“This disciplined cost control puts us squarely on track to delivering on our $4 billion net savings commitment by the end of the year.”

In context

“e first quarter of 2024 versus last year. Adjusted Gross Margin for the first quarter improved by 530 basis points to 79.6% versus Q1 of last year. This improvement was driven by 3 factors. First were lower sales volume of COMIRNATY resulting in favorable sales mix. Second, in the quarter, we recorded a product return adjustment for PAXLOVID associated with our U.S. government contract, and I’ll touch upon that in just a moment. And finally, we executed strong cost management across our manufacturing network. Improvements in our gross margin rate will continue to be an important focus for the company going forward. Total Adjusted operating expenses increased modestly by 1% to $5.9 billion compared to Q1 of last year despite adding expenses associated with the acquired Seagen business. This disciplined cost control puts us squarely on track to delivering on our $4 billion net savings commitment by the end of the year. Adjusted SI&A expenses increased 3% operationally in the quarter, driven by an increase in marketing and promotional expenses for recently acquired or launched products, partially offset by a decrease in expenses for PAXLOVID and COMIRNATY. Consistent with our strategy, we are prioritizing our R&D spending to enhance overall returns while supporting growth from our pipeline. For the quarter, adjusted R&D Expenses were $2.5 billion, a decrease of 1% operationally versus LY. The slight decline was driven primarily by a lower spending resulting from our cost realignment program and lower spending on certain vaccines program, largely offset by increased investments mainly to develop certain assets acquired from Seagen. Q1 reported diluted earnings per share were $0.55. Our adjusted dilute”