISTA. I'll now turn your attention to MedTech. Worldwide MedTech sales of $7.7 billion increased 13.4% with Abiomed contributing 4.5% to growth. Growth in the U.S. was 14.1% and 12.8% outside of the U.S. Excluding the impact of acquisitions and divestitures, worldwide adjusted operational sales growth was 9.1%. MedTech was negatively impacted by international sanctions in Russia worth approximately 50 basis points, primarily in Advanced Surgery and Vision. Electrophysiology delivered double-digit growth of 25.2% with strong growth in all regions, including Europe. This growth was driven by our global market leading portfolio, including the most recently launched QDOT RF ablation and OCTARAY catheters. Abiomed contributed $340 million in sales within the quarter driven by continued strong adoption of Impella 5.5 technology. Growth of 6.4% in surgery was driven primarily by procedure recovery and strength of our biosurgery and wound closure portfolios. Growth was partially offset by volume based procurement in China, primarily in Endocutters. Orthopaedics growth of 5% reflects procedure growth, success of recently launched products such as the global expansion of our VELYS digital solutions and expansion in ambulatory surgical centers, as well as lapping of prior year China’s VBP price concessions in Spine. Growth of 6.6% in Vision was driven by price actions and contact lenses, as well as strength of new products including ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day family of products and contact lenses and TECNIS EYHANCE, our monofocal interocular lens and surgical vision. Growth of contact lenses was partially offset by U.S. stocking dynamics. Global Vision growth was negatively impacted by 140 basis points due to the Blink divestiture in Q3. Now turning to our consolidated statement of earnings for the fourth quarter of 2023. I'd like to highlight a few noteworthy items that have changed compared to the same quarter of last year. Cost of products sold margin deleveraged by 130 basis points due to commodity inflation and unfavorable product mix in MedTech, partially offset by favorable patient mix and lower COVID-19 vaccine supply network related exit cost in Innovative Medicine. We continue to invest strategically in research and development at competitive levels, investing $4.5 billion or 20.9% of sales this quarter. We invested $3.4 billion or 24.5% of sales in Innovative Medicine with the increase in investment being driven by higher milestones, partially offset by portfolio prioritization. In MedTech, R&D investment was $1.1 billion or 14.6% of sales with the increase in investment primarily driven by the Laminar acquisition. Interest income was $212 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 as compared to $77 million of income in the fourth quarter of 2022. The increase in income was driven by higher interest rates earned on cash balances and a lower average debt balance. The other income and expense line was income of $421 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to an expense of $795 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. This was primarily driven by higher unrealized gains on securities and lower (ph) COVID-19 vaccine-related exit costs. Regarding taxes in the quarter, our effective tax rate was 14.4% versus 16% in the same period last year. This decrease was primarily driven by the net decrease of tax liabilities, including the settlement of the 2013 through 2016 U.S. tax audit. Excluding special items, the effective tax rate was 10.8% versus 16.2% in the same period last year. I encourage you to review our upcoming 2023 10-K filing for additional details on specific tax-related matters. Lastly, I will direct your attention to the box section of the slide, where we have also provided our income before tax, net earnings and earnings per share adjusted to exclude the impact of intangible amortization expense and special items. Now let's look at adjusted income before tax by segment. In the fourth quarter of 2023, our adjusted income before tax for the enterprise as a percentage of sales decreased from 32.5% to 29.2%. Innovative Medicine margins declined from 37.7% to 37.4%, primarily driven by higher R&D milestones, partially offset by favorable patient mix and leveraging and selling and marketing expense. MedTech margins declined from 24.5% to 15.5% primarily driven by in-process research and development expense from the Laminar acquisition, commodity inflation and unfavorable product mix, partially offset by selling and marketing expense leverage. This concludes the sale and earnings portion of the call. I'm now pleased to turn it over to Joe.


Joseph Wolk: Thank you, Jessica, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. As Joaquin and Jessica commented, 2023 was a strong year for Johnson & Johnson evidenced by notable top and bottom line performance beats relative to what we guided to 2023 at this time last year. We are particularly proud of the innovation we advanced to strengthen our development pipelines, the continued expansion of our portfolio and investments made for future success. All of this provides us with a strong foundation as we enter 2024. Thus far during the call, you've heard about sales and income performance in 2023. So now let's dive into some detail on capital allocation highlights. We generated free cash flow of more than $18 billion in 2023. At the end of the year, we had approximately $23 billion of cash and marketable securities and approximately $29 billion of debt for a net debt position of $6 billion. We maintained a healthy balance sheet and robust credit rating, underscoring the strength of Johnson & Johnson's financial position, which enables us to strategically invest and deploy capital to unlock value. To that end, we executed against all of our capital allocation priorities in 2023. For starters, we invested more than $15 billion in research and development or 17.7% of sales, an all-time high for the company as we remain one of the top investors in R&D across all industries. Jessica provided R&D investment by business segment, information we will continue to provide on a quarterly basis moving forward. As far as dividends, 2023 marked the 61st consecutive year in which we increased our dividend. We know this use of capital is a priority for our investors, and we plan to continue to increase our dividend annually. We also deployed, announced or committed over $3 billion in strategic value creating inorganic growth opportunities in the last 12 months. This amount includes the recent Ambrx and Laminar transactions as well as more than 50 smaller early-stage licensing deals and partnerships that complement our current Innovative Medicine and MedTech pipelines. Finally, share repurchases. In early 2023, we completed the $5 billion share repurchase program initiated in late 2022 and in combination with our dividend, returned over $14 billion to shareholders last year. Through the Kenvue separation, we further reduced the Johnson & Johnson's outstanding share count by 191 million shares or approximately 7% without the use of cash and in a tax-free manner. Looking ahead to 2024, Johnson & Johnson's robust free cash flow generation should continue to solidify our already strong financial foundation and fuel further investment leading to growth for our business or returns to shareholders. Now turning to our full year 2024 guidance. Today, we are confirming the 2024 guidance for those items previewed at our enterprise business review in early December by filling in some of the details. We expect operational sales growth for the full year to be in the range of 5% to 6% or $88.2 billion to $89 billion. As a reminder, our sales guidance continues to exclude any impact from COVID-19 vaccine sales. In Innovative Medicine, we expect 2024 to deliver a 13th consecutive year of above market growth, driven by market share gains from key brands such as DARZALEX, TREMFYA and ERLEADA as well as continued adoption of recently launched newer products such as CARVYKTI, TECVAYLI, TALVEY and SPRAVATO. In MedTech, we remain focused on executing our key value drivers: first, advancing our differentiated pipeline such as programs in pulse field ablation, Abiomed and surgical robotics, further shifting our portfolio into high-growth markets; second, expanding our reach and scale around the world; and third, building operational resilience across our portfolio. We don't speculate on future currency movements, but utilizing the euro spot rate relative to the U.S. dollar as of last week at $1.09 as well as other major currencies, we estimate there would be a slight unfavorable impact of $400 million or a negative 0.5% on reported sales growth for the year. Turning to other items on our P&L. We expect our 2024 adjusted pretax operating margin to improve by approximately 50 basis points driven primarily by a continuation of efficiency programs across the organization. We expect this to be partially offset by anticipated STELARA biosimilar entrants in Europe in the second half of this year and some lingering inflation impact in MedTech inventory that will flow through 2024's P&L. This margin improvement encompasses dilution of additional investment associated with our planned acquisition of Ambrx, which will be treated as a business combination. Now we do acknowledge that this 50 basis point improvement simply gets us back to what your models expected, given the elevated Q4 2023 R&D investment for new pipeline assets. Regarding other income and expense, we anticipate income to be $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion for 2024. This is less than the 2023 amount driven by the impact of actuarial assumptions on certain employee benefit programs such as lower discount rates. We are comfortable with you modeling net interest income between $450 million and $550 million, consistent with 2023 levels. Finally, we are projecting an effective tax rate for 2024 in the range of 16% to 17% based on current tax laws and anticipated geographic income mix across our businesses. This tax rate takes into account an increase of approximately 1.5% or 150 basis points relative to the recently enacted Pillar 2 legislation. We continue to believe the U.S. Treasury's current perspective on Pillar 2 is harmful, reducing U.S. incentives for innovation and resulting in U.S. based multinational companies paying more tax revenue to foreign governments. Our full year share count calculation for adjusted earnings per share in 2024 will include the remaining benefit equal to approximately 120 million shares from the approximately 191 million net share reduction in outstanding J&J shares following the Kenvue exchange offer. Given all these factors, we expect adjusted operational earnings per share to grow 7.4% at the midpoint for a range of $10.55 to $10.75. Based on the euro spot rate of 1.09 from last week, we do not estimate any currency impact on earnings per share. I'll now provide some qualitative considerations on quarterly phasing for your models. We expect Innovative Medicine sales growth to be slightly stronger in the first half of the year compared to the second half, given the anticipated entry of STELARA biosimilars in Europe towards the middle of the year. This headwind will be partially offset by continued uptake from our recently launched products. We project MedTech operational sales growth to be relatively consistent throughout the year, expecting procedures in 2024 to remain above pre-COVID levels. The first half of the year will continue to have modest impact from Russia sanctions as our licenses are approved. We anticipate China VBP pricing for surgical IOLs and orthopedic sports to begin in 2024 with impacts from 2023 VBP in electrophysiology, Endocutters, Energy, Spine and Trauma to begin to anniversary throughout 2024. Regarding EPS phasing, it is important to highlight that the first half of the year will benefit from the full 191 million net share reduction following the Kenvue exchange offer with only a partial comparative benefit in the third quarter versus Q3 2023 and the fourth quarter being neutral versus Q4 2023. So based on the foundation strengthened in 2023 and numerous catalysts that Joaquin outlined across our business in 2024, we are confident in our ability to achieve both near and long-term financial targets. I'd like to close by thanking our colleagues for their dedication and commitment to benefit patients around the world. It is their effort that enables Johnson & Johnson to deliver innovative therapies and solutions that address serious unmet medical needs and creates long-term sustainable value for shareholders. With that, I’m now pleased to turn the call over to Kevin to begin the Q&A portion of the call.


