Bausch + Lomb - Q2 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Greetings. Welcome to the Bausch + Lomb Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, George Gadkowski. Sir, the floor is yours.

George Gadkowski (Investor Relations)

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our second quarter 2023 financial results conference call. Participating on today's call are Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Brent Saunders, and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Sam Eldessouky. In addition to this live webcast, a copy of today's slide presentation and a replay of this conference call will be available on our website under the Investor Relations section. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that our presentation today contains forward-looking information. We would ask that you take a moment to read the forward-looking legend at the beginning of our presentation, as it contains important information. This presentation contains non-GAAP financial measures and ratios. For more information about these measures and ratios, please refer to slide one of the presentation. Non-GAAP reconciliations can be found in the appendix to the presentation posted on our website.

Finally, the financial guidance in this presentation is effective as of today only. It is our policy to generally not update guidance until the following quarter, unless required by law, and not to update or affirm guidance other than through broadly disseminated public disclosure. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Brent.

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you, George, and thank you everyone for joining us today. My remarks will focus on two themes that define the quarter, performance and progress. Let's jump right in on slide three. Since our last update, I spent significant time on the road hearing directly from customers. No matter the country, no matter the specialty, one theme was consistent, people are rooting for us and want to see Bausch + Lomb as an industry leader once again. Two areas for improvement were also made clear and speak directly to challenges we covered during our call last quarter. First, we need to bring a steady supply of new products to market. Second, we need to ensure customers have access to a consistent supply of products across our entire portfolio, which means upgrading our global supply chain. Here's the good news, we know what needs fixing.

As I've said before, we have a large global infrastructure and an expansive commercial footprint. We offer products that address all eye care needs. There are approximately 13,000 Bausch + Lomb employees motivated every day by our mission of helping people see better, to live better. Scale is a competitive advantage only when it's efficient. Think of our challenge like a restaurant with great food and service, loyal clientele, and an ideal location, but it fails to get food orders right and on time. The question is, how do you streamline the dining experience without losing any of what customers love? Let's take a look at our progress. Last quarter, I unveiled the Roadmap to Accelerate Growth, our multi-year plan to realize Bausch + Lomb's full potential. We're early in the process, but I am encouraged by what we've been able to accomplish in just a few months.

Highlights include flattening the organization to free up resources and focus on new capabilities we're building, including next generation digital and data competencies. We launched an employee-driven initiative aimed at reducing inefficiencies and administrative burden with a focus on our sales team. We put quick wins on the board in several areas, including expense reporting, meeting protocols, and IT support in the field. I also solidified our leadership team, bringing in new talent and creating new roles aligned to our strategy. Complex change projects like our roadmap tend to ask a lot of employees, but we have a talented and motivated team that gets it. They understand what needs to be fixed and want to be part of the solution. Amidst all this change, they delivered a very solid quarter.

12% revenue growth on a constant currency basis, outperformance across all segments, increasing demand in key markets would make any CEO happy, especially in my first full quarter. To be perfectly clear, I am proud of our performance and encouraged by several trends that will influence future growth. My focus is on what's holding us back. To put it simply, we need to improve how we make and deliver our products to customers and consumers. I'll use our Lynchburg, Virginia, contact lens distribution center as an example. We were forced to upgrade that facility given significant growth in the business. A good problem to have. I'll spare you the details, but essentially, we needed to move from a 30-year-old manual system to a new digitized way of working.

The problem is, we didn't execute, technical issues led to the facility quickly falling behind in processing orders. We expect to have things sorted out by the end of year, thanks to the tireless efforts of our Lynchburg employees. We did experience a self-imposed negative financial impact to our business. What happened in Lynchburg is the most prominent supply chain issue we faced in the last quarter, certainly not the only one. While some things may be outside of our control, we need to eliminate self-inflicted negative impacts to our business. Despite the ongoing supply challenges, I'm very pleased with our second quarter, which Sam will go deeper on.

Sam Eldessouky (CFO)

Thank you, Brent. Good morning, everyone. Before we begin, as I noted in our last earnings call, most of my comments today will be focused on growth expressed on a constant currency basis. Turning now to our financial results on slide eight. In the second quarter, we saw strong revenue growth across all three of our segments. Total company revenue, $1.035 billion for the quarter, reflects growth of 12% on a constant currency basis and 10% on a reported basis compared to the prior year. Our strategy is to continue to invest in the business. The investments we're making are driving the strong revenue growth performance. We will continue to execute on this strategy as we look forward to launching new products and reaching our full potential. As Brent mentioned, supply remains a challenge for us, specifically in the surgical and lens portfolios.

