“We are committed to delivering our capital structure with a gross leverage target of 3.25x, which we expect to achieve over time.”

In context

“now expired. Given those facts, we can now finalize the total value of the U.S. government credit. This resulted in a favorable adjustment to revenues of $771 million for PAXLOVID and contributed $0.11 to the company's earnings per share. Now let me quickly touch upon our capital allocation strategy, which is designed to enhance long-term shareholder value. Our strategy consists of maintaining and growing our dividend over time, reinvesting in our business at an appropriate level of financial return and making value-enhancing share repurchases after delevering our balance sheet. During the first quarter, we returned $2.4 billion to shareholders via our quarterly dividend, invested $2.5 billion in internal R&D and, as expected, business development activity was minimal in the quarter. We are committed to delivering our capital structure with a gross leverage target of 3.25x, which we expect to achieve over time. In support of that goal, during the quarter, we paid down approximately $1.25 billion of maturing debt. And in May, we will pay down another $1 billion of outstanding notes. And importantly, during the quarter, we began to monetize our Haleon stake through an initial sale of $3.5 billion, which reduced our equity position in the company from 32% to approximately 23%. Looking ahead to the next couple of quarters, I'd like to point out that we expect operating cash flow to be significantly below typical levels, largely due to the timing of certain payments. Despite this near-term pressure, clearly, our objective is to return to a more balanced capital allocation strategy over time. Now let me spend just a few minutes on our outlook for the remainder of this year. As we entered 2024, t”