Jessica Moore: Hello everyone. This is Jessica Moore, Vice President of Investor Relations for Johnson & Johnson. Welcome to our company's review of the first quarter business results and our full year financial outlook for 2024. A few logistics before we get into the details. As a reminder you can find additional materials including today’s presentation and associated schedules on the Investor Relations section of the Johnson & Johnson website at investor.jnj.com. Please note that this presentation contains forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, the company's future operating and financial performance, market position and business strategy. You are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements, which are based on the current expectations of future events using the information available as of the date of this recording, and are subject to certain risk and uncertainties that may cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected. A description of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in our SEC filings, including our 2023 Form 10-K, which is available at investor.jnj.com and on the SECs website. Additionally, several of the products and compounds discussed today are being developed in collaboration with strategic partners or licensed from other companies. This slide acknowledges those relationships. Moving to today's agenda I will start by reviewing the first quarter sales and P&L results for the corporation as well as highlights related to our two businesses. Joe Wolk our CFO will then provide additional business and financial commentary before sharing an overview of our cash position, capital allocation priorities, and guidance for 2024. The remaining time will be available for your questions. Joaquin Duato our Chairman and CEO as well as Jennifer Taubert, John Reed, and Tim Schmid, our Innovative Medicine and MedTech leaders will be joining us for Q&A. To ensure we provide enough time to address your questions, we anticipate the webcast will last approximately 60 minutes. Unless otherwise stated the financial results and guidance highlighted today reflect the continuing operations of Johnson & Johnson. Furthermore, the percentages quoted represent operational results and therefore exclude the impact of currency translation. Turning to our first quarter sales results. Worldwide sales were $21.4 billion for the first quarter of 2024. Sales increased 3.9% with growth of 7.8% in the U.S. and a decline of 0.3% outside of the U.S. Excluding the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine, operational sales growth was 7.6% worldwide and 7.4% outside of the U.S. Sales growth in Europe excluding the COVID-19 vaccine was 6%. Turning now to earnings. For the quarter net earnings were $5.4 billion and diluted earnings per share was $2.20 versus basic loss per share of $0.19 a year ago. Excluding after tax intangible asset amortization expense and special items for both periods, adjusted net earnings for the quarter were $6.6 billion, and adjusted diluted earnings per share was $2.71, representing increases of 3.8% and 12.4%, respectively compared to the first quarter of 2023. On an operational basis, adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 12.8%. I will now comment on business sales performance in the quarter. Beginning with Innovative Medicine, worldwide Innovative Medicine sales of $13.6 billion increased 2.5%, with growth of 8.4% in the U.S. and a decline of 4% outside of the U.S. Excluding the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine, operational sales growth was 8.3%, both worldwide and outside of the U.S. Innovative Medicine growth was driven by our key brands and continued uptake from recently launched products, with nine assets delivering double-digit growth. We continued to drive strong sales growth across our multiple myeloma portfolio. DARZALEX growth was 21%, primarily driven by share gains of six points across all lines of therapy and ten points in the front line setting. As of this quarter, we are now disclosing TECVAYLI sales, which were previously reported in other oncology. Sales achieved $133 million in the quarter, compared to $63 million in the first quarter of last year, reflecting a strong launch in the relapsed refractory setting. CARVYKTI achieved sales of $157 million, compared to $72 million in the first quarter of last year, driven by continued capacity expansion, manufacturing efficiencies, and strong demand. While sequential growth was roughly flat due to phasing, we continued to anticipate quarter-over-quarter growth with acceleration in the back half of the year. Other oncology growth was driven by continuing strong uptake of TALVEY, our GPRC5D bispecific, and RYBREVANT our bispecific antibody for non-small cell lung cancer. Also in oncology, ERLEADA continues to deliver strong growth of 28.4%, primarily driven by share gains. Growth of 22.4% in pulmonary hypertension was driven by favorable patient mix, share gains, and market growth for both OPSUMIT and UPTRAVI. As a reminder, favorable patient mix was a driver in Q2 2023 through Q1 2024. Therefore, while we still anticipate growth, we expect to lap this dynamic beginning in Q2 2024. Within immunology, we saw sales growth in TREMFYA of 27.6%, driven by market growth and share gains. STELARA growth of 1.1% was driven by market growth and share gains in IBD, partially offset by unfavorable patient mix in the U.S. and as expected, share loss in PSO and PSA. We anticipate continued volume growth largely offset by price declines as we move towards biosimilar entry. In neuroscience SPRAVATO growth of 72% continues to be driven by share gains and additional market launches. Total Innovative Medicine sales growth was partially offset by unfavorable patient mix in XARELTO, which we anticipate continuing throughout the year, as well as a decrease in IMBRUVICA due to competitive pressures, partially offset by stocking dynamics in the U.S. Finally, it is worth noting distribution rights for REMICADE and SIMPONI in Europe will be returned in Q4. I'll now turn your attention to MedTech. Worldwide Med1ech sales of $7.8 billion increased 6.3%, with growth in the U.S. of 6.6% and 6.1% outside of the U.S. In the quarter, worldwide MedTech growth was negatively impacted by approximately 80 basis points due to fewer selling days, disproportionately impacting orthopedics. In cardiovascular previously referred to as Interventional Solutions, electrophysiology delivered double-digit growth of 25.9%, with strong growth in all regions. Performance was driven by global procedure growth, new product uptake, commercial execution, and a onetime inventory build in Asia-Pacific, impacting worldwide growth by approximately 370 basis points. In addition, Abiomed delivered growth of 15%, driven by continued strong adoption of Impella 5.5 and Impella RP technology. Orthopedics growth of 4.8% includes a onetime revenue recognition timing change related to certain products across all platforms in the U.S. positively impacting worldwide growth by approximately 300 basis points. As a reminder, orthopedics was over indexed by the impact of reduced selling days in the quarter. Strong performance in hips and knees was driven by procedure recovery, growth of new products, and commercial execution. While trauma and spine were negatively impacted by competitive pressures and core trauma was further impacted by weather related softness in the U.S. Growth of 1.9% in surgery was driven primarily by procedure recovery and strength of our bio surgery and wound closure portfolios, partially offset by competitive pressures in China volume based procurement and energy and endo cutters. Contact lenses declined 2.3%, driven by U.S. stocking dynamics, partially offset by strong performance in ACUVUE OASYS 1-day family of products. Worldwide growth was negatively impacted by 120 basis points due to the Blink divestiture in Q3 2023. Surgical Vision grew 1.1%, driven by CNIS EYHANCE, a monofocal intraocular lens partially offset by China's VBP. Now turning to our consolidated statement of earnings for the first quarter of 2024. I'd like to highlight a few noteworthy items that have changed compared to the same quarter of last year. Cost of product sold margin leveraged by 160 basis points, primarily driven by lower COVID-19 supply network related exit cost. Selling, marketing, and administrative margins deleveraged 110 basis points, driven primarily by timing of marketing investment in the Innovative Medicine business. We continued to invest strategically in research and development at competitive levels investing $3.5 billion, or 16.6% of sales this quarter. We invested $2.9 billion, or 21.4% of sales in Innovative Medicine, with the increase in investment being driven by continued pipeline progression. In MedTech, R&D investment was $0.6 billion, or 8.3% of sales, a slight decrease driven by phasing. Interest income was $209 million in the first quarter of 2024, as compared to $14 million of expense in the first quarter of 2023. The increase in income was driven by a lower average debt balance and higher interest rates earned on cash balances. Other income and expense was income of $322 million in the first quarter of 2024, compared to an expense of $6.9 billion in the first quarter of 2023. This change was primarily due to the $6.9 billion charge related to the talc settlement proposal recorded in the first quarter of 2023. Regarding taxes in the quarter, our effective tax rate was 16.9% versus 61.8% in the same period last year, which was primarily driven by the tax benefit on the talc settlement proposal recorded in the first quarter of 2023. Excluding special items, the effective tax rate was 16.5% versus 15.9% in the same period last year. I encourage you to review our upcoming first quarter 10-Q filing for additional details on specific tax related matters. Lastly, I'll direct your attention to the box section of the slide, where we have also provided our income before tax, net earnings, and earnings per share adjusted to exclude the impact of intangible amortization expense and special items. Now let's look at adjusted income before tax by segment. In the first quarter of 2024 our adjusted income before tax for the enterprise, as a percentage of sales increased from 36.1% to 36.8%, primarily driven by an increase in non-allocated interest income with both Innovative Medicine and MedTech margins remaining relatively flat year-over-year. When comparing against the fourth quarter and full year 2023, Innovative Medicine and MedTech adjusted income before tax margins have improved. This concludes the sales and earnings portion of the call. I am now pleased to turn it over to Joe.