As I will discuss further, we're taking mitigating steps, but this remains a work in progress. On the positive side, market demand remains strong. As we improve our supply, we expect the robust demand to continue to drive growth. In the quarter, foreign currency headwinds were approximately $80 million to revenue and $25 million to Adjusted EBITDA. We're seeing currency headwinds having a larger impact on Adjusted EBITDA, which is driven by our geographic footprint and the resulting currency mix. Regarding China, we're seeing tangible signs of recovery. In the quarter, our China business grew 24% on a constant currency basis relative to a soft comparable in the prior year quarter that was negatively impacted by COVID restrictions. China contributed approximately 200 basis points to the 12% overall second quarter constant currency growth.

We will continue to monitor the progress and remain confident that our business in China will return to stable and consistent growth over time. Now, let's discuss the results in each of our segments. Vision Care revenue of $646 million increased by 12% on a constant currency basis, driven by growth in both our consumer and lens portfolios. The consumer business grew by 17% on a constant currency basis, led by our LUMIFY, Eye Vitamin, and Artelac franchises. LUMIFY revenue grew by 23% globally compared to the prior year and achieved a record $43 million of revenue in the second quarter of 2023. LUMIFY has continued its strong momentum in the U.S., where it has a leading market share of approximately 50%.

We're also building the successful launch of LUMIFY in Canada, and we're leveraging the brand equity to launch the LUMIFY EYE ILLUMINATIONS beauty line. Revenue from our Eye Vitamin franchise, PreserVision and Ocuvite, grew by 12% on a constant currency basis. PreserVision continues to be the market leader with 90%+ market share in the US. Our recent launches of OCUSorb and PreserVision Plus CoQ10 continue to expand the franchise. Our international consumer portfolio revenue grew by 22% on a constant currency basis. Revenue from Artelac, a key brand in our dry eye franchise, grew by 24% on a constant currency basis, mainly driven by higher demand in Europe. We have continued to drive growth in our consumer portfolio. To sustain the growth momentum, we will focus on investments to support launches, including in the second half of the year.

In July, we announced the strategic acquisition of Blink to further expand our OTC eye drop portfolio. While we're excited about the strategic fit, we don't expect Blink to have a meaningful impact in our 2023 financial results. In the lens portfolio, we saw 4% constant currency growth in the second quarter. Reported revenue from our Daily SiHy lenses grew by 42% in the quarter, driven by strong demand as we continue to expand the Daily SiHy family. We recently launched a Daily SiHy multifocal lens in the U.S., and also rolled out Daily SiHy in China, which is a large and important market for us. We also saw a broad-based growth across the dailies portfolio. On a constant currency basis, Biotrue delivered 3% growth, and our legacy brand, SofLens Daily, grew by 10%.

As Brent discussed, revenue in the U.S. lens portfolio was negatively impacted by implementation disruptions related to a new warehouse management system upgrade at our Lynchburg facility. This mainly impacted our ULTRA lens family, which declined in revenue in the quarter. Excluding the impact of the disruptions, global lens constant currency revenue growth would have been approximately 10% in the quarter. We're taking steps to resolve the disruptions and resume a normal level of order processing. We anticipate there will be a continued impact in the second half of the year as we work through the implementation. Moving now to the surgical segment. Second quarter revenue was $195 million, an increase of 7% on a constant currency basis. The consumables portfolio, our largest category, grew by 11% in constant currency compared to Q2 2020, mainly driven by surgical packs.

Implantables declined by 4% on a constant currency basis. Strong growth in the high-margin premium IOL portfolio, which was up 33% in constant currency, was offset by the impact of a product hold issued by our partners on the IG1 standard IOL. We anticipate the product hold to continue in the second half of the year. We're also executing our phased U.S. launch of the IC-8 premium IOL, which has generated strong interest in the market. We're continuing to make investments to support the launch, including training associates and onboarding surgeons. Revenue from equipment was up 10% versus Q2 2022 on a constant currency basis, driven by a recovery in China, as well as contributions from the instruments portfolio. While market demand on our surgical portfolio continues to be strong, our ability to supply remains a work in progress.

