“We expect our full year tax rate to be approximately 14%.”

In context

“The projected impact from foreign exchange includes an incremental headwind of nearly 1% using mid-October rates, resulting in a full year negative impact of approximately 4%. Excluding foreign exchange and LAGEVRIO, we expect growth of approximately 16%. We are maintaining our gross margin expectation of between 74% and 74.5%. We are increasing and narrowing our operating expense projection to $21.3 billion to $21.7 billion, principally driven by a $250 million payment related to the recent exercise of our option to jointly develop a personalized cancer vaccine as part of our ongoing collaboration with Moderna. As a reminder, our guidance does not assume additional significant potential business development transactions. We continue to assume other expense of approximately $500 million. We expect our full year tax rate to be approximately 14%. We assume 2.54 billion shares outstanding. Taken together, we have increased and narrowed our expected EPS range to $7.32 to $7.37, an increase of $0.05 at the midpoint. The operational momentum in our business would have led to an approximately $0.20 increase in our guidance. However, it is being partially offset by the option payments in Moderna and an incremental headwind from foreign exchange of nearly 1% using mid-October rates. Our guidance reflects confidence in the underlying strength of our business. We continue to demonstrate strong momentum and expect durable underlying demand across our key pillars, including KEYTRUDA, GARDASIL and Animal Health. As you consider your model, there are a few items to keep in mind. While we actively manage foreign exchange through our revenue hed”