other income and expense first quarter of 2024


Jessica Moore: Thank you, Joaquin. Moving to our financial results. Unless otherwise stated, the results and guidance highlighted today reflect the continuing operations of Johnson & Johnson. Furthermore, the percentages quoted represent operational results and therefore excludes the impact of currency translation. Starting with Q4 2024 sales results. Worldwide sales were $22.5 billion for the quarter. Sales increased 6.7% with growth of 10% in the US and 2.5% outside of the US. Worldwide growth was negatively impacted by 290 basis points due to STELARA and positively impacted by 100 basis points due to acquisitions and divestitures. It's important to note growth in Europe was negatively impacted by 720 basis points due to the loss of exclusivity of STELARA and the COVID-19 vaccine. Turning now to earnings. For the quarter, net earnings were $3.4 billion and diluted earnings per share was $1.41 versus diluted earnings per share of $1.70 a year ago. Excluding after tax intangible asset amortization expense and special items for both periods, adjusted net earnings for the quarter were $4.9 billion and adjusted diluted earnings per share was $2.04, representing decreases of 11.1% and 10.9%, respectively, compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. Earnings per share in the quarter was negatively impacted by $0.22 of acquired IPR&D expense related to the V-Wave acquisition. For the full year 2024, sales were $88.8 billion. Sales grew 5.9% with growth of 8.3% in the US and 2.9% outside of the US. STELARA and the COVID-19 vaccine negatively impacted worldwide growth by 260 basis points. Acquisition and divestitures positively impacted worldwide growth by 50 basis points. Growth in Europe was negatively impacted by 670 basis points due to the COVID-19 vaccine and the loss of exclusivity of STELARA. Net earnings for the full year 2024 were $14.1 billion and diluted earnings per share was $5.79 versus diluted earnings per share of $5.20 a year ago. Full year 2024 adjusted net earnings were $24.2 billion and adjusted diluted earnings per share was $9.98, representing a decrease of 4.6% and an increase of 0.6% respectively versus full year 2023. Earnings per share in the year was negatively impacted by $0.67 due to acquired IPR&D charges on various transactions throughout the year. I will now comment on business sales performance in the quarter. Beginning with Innovative Medicine. Worldwide sales of $14.3 billion increased 6.5% excluding the COVID-19 vaccine with growth of 11.1% in the US and a decline of 0.3% outside of the US. STELARA negatively impacted worldwide growth by 490 basis points. Innovative Medicine growth was driven by our key brands and continued uptake from recently launched products with 10 assets delivering double-digit growth. Results across the portfolio continue to be positively impacted by price adjustments associated with Argentina hyperinflation consistent with market practice. Starting with oncology. We continue to drive strong sales growth across our multiple myeloma portfolio. DARZALEX growth was 23.5%, primarily driven by share gains of over three points across all lines of therapy and six points in the frontline setting as well as market growth. This marks Johnson & Johnson's first brand to achieve over $3 billion in sales in a quarter. CARVYKTI achieved sales of $334 million with growth of over 100% driven by share gains and capacity expansion. This reflects sequential growth of 17.3% aligned with our expectations of accelerating growth in the back half of the year. TECVAYLI sales were $146 million in the quarter with growth of 18%, reflecting a strong launch in the relapsed refractory setting. Demand remains strong despite continued adoption of longer duration dosing intervals. Finally, within our multiple myeloma portfolio, TALVEY continued its launch trajectory with another quarter of strong growth. As a reminder, we anticipate disclosing TALVEY sales in the first quarter of 2025, which are currently reported in the category Other Oncology. ERLEADA continues to deliver strong growth of 22.7%, primarily driven by share gains and market growth, reaching $3 billion in annual sales for the first time. RYBREVANT, our bispecific antibody for non-small cell lung cancer, contributed to growth in the category Other Oncology as we continue to expand approved indications. We also anticipate disclosing RYBREVANT sales in the first quarter of 2025. Within immunology, we saw sales growth in TREMFYA of 5.6%, driven by strong market growth and share gains in PsO and PsA, partially offset by unfavorable patient mix and inventory dynamics. We are excited about the recent UC launch and expect to see strong uptake of the IBD indications in 2025. STELARA declined 13.6% driven by the impact of current and anticipated biosimilar competition. As a reminder, biosimilar competition has entered the US in January 2025. REMICADE and SIMPONI worldwide sales were positively impacted by return of distribution rights in Europe. In Neuroscience, SPRAVATO growth of 45.3% continues to be driven by increased physician and patient demand. As Joaquin mentioned, SPRAVATO has exceeded $1 billion in annual sales for the first time. Other Neuroscience decline was driven by the loss of a SPINRAZA tender in Europe. In Pulmonary Hypertension, OPSUMIT grew 2.5%, driven by market growth and share gains, partially offset by inventory dynamics in the US and austerity measures in Europe. Starting in 2025, we will begin to report OPSYNVI, which is currently reported in the category Other Pulmonary Hypertension in OPSUMIT. UPTRAVI grew 12. 1%, driven by market growth, patient mix and share gains. Finally, XARELTO sales growth was driven by favorable patient mix. I'll now turn your attention to MedTech. Worldwide sales of $8.2 billion increased 7.6% both in the US and outside of the US. Acquisitions and divestitures had a net positive impact of 300 basis points on worldwide growth, 430 basis points in the US and 150 basis points outside of the US. Overall, MedTech growth was driven by commercial execution and strength of new product introductions, partially offset by increased competitive PFA pressures in US electrophysiology and continued headwinds in Asia Pacific, primarily in China. In Cardiovascular, electrophysiology delivered growth of 7.3%. Performance was driven by global procedure growth, new product uptake and commercial execution, partially offset by competitive PFA ablation catheter uptake in the US and VBP in China. Despite the IV saline shortage in the US, Abiomed delivered growth of 13.2% driven by strong growth in all regions and continued adoption of Impella 5.5 and Impella RP technology. Cardiovascular results also included $258 million associated with the acquisition of Shockwave. Contact Lenses and Other grew 7.4%, driven by trade inventory dynamics, continued strategic price actions, strong performance in ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day family of products as well as lapping prior year impacts from Russia sanctions. Surgical Vision growth of 13.6% was driven by TECNIS PureSee & TECNIS Eyhance. Commercial execution partially offset by competitive pressures in the US. Orthopedics grew 2.5% inclusive of hips growth of 5.6%, primarily driven by the success of recent product launches and commercial execution, partially offset by revenue disruption from the previously announced orthopedics transformation, impacts of China VBP and competitive pressures. Lastly, Surgery grew 0.4% with the Acclarent divestiture negatively impacting results by approximately 130 basis points. Performance was driven primarily by commercial execution, strength of new products across wound closure and biosurgery and continued price adjustments primarily associated with hyperinflation consistent with market practice. Growth was partially offset by competitive pressures in Energy and Endocutters as well as VBP and the anticorruption campaign in China. Now turning to our consolidated statement of earnings for the fourth quarter of 2024. I'd like to highlight a few noteworthy items that have changed compared to the same quarter of last year. We continue to invest strategically in research and development at competitive levels to fortify our future, investing $5.3 billion or nearly 24% of sales, which includes $540 million of acquired IPR&D expense associated with the V-Wave acquisition. Selling, marketing and administrative expense as a percent of sales deleveraged 150 basis points driven by increased commercial investment in the Innovative Medicine business. Interest income and expense was a net income of $144 million as compared to $212 million of income last year driven by lower interest rates earned on a lower average cash balance and higher interest rates on a higher average debt balance. Other income and expense was a net income of $161 million compared to $421 million of income in the prior year. This was primarily driven by lower gains on securities, a lower benefit related to employee benefit programs due to the discount rate, partially offset by lower litigation expense in 2024. Regarding taxes in the quarter, our effective tax rate was 11.7% versus 14.4% in the same period last year. This decrease was primarily driven by post-acquisition integration efforts that allowed the company to deduct certain acquisition costs for tax purposes as well as the resolution of prior tax matters both in jurisdictions outside of the US. Excluding special items, the effective tax rate was 8.8% versus 10.8% in the same period last year. I encourage you to review our upcoming 2024 10-K filing for additional details on specific tax related matters. Lastly, I'll direct your attention to the box section of the slide, where we have also provided our income before tax, net earnings and earnings per share adjusted to exclude the impact of intangible, amortization expense and special items. Now let's look at adjusted income before tax by segment for the quarter. Innovative Medicine margin declined from 37.4% to 32.5% primarily driven by strategic commercial investment and R&D pipeline advancement. MedTech margin declined from 15.5% to 10. 8% primarily driven by acquired IPR&D expense related to the V-Wave acquisition. Please note that the MedTech margin was negatively impacted in both years due to expenses associated with the strategic acquisition of Laminar. When adjusting for these one-time items, MedTech margin was relatively flat. As a result, adjusted income before tax for the enterprise as a percentage of sales decreased from 29.2% to 24.1% with the V-Wave acquired IPR&D expense impacting results by 240 basis points. When looking at the full year, Innovative Medicine, MedTech and the Enterprise adjusted income before tax remained relatively flat year-over-year when adjusting for the one-time items highlighted on the slide, mainly acquired IPR&D expenses on various transactions across both years. This concludes the sales and earnings portion of the call. I am now pleased to turn it over to Joe.