Our team continues to implement various mitigating measures, including strategic spot buying of components, which has led to higher cost inventory and pressure on margins. We anticipate the supply will remain volatile as we progress throughout the year. Lastly, revenues in the pharma segment were $194 million, representing constant currency growth of 16%, with strong performance across all three portfolios and all major markets. In our U.S. Rx business, Vyzulta revenue grew by 25% in the quarter, with TRXs up 26%. U.S. generics revenue grew by 10% as we continue to actively capitalize on supply challenges faced by our competitors. The international portfolio saw strong performance across all major markets, leading to 20% constant currency growth in the quarter. Growth in the international portfolio was broad-based across all major markets, including China. We're pleased to have received FDA approval for MIEBO.

As we prepare to launch this innovative dry eye product in the third quarter, we expect to make additional investments. As you have heard me say before, it takes approximately 18-24 months to ensure new launches are well-positioned in the marketplace. Now that we have covered revenues for each of our segments, let me walk through some of the key non-GAAP line items on slide nine. As a reminder, the Bausch + Lomb IPO occurred in May 2022, and our second quarter 2022 results did not fully reflect run rate standalone costs. Along the same lines, the basis of interest expense and taxes reported in Q2 2022 results also does not fully reflect our operations as a standalone entity. As we have previously mentioned, this impacts the comparability between 2022 and 2023 results.

Adjusted gross margin for the quarter was 59.7%, which was flat compared to Q2 2022. Second quarter Adjusted EBITDA of $179 million was impacted by currency headwinds of approximately $25 million. Adjusted EBITDA also reflects standalone costs that were not fully reflected in the prior year quarter, given the May 2022 timing of the Bausch + Lomb IPO. We'll continue to focus our strategy on increasing investments to support product launches and R&D. In the second quarter, we invested an additional $10 million in R&D compared to Q2 2022. We're committed to investing in our upcoming launches in 2023 and 2024 to ensure they are reaching their full potential. Our second quarter margins were negatively impacted by supply chain challenges, particularly in our surgical and lens portfolios. In the surgical business, the limited availability of components has led to higher costs.

In the lens business, the system upgrade disruption at our Lynchburg facility impacted a normal level of order processing. Net interest expense for the quarter was approximately $53 million, reflecting the current interest rate environment. For comparability purposes, the lower net interest expense of approximately $43 million in Q2 2022 did not fully reflect our standalone capital structure. The adjusted tax rate in the second quarter was 6%, which is in line with our expectations for the full year 2023. Adjusted EPS for the quarter was $0.18. Adjusted cash flow used by operations was $14 million in the second quarter. This is mainly driven by a strategic inventory build to mitigate potential supply disruptions, and an investment in working capital to support launches and growing sales. Year to date, the strategic inventory build has been approximately $82 million.

Adjusted cash flow was also impacted by higher interest expense and the timing of payments. Second quarter CapEx was $27 million. Turning now to our 2023 guidance on slide 12. We're raising our revenue guidance for 2023 to a range of $3.95 billion-$4 billion, which reflects a constant currency growth rate of approximately 6.5%-7.5%. Based on current exchange rates, we expect the currency headwinds to have a negative impact on revenue of approximately $50 million for the full year. While we're very pleased with the strong performance in the first half of the year, our guidance reflects a responsible perspective on the remainder of the year. We are balancing the strong performance and the market demand with the work in progress of resolving our supply chain challenges and the potential volatility this creates.

As mentioned, we have taken action to address supply challenges, particularly in our surgical and lens portfolios. We recognize there is more work to be done to provide consistent level of supply to our customers and patients. It is also important to note that as we are seeing signs of recovery in China, the Q2 2023 level of growth benefited from softer performance in the prior year. While we're excited to further enhance our consumer portfolio product line with the July acquisition of Blink, we do not expect the acquisition to have a meaningful impact on our overall financial results for 2023. I would also like to note that the Xiidra transaction we announced at the end of June is subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, and is expected to close by the end of 2023.

