“We expect to de-lever our capital structure following the completion of this transaction, and as we de-lever, we anticipate returning to a more balanced capital allocation strategy, inclusive of share repurchases.”

In context

“dditional components of our guidance are included in our press release that was issued earlier today. As discussed in prior quarters, our capital strategy is based on three core pillars. First is reinvesting in our business. Second is growing our dividends over time. And third is making value-enhancing share repurchases. In the first nine months of 2023, we invested $7.9 billion in internal R&D, returned $6.9 billion to shareholders via our quarterly dividend, and allocated approximately $43 billion towards the proposed Seagen acquisition. Lastly, in addition to our completing a $31 billion unsecured debt offering in Q2 of this year, we are ready to execute the remaining short-term financing to complete the proposed Seagen acquisition upon fulfillment of the required closing conditions. We expect to de-lever our capital structure following the completion of this transaction, and as we de-lever, we anticipate returning to a more balanced capital allocation strategy, inclusive of share repurchases. In closing, I want to reiterate that our product portfolio remains very strong. We continue to be encouraged by the momentum of our non-COVID products in Q3 and are committed to the successful execution of our new product and indication launches. We expect that the cost realignment program will improve our operating margins, enhancing long-term shareholder value. And with that, let me turn it over to Mikael. Mikael Dolsten : Thank you, Dave. Today, I will share important updates from our robust respiratory vaccine portfolio. Our respiratory vaccines are built upon three cutting-edge platforms that enable us to bring the right science to the right pathogen. These include our mRNA platform in partnership with BioNTech targeting highly variant viruses, our subunit platform targeting viru”