Jessica Moore: Hello, everyone. This is Jessica Moore, Vice President of Investor Relations for Johnson & Johnson. Welcome to our company's review of the second quarter business results and our full-year financial outlook for 2024. A few logistics before we get into the details. As a reminder you can find additional materials including today’s presentation and associated schedules on the investor relations section of the Johnson & Johnson website at investor.jnj.com. Please note that this presentation contains forward-looking statements regarding among other things, the company’s future operating and financial performance, market position, and business strategy. You are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements, which are based on the current expectations of future events using the information available as of the date of this recording and are subject to certain risk and uncertainties that may cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected. A description of these risks, uncertainties, and other factors can be found in our SEC filings, including our 2023 Form 10-K, which is available at investor.jnj.com and on the SEC's website. Additionally, several of the products and compounds discussed today are being developed in collaboration with strategic partners or licensed from other companies. This slide acknowledges those relationships. Moving to today's agenda, I will start by reviewing the second quarter sales and P&L results for the corporation, as well as highlights related to our two businesses. Joe Wolk, our CFO, will then provide additional business and financial commentary before sharing an overview of our cash position, capital allocation priorities, and guidance for 2024. Joaquin Duato, our Chairman and CEO, will then provide some closing remarks before we open it up for questions. Jennifer Taubert, John Reed, and Tim Schmid, our innovative medicine and MedTech leaders will be joining us for Q&A. To ensure we provide enough time to address your questions, we anticipate the webcast will last approximately 60 minutes. Unless otherwise stated, the financial results and guidance highlighted today reflect the continuing operations of Johnson & Johnson. Furthermore, the percentages quoted represent operational results and therefore exclude the impact of currency translation. Turning to our second quarter sales results. Worldwide sales were $22.4 billion for the second quarter of 2024. Sales increased 6.6%, with growth of 7.8% in the U.S. and 5.1% outside of the U.S. Excluding the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine, sales growth was 7.2% worldwide and growth of 6.4% outside of the U.S. Sales growth in Europe, excluding the COVID-19 vaccine was 6%. Turning now to earnings. For the quarter, net earnings were $4.7 billion and diluted earnings per share was $1.93 versus diluted earnings per share of $2.05 a year ago. Excluding after-tax intangible asset amortization expense and special items for both periods, adjusted net earnings for the quarter were $6.8 billion and adjusted diluted earnings per share was $2.82, representing increases of 1.6% and 10.2%, respectively, compared to the second quarter of 2023. I'll now comment on business sales performance in the quarter. Beginning with Innovative Medicine, worldwide Innovative Medicine sales of $14.5 billion increased 7.8%, with growth of 8.9% in the U.S. and 6.4% outside of the U.S. Excluding the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine, operational sales growth was 8.8% worldwide and 8.7% outside of the U.S. Innovative Medicine growth was driven by our key brands and continued uptake from recently launched products with 10 assets delivering double-digit growth. We continue to drive strong sales growth across our multiple myeloma portfolio. DARZALEX growth was 21.3%, primarily driven by share gains of 4.6 points across all lines of therapy and 9.4 points in the frontline setting, as well as market growth. CARVYKTI achieved sales of $186 million, with growth of 59.9%, driven by continued capacity expansion, manufacturing efficiencies, and strong demand. TECVAYLI sales achieved $135 million in the quarter, with growth of 43.5%, reflecting a strong launch in the relapsed-refractory setting. Demand remained strong while sequential growth slowed due to adoption of recently approved longer-duration dosing intervals. ERLEADA continues to deliver strong growth of 32.5%, primarily driven by share gains and market growth in metastatic castrate-sensitive prostate cancer. Other oncology growth was driven by continued strong uptake of TALVEY, our GPRC5D bispecific, and RYBREVANT, our bispecific antibody for non-small cell lung cancer. Within immunology, we saw sales growth in TREMFYA of 30.7%, driven by market growth, share gains in PSO and PSA, and favorable patient mix. STELARA growth of 4.9% was driven by market growth, partially offset by net unfavorable patient mix. We continue to anticipate biosimilar entry in Europe later this month, while in the U.S., we expect continued volume growth largely offset by price declines as we move towards biosimilar entry in 2025. In neuroscience, SPRAVATO growth of 60.8% continues to be driven by increased physician and patient confidence. In pulmonary hypertension, OPSUMIT grew 9.1% due to share gains and market growth, partially offset by unfavorable mix. UPTRAVI growth of 8.1% was driven by market growth and share gains, partially offset by inventory dynamics. Total Innovative Medicine sales growth was partially offset by a decline in other neuroscience, unfavorable patient mix in Xarelto and competitive pressures in IMBRUVICA. I'll now turn your attention to MedTech. Worldwide MedTech sales of $8 billion increased 4.4%, with growth in the U.S. of 5.7% and 3.2% outside of the U.S. Acquisitions and divestitures had a positive impact of 40 basis points on sales growth in the quarter. Growth was driven by commercial execution, strength of new product introductions, and continued strong procedure volume, partially offset by performance in China and competitive pressures in US distributor stocking dynamics and vision. In cardiovascular, electrophysiology delivered a double-digit growth of 13.4% with strong growth across all regions. The performance was driven by global procedure growth, new product uptake, and commercial execution, partially offset by the previous one-time inventory build in Asia-Pacific from the prior quarter. In addition, Abiomed delivered growth of 15.4%, driven by double-digit growth in all regions and continued strong adoption of Impella 5.5 and Impella RP technology. Results include $77 million associated with the acquisition of Shockwave, which closed on May 31. Contact lenses adjusted operational sales growth, excluding the Blink divestiture was 2.1%. Growth was driven by strong performance in the ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day family of products, partially offset by U.S. distributor stocking dynamics and competitive pressures, and Japan macroeconomic pressures. The Blink divestiture negatively impacted growth by approximately 130 basis points. Surgical vision grew 1.2%, driven by TECNIS Eyhance, our monofocal interocular lens, partially offset by China VBP and refractive softness in the U.S. Surgery adjusted operational sales growth, excluding the Acclarent divestiture was approximately flat. Performance was driven primarily by competitive pressures in energy and endocutters, China VBP, prior year China recovery, EMEA tender timing across advanced surgery and supply constraints, and wound closure. This was partially offset by strength of new products. The Acclarent divestiture negatively impacted growth by approximately 110 basis points. Orthopedics growth of 3.3% was driven by strong performance in hips and knees, due to procedure growth, strength of new products, and EMEA tender timing in knees. This growth was partially offset by competitive pressures and impacts of China VBP in spine and sports. Now, turning to our consolidated statement of earnings for the second quarter of 2024. I'd like to highlight a few noteworthy items that have changed, compared to the same quarter of last year. Cost of product sold margin deleveraged by 60 basis points, primarily driven by product mix within innovative medicine and macroeconomic factors across both sectors. We continue to invest strategically in research and development at competitive levels, investing $3.4 billion or 15.3% of sales this quarter. We invested $2.7 billion or 18.8% of sales in innovative medicine, compared to 22.2% of sales in 2023. As a reminder, last year included an upfront payment of $245 million associated with the AbelZeta partnership. In MedTech, R&D investment was $0.7 billion or 9% of sales, an increase driven by continued investment in strategic platforms. Other income and expense was a net expense of $653 million in the second quarter of 2024, compared to income of $384 million in the second quarter of 2023. The increase in expense was primarily driven by costs related to the closing of the Shockwave acquisition, the loss on the completion of the debt for equity exchange of the retained stake in Kenvue and prior year favorable intellectual property litigation settlements in MedTech. This was partially offset by the gain on the Acclarent divestiture. Regarding taxes in the quarter, our effective tax rate was 18.5% versus 14.7% in the same period last year. This increase was primarily driven by unfavorable one-time international audit settlements and the continued impact from Pillar 2. Excluding special items, the effective tax rate was 18.6% versus 15.9% in the same period last year. I encourage you to review our upcoming second-quarter 10-Q filing for additional details on specific tax-related matters. Lastly, I'll direct your attention to the box section of the slide, where we have also provided our income before tax, net earnings, and earnings per share adjusted to exclude the impact of intangible amortization expense and special items. Now let's look at adjusted income before tax by segment. In the second quarter of 2024, our adjusted income before tax for the enterprise as a percentage of sales increased from 37.2% to 37.4%. Innovative Medicine margin improved from 42.3% to 44.6%, primarily driven by an upfront payment of $245 million associated with the AbelZeta partnership in 2023, partially offset by product mix and cost of products sold. MedTech margin declined from 28.2% to 25.7%, driven by prior year favorable intellectual property litigation settlements worth approximately 300 basis points. This concludes the sales and earnings portion of the call. I'm now pleased to turn it over to Joe.