Our guidance does not reflect any anticipated impact of the transaction and the related financing. We are maintaining our Adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2023 in a range of $700 million-$750 million. The Adjusted EBITDA guidance absorbs the supply chain pressure incurred in the second quarter and reflects our commitment to continue to invest in our product launches. We expect full-year currency headwinds to Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $35 million. On a rounded basis, we continue to expect our 2023 adjusted gross margin to be approximately 60%, although there is some slight unfavorability driven by the supply chain pressures that I have already discussed. In terms of other key assumptions underlying our guidance, we anticipate investments in R&D to be approximately 8% of revenue and interest expense to be approximately $225 million for the full year.

Our adjusted tax rate is expected to be roughly 6%, and full-year CapEx is approximately $200 million. As I already mentioned, keep in mind that the comparability between 2022 and 2023 results for the full year will also be impacted by the May 2022 timing of the B+L IPO. Overall, we're pleased with the strong growth across all of our segments in the first half of 2023, and we're excited to continue enhancing our portfolio. We recognize there is more work to be done in the back half of the year to overcome the volatility related to supply challenges and to deliver consistent performance. Our 2023 guidance reflects our strategy to increase investments in the business to support launches that we expect will become important drivers of profitable growth. Now, I will turn the call back to you, Brent.

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, Sam. Let's talk about what's on the horizon. With our recently announced acquisition of Xiidra and Blink, we've been asked if we're focused exclusively on pharmaceuticals. That couldn't be farther from the truth. While we are committed to growing our pharma business, we're focused on being the best eye care company, from surgical equipment to contact lenses and everything in between. The products you see here represent all of our businesses. Some are significant, while others will be steady contributors. The point is, they all matter and support our approach to holistic eye health. The timing of these product launch matters as well. Recent and upcoming 2023 launches will serve as a catalyst for 2024, which we expect will be one of the most active launch years in the 170-year history of Bausch + Lomb.

While there's typically an 18-24-month launch cycle to realize full economic potential from new products, we're excited about the trajectory and industry positioning and our ability to innovate for patients. How we're bringing these products to market is critical and something we expect to significantly improve on. Let's take a look at how we're rolling out what we expect to be an important contributor for years to come. The MIEBO launch later this quarter will be an exciting event for the company and the teams that work so hard to bring this product to market. It's also an opportunity to truly leverage our infrastructure and apply what we've learned from past launches. The critical success factors for MIEBO's introduction aren't nice to haves, they are imperatives, and we will help establish a blueprint for launch excellence going forward.

This is especially true when it comes to field preparedness and setting the team up for success. The timing for a refreshed go-to-market approach couldn't be better, as the dry eye disease category is ripe for innovation and new treatment options. Dry eye disease is underdiagnosed and undertreated, representing a significant opportunity. This is especially true when you consider we have an aging population, and more time is being spent staring at phones and tablets. The data is jarring. An estimated 96% of the U.S. population that suffers from dry eye disease is not using a prescription treatment. Dry eye disease is also multifactorial, which means different treatment options are needed. MIEBO is the first and only FDA-approved treatment for dry eye disease that directly targets tear evaporation. Xiidra and other similar medicines focus on inflammation associated with dry eye.

In other words, these are different medicines treating different needs. Our acquisition of Xiidra, which is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, will complement our existing dry eye portfolio and provide prescribers with different treatment options based on unique patient needs. Moving to our Vision Care business, despite supply chain challenges from our Lynchburg distribution center, our silicone hydrogel lens performance was exceptional, continuing a growth theme. We launched multifocal in the U.S. last quarter. Our single vision spherical launch in China means we now have presence in all major markets. As an aside, I had a chance to visit China this June. I'm excited about the investment we made in talent there and our market potential. Rounding out our business highlights, we continue to strategically expand consumer offerings and provide more OTC options in more places.

LUMIFY saw its highest-ever quarterly revenue, with 23% year-over-year growth on a reported and constant currency basis.

We saw similar numbers for Artelac and have growth plans for both franchises with a goal of creating truly international brands. In surgical, product demand remains strong, but component availability continues to be an issue impacting our supply chain. We're working with third parties to address these challenges while providing more options in a growth market. I highlighted our impressive company-wide launch calendar earlier, but it's worth pointing out surgical launch contributions well into 2024, including several new products in the high margin premium IOL category. I spent a lot of time highlighting the challenges we face and our plan to overcome them, but I'll reiterate the two themes that define the second quarter: performance and progress. Despite ongoing supply chain issues, we put several wins on the board, which speaks to the resiliency of our employees.