Johnson & Johnson research and development

research and development $3.4 billion 15.3% of sales


Joe Wolk: Thank you, Jessica. In the third quarter, Johnson & Johnson delivered results that illustrate not only the breadth of the business, but our ability to consistently beat financial expectations. Innovative Medicine continued to build on strong first-half revenue momentum. We are advancing our pharmaceutical pipeline, achieving significant clinical and regulatory milestones across key therapeutic areas. Our MedTech business, with the addition of Shockwave, delivered operational growth of 6.4% in the quarter, but did experience headwinds in the Asia Pacific region. We continue to fortify our future advancing the OTTAVA robotic surgery system to IDE, expanding VELYS use and launching new intraocular lenses. Due to dynamics in the Asia Pacific region, specifically in China, we are taking a responsibly conservative approach by assuming no material improvement in that part of the business for the remainder of this year. And as such, we expect MedTech adjusted operational sales growth for the full year 2024 to be closer to 5% versus the 6% we referenced last quarter. The strength of a diversified business enables us to more than offset volatility in one part of our business, but yet be in a position to once again increase 2024 guidance for the enterprise. Before diving into the results, I'll take a moment to touch on some enterprise-wide updates from the quarter. We are making progress towards resolving talc litigation. Our pre-packaged bankruptcy plan received overwhelming support from the current claimants of roughly 83% as well as the future claimants representative. As announced last Thursday, the case will be heard in the Texas Bankruptcy Court. And while we remain committed to bringing this matter to a resolution, it would be premature to speculate on timing. In addition to the pipeline highlights Joaquin mentioned, there are some additional notable advancements throughout the quarter. In oncology, we received U.S. and EU regulatory approval for RYBREVANT in combination with chemotherapy as a second line treatment for adults with advanced EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer. With FDA priority review underway for a subcutaneous formulation of RYBREVANT, along with data supporting a treatment regimen to reduce adverse events, we are building a best-in-class EGFR portfolio. We also presented Phase 1 data for RYBREVANT with chemotherapy in metastatic colorectal cancer patients, extending the asset's potential beyond lung cancer. In multiple myeloma, we advanced our leadership position with FDA approval and filing of two DARZALEX FASPRO quad-based regimens for newly diagnosed patients. With CARVYKTI, we announced three-year follow-up data showing significantly extended overall survival and gained approval for commercial production at our Ghent facility, further expanding supply capacity. Finally, in oncology, we added to the growing evidence base for our TARIS platform with positive Phase 2b data in patients with high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer and positive interim to Phase 2 data in patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer. In neuroscience, we submitted to the U.S. and European regulatory bodies for what would be the first global approval of nipocalimab for the treatment of people living with generalized myasthenia gravis. For the remainder of the year, we expect approval of TREMFYA subcu for Crohn's disease and data readouts on JNJ-2113, our targeted oral peptide for psoriasis and ulcerative colitis, JNJ-4804, our co-antibody therapeutic for inflammatory bowel disease, aticaprant for adjunctive major depressive disorder and nipocalimab for rheumatoid arthritis. In MedTech, we completed enrollment of the Omny-IRE clinical trial to evaluate safety and effectiveness in mapping and treating symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation during standard ablation procedures. Also in Cardiovascular, we are preparing for the anticipated approval of VARIPULSE in the U.S. and the submission of Impella ECP for regulatory approval. In Orthopaedics, we launched several exciting new products in the U.S., including our VELYS SPINE robot and VOLT Plating System. The plentiful pipeline progress across our businesses will ensure continued success. Let's now turn to cash and capital allocation. Free cash flow year-to-date was approximately $14 billion compared to $12 billion last year, which included eight months contribution from the Consumer Health business. We ended the third quarter with $20 billion of cash and marketable securities and $36 billion of debt for a net debt position of approximately $16 billion. Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. Our strong balance sheet enables us to strategically invest to grow our business while simultaneously returning capital to our shareholders. Innovation remains core to our strategy. During the quarter, we invested nearly $5 billion in research and development. This is an increase over 2023 levels even after excluding acquired in-process R&D expense. Thus far in 2024, Johnson & Johnson has deployed approximately $18 billion for strategic acquisitions and licensing agreements, which includes the recent acquisition of V-Wave, another innovative treatment in heart failure, which closed last week. Turning to our full-year 2024 guidance. Excluding the impact from acquisitions and divestitures, we are increasing our adjusted operational sales guidance. We now expect growth in the range of 5.7% to 6.2% with a midpoint of 6%. We are also increasing operational sales growth by $200 million to a range of 6.3% to 6.8% with a midpoint of $89.6 billion or 6.6%. As you know, we don't speculate on future currency movements. For today's call, we are utilizing a euro spot rate relative to the U.S. dollar of $1.10, slightly above last quarter's guidance. This results in an estimated incremental positive foreign currency impact of $200 million, reducing our previous full-year negative impact to $1 billion. As such, we expect reported sales growth between 5.1% to 5.6% with a midpoint of $88.6 billion or 5.4%. Regarding the rest of the P&L, with the addition of the V-Wave transaction, we now anticipate our 2024 adjusted pre-tax operating margin to decline by approximately 200 basis points. Excluding the impact of asset acquisition accounting and related R&D investment, we would be on track to improve operating margins by 50 basis points, which is consistent with what we guided to at the beginning of the year. As we strive to advance and accelerate our pipeline, you can anticipate elevated levels of investment in the fourth quarter. Net interest income is now projected to be between $450 million and $550 million, $150 million greater than our previous guidance. Other income is anticipated to be in the range of $1.9 billion to $2.1 billion, an increase versus previous guidance, driven by the one-time monetization of royalty rights, which Jessica referenced, that will be utilized for that higher Q4 investment I referenced a moment ago. Our effective tax rate, consistent with previous guidance, is expected to be between 17.5% and 18.5% for the full year. Similar to last quarter, we have provided an EPS bridge to outline the impact from acquisition activity throughout the year. Before the impact of the V-Wave acquisition, our outlook for adjusted operational EPS performance is once again increasing. As the schedule reflects, we are expecting an incremental $0.10 per share increase on our operational performance for a total increase of $0.18 per share for the year. On this basis, when excluding acquisition activity throughout the year, EPS growth is 9.2%. To account for the completion of the V-Wave transaction, as previously disclosed, our adjusted operational EPS guidance now includes dilution of $0.24 per share in the fourth quarter and $0.06 per share in 2025. Combined, this yields an updated 2024 adjusted operational EPS guidance of $9.91 at the midpoint of the range, basically flat year-on-year despite absorbing approximately $0.92 of acquisition activity. While not predicting the impact of currency movements utilizing the recent exchange rates just referenced, our reported adjusted earnings per share for the year now estimates a full year positive impact of $0.02 per share. As such, we expect reported adjusted earnings per share of $9.93 at the midpoint. We are still finalizing our plans for next year, but let me provide you some preliminary qualitative commentary to inform your modeling for 2025. For Innovative Medicine, we remain very confident in our ability to deliver growth despite a significant LOE resulting in sales above the $57 billion commitment we stated in 2021. This will be driven by our end market brands and continued progress from our recently launched products, including TREMFYA in IBD and RYBREVANT in non-small cell lung cancer. Regarding the STELARA LOE, we are planning for biosimilar entries in the U.S. in January, assuming that HUMIRA's erosion curve is a relatively good proxy for your models. We continue to expect a negative impact associated with the Part D redesign. In our pipeline, we anticipate data readouts across all our priority platforms: anticipated approvals of TREMFYA subcu in Crohn's disease, RYBREVANT subcu for lung cancer and nipocalimab in generalized myasthenia gravis, as well as potential filings for TARIS in bladder cancer and aticaprant in major depressive disorder. As a reminder, TREMFYA, RYBREVANT and TARIS continue to be the three largest underappreciated assets in terms of our revenue projections versus what analysts are estimating for the back half of this decade. For MedTech, we continue to expect to deliver on our long-term objective identified at last year's Enterprise Business Review of growing operational sales in the upper end of the 2022 through 2027 weighted average market growth rate of 5% to 7%. We also expect continued adoption of newer products across all MedTech businesses, such as VARIPULSE in electrophysiology, VELYS enabling technology across Orthopaedics, Odyssey and PureSee in Surgical Vision and contributions from our Abiomed and Shockwave integration. Specific to volume-based pricing in China, we expect continued impacts from the rollout of the 2024 tenders in Orthopaedics sports and intraocular lenses and anticipate VBP to continue expanding across provinces and products. Moving to the rest of the P&L. When thinking about operating margin, there are pluses and minuses. Tailwinds include an anticipated reduction of acquired IPR&D expense year-over-year, continued focus on MedTech margin improvement and continued OpEx optimization benefits post the separation. Working against us is unfavorable product mix driven by STELARA biosimilar entrants and Part D redesign. With a brief look at your models last week, the consensus margin does not appear unreasonable, and we'll provide further clarity in January once we complete our 2025 plan. We do not expect to maintain the heightened levels of interest income due to a reduction in interest rates and impact from debt experienced in 2024 related to acquisition activity. Regarding other income and expense, we expect lower net other income due to the non-recurring nature of the monetization of royalty rights experienced in Q3, a lower benefit related to employee benefit programs based on discount rate assumptions, as well as income lost on the Kenvue dividend. Lastly, based on what we know today, under current tax law, we anticipate our 2025 tax rate to be slightly lower than our anticipated 2024 tax rate. To wrap up prior to Q&A, we are pleased with our underlying 2024 performance that simultaneously fortified a strong foundation for continued success heading into 2025. With that, I'll now turn it over to Kevin to open the call for your questions.

research and development during the quarter


Jennifer Taubert: And we had 21% growth. $2.9 billion in sales and 21% growth. So yes, DARZALEX is our single largest asset now for the corporation.


Jessica Moore: Thank you, Joaquin. Moving to our financial results for the quarter. Unless otherwise stated, the financial results and guidance highlighted today reflect the continuing operations of Johnson & Johnson. Furthermore, the percentages quoted represent operational results and, therefore, exclude the impact of currency translation. Worldwide sales were $22.5 billion for the third quarter of 2024. Sales increased 6.3%, with growth of 7.6% in the U.S. and 4.6% outside of the U.S. Acquisitions and divestitures positively impacted worldwide growth by 90 basis points. Turning now to earnings. For the quarter, net earnings were $2.7 billion and diluted earnings per share was $1.11 versus diluted earnings per share of $1.69 a year ago. Results in the quarter were impacted by the updated talc litigation settlement proposal, as well as acquired IPR&D expense associated with the NM26 bispecific antibody. Excluding after-tax intangible asset amortization expense and special items for both periods, adjusted net earnings for the quarter were $5.9 billion and adjusted diluted earnings per share was $2.42, representing decreases of 13.3% and 9%, respectively, compared to the third quarter of 2023. Results were impacted by the acquired IPR&D expense of $1.25 billion or approximately 1,900 basis points associated with the NM26 bispecific antibody. I will now comment on business sales performance in the quarter. Beginning with Innovative Medicine. Worldwide sales of $14.6 billion increased 6.3%, with growth of 7.5% in the U.S. and 4.4% outside of the U.S. Innovative Medicine growth was driven by our key brands and continued uptake from recently launched products, with 11 assets delivering double-digit growth. Results across the portfolio continue to be positively impacted by price increases associated with Argentina hyperinflation, consistent with market practice. We continue to drive strong sales growth across our multiple myeloma portfolio. DARZALEX growth was 22.9%, primarily driven by share gains of 4 points across all lines of therapy, with 7.7 points of growth in the front line setting as well as market growth. CARVYKTI achieved sales of $286 million, with growth of 87.6%, driven by share gains, continued capacity expansion and manufacturing efficiencies. This reflects sequential growth of 53.2% aligned with our expectations of accelerating growth in the back half of the year. TECVAYLI sales were $135 million in the quarter with growth of 21.4%, reflecting a strong launch in the relapsed refractory setting. Demand remained strong, while sequential growth was flat due to continued adoption of longer duration dosing intervals. Finally, within our multiple myeloma portfolio, TALVEY continued its launch trajectory with another quarter of strong growth. We anticipate disclosing TALVEY sales in the first quarter of 2025, which are currently reported in other oncology. ERLEADA continues to deliver strong growth of 26.3%, primarily driven by share gains in metastatic castrate sensitive prostate cancer and favorable inventory dynamics. RYBREVANT, our bispecific antibody for non-small cell lung cancer, contributed to growth in other oncology as we expand approved indications. We also anticipate disclosing RYBREVANT sales in the first quarter of 2025. Within immunology, we saw sales growth in TREMFYA of 14.3%, driven by strong market growth and share gains in PsO and PsA, partially offset by unfavorable patient mix. STELARA declined 5.7%, driven by unfavorable net patient mix and share loss, partially offset by market growth. As a reminder, biosimilar competition has entered Europe as of July, and we anticipate U.S. biosimilar entry in January 2025. In neuroscience, SPRAVATO growth of 55.3% continues to be driven by increased physician and patient confidence. In pulmonary hypertension, OPSUMIT and UPTRAVI grew 17.4% and 15.2%, respectively, driven by market growth, share gains and patient mix. As mentioned last quarter, REMICADE and SIMPONI realized limited sales in Europe as we prepare for the return of distribution rights in Q4. I'll now turn your attention to MedTech. Worldwide sales of $7.9 billion increased 6.4% with growth in the U.S. of 7.8% and 5% outside of the U.S. Acquisitions and divestitures had a net positive impact of 270 basis points on worldwide growth, 360 basis points in the U.S. and 180 basis points outside of the U.S. Overall, MedTech growth was driven by commercial execution and strength of new product introductions, partially offset by continued headwinds in Asia Pacific, specifically in China. In Cardiovascular, electrophysiology delivered double-digit growth of 10.7%. Performance was driven by global procedure growth, new product uptake and commercial execution, partially offset by competitive PFA ablation catheter uptake in the U.S., as well as prior year trade inventory dynamics and VBP in China. Abiomed delivered growth of 16.3%, driven by strong growth in all regions and continued adoption of Impella 5.5 and Impella RP technology. Cardiovascular results also included $229 million associated with the acquisition of Shockwave. Contact lenses and other performance improved to 4.7%, driven by continued strategic price actions, strong performance in ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day family of products, a one-time benefit from a change in U.S. contract shipping terms worth approximately 150 basis points, as well as lapping prior year impacts from Russia sanctions. Surgical Vision grew 1.9%, driven by TECNIS PureSee and TECNIS Eyhance, partially offset by China VBP and softness in the U.S. Surgery declined 0.7%, with the Acclarent divestiture negatively impacting results by approximately 110 basis points. Performance was driven primarily by competitive pressures in energy and endocutters, as well as VBP and the anticorruption campaign in China. This was partially offset by commercial execution, strength of new products across wound closure and biosurgery and continued price increases associated with Argentina hyperinflation consistent with market practice. Orthopaedics growth of 1.3% was primarily driven by success of recent product launches and commercial execution, partially offset by competitive pressures, impacts of China VBP and revenue disruption from the previously announced Orthopaedics transformation. Now, turning to our consolidated statement of earnings for the third quarter of 2024. I'd like to highlight a few noteworthy items that have changed compared to the same quarter of last year. We continue to invest strategically in research and development at competitive levels, investing nearly $5 billion or 22% of sales, which includes a $1.25 billion payment to secure the global rights to NM26 bispecific antibody. Even when excluding this investment, R&D as a percent of sales increased 30 basis points. Selling, marketing and administrative expense as a percent of sales was leveraged 100 basis points, driven by the realization of optimization efforts following the Kenvue separation. Interest income was $99 million as compared to $182 million of income last year, driven by a higher net debt position primarily related to the financing impacts of the Shockwave acquisition. Other income and expense was a net expense of $1.8 billion compared to an expense of $0.5 billion in the prior year. The increase in expense was driven by a $1.75 billion charge related to the talc litigation settlement proposal, partially offset by prior year higher unrealized mark to market losses on public securities, as well as the monetization of royalty rights. Regarding taxes in the quarter, our effective tax rate was 19.3% versus 17.4% in the same period last year. This increase was primarily driven by the tax treatment of the NM26 bispecific antibody acquisition and OECD Pillar 2. Excluding special items, the effective tax rate was 19.3% versus 15.6% in the same period last year. I encourage you to review our upcoming third quarter 10-Q filing for additional details on specific tax-related matters. Lastly, I'll direct your attention to the box section of the slide where we have also provided our income before tax, net earnings and earnings per share adjusted to exclude the impact of intangible amortization expense and special items. Now, let's look at adjusted income before tax [by segment] (ph). Innovative Medicine margin declined from 45.4% to 37.9%, primarily driven by the $1.25 billion acquired IPR&D expense to secure the global rights for NM26 bispecific antibody, partially offset by the monetization of royalty rights. MedTech margin declined from 24.7% to 24.1%, driven by increased R&D investment and lapping of a prior year divestiture gain, partially offset by supply chain efficiencies. As a result, adjusted income before tax for the enterprise as a percentage of sales decreased from 37.6% to 32.4%, with acquired IPR&D expense impacting results by 560 basis points. Starting in 2025, aligned with recent FASB reporting disclosure requirements, we will begin providing additional P&L details by segment. This concludes the sales and earnings portion of the call. I'm now pleased to turn it over to Joe.