That's clearly reflected in our 12% constant currency revenue growth and other financial metrics. I'm more interested in the progress we've made in our ambitious plans to reshape Bausch + Lomb and realize our full potential. Actions speak louder than words, and I'm encouraged by the level of commitment I've already seen. Change is hard, but the reward is worth it. Operator, let's open the line for questions.

Operator (participant)

Certainly. At this time, we will be conducting a Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment while we poll for questions. Your first question for today is coming from Joanne Wuensch at Citi.

Joanne Wuensch (Managing Director)

Good morning, thank you for the question. I have a couple, I'll narrow it down. Supply challenges in surgical and lenses, is there a way to quantify the impact of that and the timing to resolution? Then I'll toss my second one on. Daily silicone hydrogels up 42% is pretty impressive. What do you think is going on there, and how much of that growth is maybe market share or cannibalization or market expansion?

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Great. Thanks, Joanne. Let's deal with the first question on supply challenges. You know, first, I, I'd probably say, look, I'm a, I'm a tough grader, and, and, you know, I do think that we can improve our ability to supply customers and patients with our products across all of our businesses. Yesterday, I announced we're bringing in a very experienced new head of our supply chain, and I, I suspect it will take us a year or two to get to a place where I feel very confident in our ability to execute in the supply chain. That being said, you know, we don't have regulatory issues, FDA issues, other health authority issues. This is more about delivery of products and componentry and supplying.

That is a fixable situation and, and one that we're very focused on, on solving. It will take some time, but, but absolutely solvable. In terms of quantifying, Sam, do you want to?

Sam Eldessouky (CFO)

Sure. Joanne, good morning. I will break the supply chain into the two parts that you mentioned, surgical and the lens business, because they are different. When you think about surgical, what we were talking about is the availability of components. What we've been doing is we've been working through trying to validate second vendors to be able to find the supply, sufficient supply that will support the demand that we're seeing in the marketplace in the surgical business. We're also been doing what I refer to as a spot buy. The spot buy is basically acquiring whatever supply we find in the market, but it's acquiring at a higher cost, which is putting pressure on the margin, and I highlighted that in the first quarter, and I highlighted again this quarter.

You'll see the impact of that as we go through the year, as the inventory comes in, and you see the impact on the margin pressure. The second issue, which is the Lynchburg that Brent mentioned, we discussed earlier in our prepared remarks, that's related to the distribution center and the upgrade that we've done in the distribution center in the U.S. The impact of that, I quantified in my prepared remarks about 600 basis points for the lens business. We've seen the growth in our lens business at 4%. That would have been 10%, excluding that, so that's about 600 basis points. We absorbed the impact of then our EBITDA, which was roughly about $10 million, that we absorbed in this quarter, in our results as well.

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, with respect to the IDEAL SiHy or, or INFUSE product line, obviously, you know, I think what, what's most important is we have a very good product there, and we're seeing, we're seeing great support from ODs and, and patients to the lens. When you look at, at volume there, you know, we, we see that about 60% is being sourced from, from new fits and, and the rest from switches. I do think that when, when we get deeper into the data, we see about a third of, of patients are switching from, from other modalities or other consumers coming into our INFUSE products. There obviously is some cannibalization anytime you launch a new, really well-received product in the marketplace, but, but I do think the, the overall big picture is we have a great product.

We've launched it now or in all the major markets around the world. Now we're moving into the higher margin specialty versions, like the multifocal, which just launched in the U.S., and then we'll have the multi, the toric, following next year as well. Those will take a little bit to roll out around the world, but I think the entire portfolio there is a very strong competitive offering.

Joanne Wuensch (Managing Director)

Thank you.

George Gadkowski (Investor Relations)

Next question, operator.

Operator (participant)

Your next question for today is coming from Douglas Miehm at RBC Capital Markets.

Douglas Miehm (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Thank you, and good morning. My question, I-- and I know this is out of your hands at the moment, and we're not expecting a close of the Xiidra deal until later this year. I do have a question around the performance of that product down around 20%, and I know that they're trying to garner more market share, but we're not seeing a pickup in prescription rates, and we are probably dealing with a disengaged sales force. First question is, is, are you hearing about any turnover in that sales force? Then secondly, if we are starting from a base of $400 million in revenue as we exit 2023, when you talked originally about 5% growth, were you talking from $500 million or from whatever 2023 ended up being?