Jennifer Taubert: Great. Well, good morning, Terence, and hello, everybody. I'd like to start by thanking all of our Innovative Medicine colleagues around the world for a very strong quarter. This was our third quarter with sales over $14 billion with 10 key brands achieving double-digit growth and Terence I will come back to that. That includes brands like DARZALEX, CARVYKTI, TALVEY and TECVAYLI as well as ones such as ERLEADA, SPRAVATO and UPTRAVI. We're making really nice progress on our launches, including TREMFYA in ulcerative colitis and RYBREVANT plus LAZCLUZE in non-small cell lung cancer. And just an important note, we hit our $57 billion target this year, a year early. For those that were here back at our enterprise review, we had made that commitment to hit the $57 billion by 2025 and we cleared that goal this year in 2024. So multiple myeloma is really an extraordinary franchise for us. And maybe I will start with DARZALEX because our quarter was over $3 billion. It was $3.1 billion and 22% growth and we continue to really build out share across the frontline settings in both transplant eligible and ineligible patients and in triplet and quad regimens. And so we're performing very well for DARZALEX and anticipate that to continue. And in fact, with DARZALEX, it's our first brand to hit $3 billion in quarterly sales. So important to note that milestone too. CARVYKTI had a really, really robust quarter as well as year nearing $1 billion for the year, $963 million as we continue to see very strong demand in that second-line plus setting as well as very strong capacity expansion in the US, in Europe and also with a contract manufacturer. And so we've talked before about that being more of a stair step rather than a direct linear line and it is performing very, very well and we're seeing nice continued expansion in the first quarter of this year that will also continue throughout the year. For TEC and TAL both products did well. We report sales, we break out sales on TEC. We don't yet on TAL. Both of these agents are best-in-class bispecifics. They're performing very well from a competitive share standpoint. We've got them nicely being utilized in the academic setting and we're working that out into more of the community setting, which will be important for their continued growth and uptake. So in total, multiple myeloma really is a stronghold for us and we're not stopping there. Because of the strength that we have, the assets that we have, we're also working on multiple additional types of combinations. John, maybe you want to address what we're doing with the bispecifics specifically.


Joaquin Duato: Thank you, Joanne, and good morning, everyone. First, let me remark the strong close of our MedTech business in 2023. We delivered annually more than $30 billion in sales, which is -- were all-time high in our company history with operational -- adjusted operational growth in the fourth quarter of 9.1. So very strong results across the board in electrophysiology, in heart (ph) recovery, in surgery, in orthopedics and in Vision. So when we think about our results in 2023, we think it's going to be aligned with our competitor composite for the year, but ahead of our competitor composite in the fourth quarter. Now, certainly, COVID-19 impacts have stabilized globally and while we continue to see some challenges, macro challenges from the point of view of inflation, hospital staffing and the like, there is a bolus of patients coming out into the market after COVID-19, which has made 2023 market growth faster than historical averages. And we see that trend continuing into a good part of 2024 and therefore, being a tailwind into 2024. There's a lot of factors playing into that. But overall, we see the amended procedures continuing into at least the first half of 2024. Now we also have a number of tailwinds on our side other than the procedures that make me optimistic about 2024. We have the trajectory of Abiomed in heart recovery, which is very strong with the adoption of Impella 5.5. We file already for our Impella ECP, which is the smaller version of Impella CP. In orthopedics, we continue to move into higher growth markets with the expansion of our VELYS Robotic-Assisted Solution. We obtained CE Mark in Europe. In surgery, we continue to launch innovations across our surgery business with the [indiscernible], in Energy and ECHELON 3000 as a stapler. And we continue to see good expansion of our Plus Sutures too. In our Vision business, we are expanding our TECNIS family into the premium segment of IOLs. And finally, and I know this is an area of interest to you in electrophysiology, we continue to expand our PFA portfolio of catheters. We obtained approval for our VARIPULSE, loop catheter, PFA loop catheter in Japan at the beginning of this year. And we continue to roll out the global launch of QDOT MICRO, our newest radio frequency ablation catheter. So overall, a number of catalysts and tailwinds into our MedTech business into 2024. As we discussed in our Enterprise Business Review, we continue to see our MedTech business growing at the upper end of our markets and becoming a best-in-class competitor in MedTech.