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, thanks for the question. Look, clearly, it is, you know, the product is owned by Novartis and is subject to the normal customary closing conditions, and we do expect that to close towards the end of the year. That being said, you know, I think you have to look at the history of this product in the category. You know, this was a drug launched by Shire, sold to Takeda, sold to Novartis, and then, you know, somewhat openly held for sale for the last several months. You know, look, I think human nature, any sales force, you know, looks at something like this and probably, you know, there is a little bit lack of energy or enthusiasm in that group. That's just human nature.

You know, we, we are excited to get it in, get the deal closed, and look for better ways to talk about the therapeutic benefits to doctors. We know it is a promotionally sensitive category. I, I put some data up related to the category. You know, there, there are roughly 38 million people in the U.S. diagnosed with dry eye disease, and yet only 1.4 million patients treating with a prescription solution. You know, when I, when I look at those dynamics, we're very excited to have a differentiated treatment option for physicians to complement, you know, what we're bringing with MIEBO. Lastly, I'll just a little long-winded.

The most important metric I'm tracking while Novartis still is in ownership of, of the brand, is TRx, and we saw about 4% TRx growth. You know, to me, that is the most important metric till we close to track, and, and I think they're doing a, a solid job there.

Douglas Miehm (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question is coming from Larry Biegelsen at Wells Fargo.

Larry Biegelsen (Senior Analyst)

Good morning. Thanks for taking the question, and congrats on a nice quarter here, Brent and Sam. Two from me, one on MIEBO, one on 2024. Just to start on MIEBO, Brent, what would success look like? I mean, we've looked at, you know, the Xiidra launch as a benchmark. What are some of the puts and takes, in your view, of how adoption could be stronger or weaker? You know, would you be happy if, say, you know, MIEBO's ramp was about 50% of Xiidra, you know, same time post-launch? I mean, you know, Xiidra's been a successful product at about, you know, $500 million peak. That's my first question. Just kind of how are you thinking about, you know, the ramp of MIEBO?

Then I had a follow-up for Sam.

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Sure. You know, as, as we, we look at MIEBO, you know, I think, I think looking at, at, you know, the Xiidra launch is perhaps, you know, a little informative, but probably not right on. You know, these are different products and different markets for dry eye disease. You know, Xiidra launched into, you know, what, what we would call the inflammatory-associated dry eye category. That's a very competitive category. When it launched, you had a very strong Restasis, and since launch, you know, you've had several other new entries and, and new products in late-stage development for inflammatory dry eye. MIEBO, on, on the other hand, is in a, in a different part of the market for different patients and a different treatment modality, tear evaporation, and we are the only drug for tear evaporation.

Most dry eye sufferers have tear evaporation-related issues. So, you know, I do think we have an opportunity to, to be quite successful with this launch, and we're very excited about it. You know, in round numbers, I would say I would be very disappointed if we didn't see peak sales, you know, exceeding $350 million over time. You know, ramps take longer. Managed care access takes longer to, to, to work through. I think we're, we're in a very good position with a great product.

Larry Biegelsen (Senior Analyst)

That's super helpful. Sam, I obviously you're not giving guidance for 2024, but there are a lot of moving parts, and I'm just wondering if you could.

Maybe provide a framework for how to think about 2024. What, what are some of the things to consider? Xiidra, $400 million-$500 million in revenues. I think you've talked about that being about 10% accretive. You know, I just wanna confirm if that's still true. You have Blink revenues, the MIEBO launch, you know, the Prolensa loss of exclusivity. Just to sum it up, the Street's modeling about $1 in EPS right now next year, versus, call it $0.75-$0.80 this year. Does that seem about right with all the moving parts? Is there any anything you would highlight? I mean, obviously, valuation is, you know, primarily based on, on, on 2024, just hoping you could provide some framework there. Thank you.

Sam Eldessouky (CFO)

Good morning, Larry, there's a lot to unpack in this one question. Let me step back and maybe just think about from a big-picture framework. I will start by, I'm not gonna give guidance in 2024 today. I think we're still early to do that. There's a couple factors you have to think about the fundamentals of our business. I will probably start or, or anchor in what we've seen here in the second quarter. We've seen strong performance in the business across all three segments. We've seen the demand in our portfolio is significant, so we are very excited about that, and I would expect that momentum of that strong demand will continue with us as we go forward into 2024. We're also seeing that with the acquisition, we mentioned Blink and Xiidra.