Jessica Moore: Good morning. This is Jessica Moore, Vice President of Investor Relations for Johnson & Johnson. Welcome to our company's review of the 2023 first quarter business results and full year financial outlook. Joining me on today's call are Joe Wolk, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer; and Ashley McEvoy, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Chairman of MedTech. Unfortunately, Jennifer Taubert, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Chairman of Pharmaceuticals is not feeling well and is unable to join us today. A few logistics before we get into the details. As a reminder, you can find additional materials, including today's presentation and associated schedules on the Investor Relations section of the Johnson & Johnson website at investor.jnj.com. Please note that today's meeting contains forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, the company's future operating and financial performance, product development, market position and business strategy and the anticipated separation of the company's Consumer Health business. You are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations of future events using the information available as of today's date and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected. A description of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in our SEC filings, including our 2022 Form 10-K, which is available at investor.jnj.com and on the SEC's website. Additionally, several of the products and compounds discussed today are being developed in collaboration with strategic partners or licensed from other companies. This slide acknowledges those relationships. Moving to today's agenda, I will review the first quarter sales and P&L results for the corporation and highlights related to the three segments. Joe will then provide additional business and financial commentary before sharing an overview of our cash position, capital allocation priorities and updated guidance for 2023. The remaining time will be available for your questions. We anticipate the webcast will last approximately 60 minutes. Now let's turn to our first quarter results. Worldwide sales were $24.7 billion for the first quarter of 2023, an increase of 5.6% versus the first quarter of 2022. Operational sales, which excludes the effect of translational currency, increased 9% as currency had a negative impact of 3.4 points. In the U.S., sales increased 9.7%. In regions outside the U.S., our reported sales increased 1.8%. Operational sales outside the U.S. increased 8.3% with currency negatively impacting our reported OUS results by 6.5 points. Excluding the net impact of acquisitions and divestitures, adjusted operational sales growth was 7.6% worldwide, 7.4% in the U.S. and 7.9% outside the U.S. with all three segments growing sequentially over the fourth quarter. Turning now to earnings. For the quarter, net loss was $68 million and basic loss per share was $0.03 versus diluted earnings per share of $1.93 one-year ago primarily driven by the $6.9 billion charge related to the Talc Settlement proposal. Excluding after-tax intangible asset amortization expense and special items for both periods, adjusted net earnings for the quarter were $7.1 billion, and adjusted diluted earnings per share was $2.68, representing a decrease of 0.9% and an increase of 0.4%, respectively, compared to the first quarter of 2022. On an operational basis, adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 3%. I will now comment on business segment sales performance highlights for the quarter. Unless otherwise stated, percentages quoted represent the operational sales change in comparison to the first quarter of 2022 and therefore, exclude the impact currency translation. Beginning with Consumer Health. Worldwide Consumer Health sales of $3.9 billion increased 7.4% with an increase of 11.4% in the U.S. and an increase of 4.4% outside the U.S. Worldwide operational sales increased 11.3% and outside the U.S., operational sales increased 11.3%. Results were primarily driven by global strategic price increases across all franchises. Volume growth in OTC was due to an exceptionally strong cough, cold and flu season most pronounced in Europe, coupled with one-time retailer restocking primarily in the U.S. related to low inventory levels due to tripledemic demand. Skin Health/Beauty delivered double-digit growth driven by price actions, lapping prior year supply constraints and current quarter restocking as well as strong NEUTROGENA and AVEENO e-commerce and club channel performance and new product innovations. Moving on to our Pharmaceutical segment. Worldwide Pharmaceutical sales of $13.4 billion increased 4.2% with growth of 5.9% in the U.S. and 2.4% outside of the U.S. Worldwide operational sales increased 7.2% and outside the U.S., operational sales increased 8.6%. Excluding the COVID-19 vaccine sales, worldwide operational sales increased 4.9%, U.S. operational sales increased 7.1%, and outside the U.S., operational sales increased 2.4%. Pharmaceutical growth excluding the COVID-19 vaccine was driven by our key brands and continued uptake in our recently launched products with eight assets delivering double-digit growth. We continue to drive strong sales growth for both DARZALEX and ERLEADA with increases of 25.7% and 40.3%, respectively. STELARA grew 9.6% driven by market growth and share gains in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, with gains of 2.2 points and 4.8 points in the U.S., respectively, partially offset by unfavorable patient mix and price. TREMFYA grew 11% driven by market growth and share gains in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, with gains of 0.9 points and 2.1 points in the U.S., respectively, partially offset by unfavorable patient mix. Turning to newly launched products. We are excited to disclose CARVYKTI and SPRAVATO sales for the first-time this quarter. We continue to make progress on our thoughtful and phased launch of CARVYKTI and continue to expand access and reimbursement for SPRAVATO. Also, we are encouraged by the early success of our launch of TECVAYLI, sales of which are included in other oncology. This sales growth was partially offset by the loss of exclusivity in REMICADE and ZYTIGA, along with a decrease in IMBRUVICA sales due to competitive pressures. IMBRUVICA maintains its market leadership position worldwide. I'll now turn your attention to the MedTech segment. Worldwide MedTech sales of $7.5 billion increased by 7.3% with growth of 16.6% in the U.S. and a decline of 0.6% outside of the U.S. Worldwide operational sales increased 11% and outside the U.S., operational sales increased 6.2%. Abiomed contributed 4.6% to operational growth. Excluding the impact of acquisition and divestitures, worldwide adjusted operational sales growth was 6.4%. Sales in the first quarter accelerated sequentially from Q4 for all four MedTech businesses, driven by global procedure growth, continued uptake of recently launched products, and commercial execution. As anticipated, in China, procedure volumes improved as the quarter progressed. Partially offsetting growth in the quarter was the impact of volume-based procurement in China as well as supply constraints. The Interventional Solutions franchise delivered operational growth of 41.9%, which includes $324 million related to Abiomed. We are excited about the progress of the integration to which Joe will provide additional context. Excluding the impact of the acquisition, this franchise delivered another quarter of double-digit worldwide growth at 12.3%. As we continue to increase our reporting transparency, beginning this quarter, we are providing visibility to electrophysiology sales. Electrophysiology continued to deliver double-digit sales growth in all regions with the exception of Asia-Pacific, which reflects impacts related to volume-based procurement in China. Orthopaedics operational growth of 5.1% reflects the strong procedure recovery and success of recently launched products especially digital and enabling technologies driving pull-through sales in areas like hips and knees. Growth was partially offset by the impact of volume based procurement in China, primarily in hips and spine. Global growth of 9.3% in contact lens and other reflects continued penetration of our ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day family of products, including the recent launch of ACUVUE OASYS MAX 1-Day, strong commercial execution and strategic price actions. Growth in contact lens and U.S. surgical vision was tempered by continued supply challenges. Now turning to our consolidated statement of earnings for the first quarter of 2023. I'd like to highlight a few noteworthy items that have changed compared to the same quarter of last year. Cost of products sold deleveraged by 150 basis points driven by one-time COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing exit related costs in the Pharmaceutical business and commodity inflation and acquisition-related items in the MedTech business. Selling, marketing and administrative margins leveraged by 60 basis points driven by proactive management of costs given the current inflationary environment. We continue to invest strategically in research and development at competitive levels, investing 14.4% of sales this quarter. The $3.6 billion invested was a 2.9% increase versus the prior year. The other income and expense line was an expense of $7.2 billion in the first quarter of 2023 compared to net income of $100 million in the first quarter of 2022. The increase in expense was the result of the $6.9 billion charge related to the Talc Settlement proposal recorded in the first quarter of 2023 as previously disclosed. Regarding taxes in the quarter, our effective tax rate was 90.8% versus 12.2% in the same period last year, primarily driven by the $6.9 billion accrual for the Talc Settlement proposal. Excluding special items, the effective tax rate was 16.5% versus 13.3% in the same period last year. I encourage you to review our upcoming first quarter 10-Q filing for additional details on specific tax matters. Lastly, I'll direct your attention to the box section of the slide, where we have also provided our income before tax, net earnings and earnings per share adjusted to exclude the impact of intangible amortization expense and special items. Now let's look at the adjusted income before tax by segment. In the first quarter of 2023, our adjusted income before tax for the enterprise as a percentage of sales decreased from 35.1% to 34.2%. Pharmaceutical margins declined from 44.1% to 43.2% driven primarily by mix, partially offset by proactive management of costs. MedTech margins remained flat at 27% driven primarily by inflationary impacts, offset by proactive management of costs. Finally, Consumer Health margins improved from 22.1% to 22.3% driven primarily by strategic price actions, partially offset by input cost inflation. This concludes the sales and earnings portion of the Johnson & Johnson first quarter 2023 results. I am now pleased to turn the call over to Joe Wolk. Joe?

MedTech Worldwide MedTech sales 2023 first quarter


Joaquin Duato: So as I commented in the earlier question, we are pleased with the strength of our MedTech business in the first-half of the year with 8% growth. We -- this is driven by market growth, which we believe it's also slightly elevated this year due to the clearing of the COVID-19 backlog. And at the same time, as I commented to our improved commercial execution and the introduction of new products. Of note, of our $12 billion platforms in MedTech, all of them have grown during the first-half of the year. And we are being quite successful in introducing some important new products in all segments of our business. For example, if I start with electrophysiology, that grew north of 25% in the quarter. We have introduced a new mapping catheter OCTARAY and also a new treatment catheter QDOT, which, as you know, Joanne, we presented results about QDOT. So we increased efficacy and procedure efficiency, too. If we move into Vision, we are in the middle of the launch of ACUVUE OASYS MAX, which is doing well and also the launch of our TECNIS Eyhance, the first mono-focal intraocular lens, which is progressing also very well. Moving into Orthopaedics. The good news is that we have received CE Mark and CA Mark for our Robotic-Assisted System VELYS. And we continue to have an enhanced portfolio of knees and hips with our Cementless knees, the Medial Stabilized and in the area of hips with hip navigation and the recent addition of CUPTIMIZE and we see our market position there also progressing. And moving forward, we will continue to see good evolution also in Orthopaedics. Finally, in Surgery, we continue to enhance our endocutter and our energy portfolio with the launch of ENSEAL jaw curved and also with the launch of ECHELON 3000 in the stapler side. So overall, good reception of our new products. That portend well for a continuation of growth, as I said before, in the second half of the year. And we look forward also to the different readouts of our PFA pipeline, which as we have announced, we have completed the enrollment of our dual energy catheter, which is going to be offering the physicians the comfort of a catheter that is the most well used with the option of having both radio frequency and PFA to adapt to every patient anatomy. And then on the robotic side, we will provide you more updates on our progress on OTTAVA, our soft tissue robotics system, before the end of the year as we committed. And we have also good news on our Monarch system that has already started with the first patient treated in removal of kidney stone. So overall, good progress during the year. Clearly, our MedTech business is doing well, delivering competitive growth. And we have good news in innovation as the year moves forward.