Xiidra-- Blink is not gonna be a material impact for us this year, if you look at the data that's available, we'll suggest that Blink is run rates anywhere between $30 million-$40 million top line. As we start getting that portfolio-- that brand folded in our portfolio and put in our consumer team's hand, which I'm confident they will do great things with, we expect that to continue to start growing from there. Xiidra, we talked about sort of our expectations around I'll call it mid-single digits, starting from the point once we own the, the brand and the franchise. We'll, we'll be able to work through that. That's all on the positive side in terms of how we will think building the portfolio as we go forward.

I have to balance that with the supply chain elements that we've been talking about because we've seen the surgical supply chain, I talked about it, from putting pressure on the margin because of the spot buy and qualifying different vendors, and we're seeing the work that's happening within the lens business. I believe that's all fixable, but it, it was not gonna be fixable in 1 quarter. It will take some time to be able to get to a steady state and a consistent supply. Just that also being factored into the thinking here as we go forward. When you look at those components and put them together, that's how I would sort of break your model or think about 2024 at this point, based on what we know today.

Larry Biegelsen (Senior Analyst)

Thanks so much.

Sam Eldessouky (CFO)

Thanks, Larry.

Operator (participant)

Your next question is coming from Matt Miksic at Barclays.

Matt Miksic (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Hey, thanks so much for taking the questions, and congrats on a really impressive, beat here of the top line. I wanted to, Sam or Brett, wanted to talk a little bit about, if you could, maybe provide some color around the, the level of investment that you're, you're making behind some of the, the new product launches that you talked about. Maybe where in this, in this slate of new, new launches, you know, do you find sort of the, the heaviest spend, initially, you know, in the next six, 12, to 12 months or so?

Then, you know, which, which of those, which of those products do you think, you'll be in a position, say, you know, early to mid-next year to start driving leverage out of those launches, if that's the right, if that's the right timing? I would follow up.

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Sure. you know, maybe I'll start and turn it over to Sam. Clearly, the two biggest investments we'll be making are in MIEBO and in our INFUSE SiHy INFUSE launch globally. you know, clearly, MIEBO, we intend to launch the product in this quarter, the third quarter. We're very excited about that. Clearly, in any significant pharmaceutical launch, you're in an investment cycle for, you know, let's call it 18 months, 24 months, something in that order of magnitude. INFUSE, you know, has been at globally launching, and now we're launching the multifocal here in the United States.

We're seeing really good response from optometrists and patients, so very encouraged there, and that generally follows, you know, the same kind of investment cycle as a pharmaceutical product. Those are the two big ones. Sam, any other color or commentary on launches?

Sam Eldessouky (CFO)

No, I think you covered it. I think, definitely MIEBO will be a very important one. Matt, I would sort of refer you back to slide 14 that we included in the deck, because it nicely outlined all the product launches as we see it for 2022 and 2024. We'll see the sort of Those launches will be investing behind those launches, and they're across all three segments. Just as I referenced in my prepared remarks, that, and I've said it before, it's like when you think about the launch, it takes probably anywhere between 18 to 24 months until that launch starts getting its potential. That's where the investment period, as we think about it, for any of those launches.

Matt Miksic (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Great. So just the, the read-through I am hearing, and, and other folks I'm sure have, have also picked up on this, is that, you know, leverage next year, you know, we, we shouldn't be looking for, for any sort of, you know, significant leverage, in the middle of the PNL, just because, just because these, these, you know, growth may be, you know, terrific, continue to outperform. Leverage is something that we should expect to be a bit more muted. Is that a fair way to think about 2024, even though you're not guiding obviously for 2024 right now?

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, so great, great point. Look, we're, we're very focused on, on leverage or margin expansion. It, it, you know, clearly, a goal is a, a significant goal, a primary goal of ours is to have sustainable margin expansion in the business, and we think that is achievable in time. maybe, Sam, you want to provide some color around our thinking there?

Sam Eldessouky (CFO)

Yeah, margin expansion is a very important fact for us, and we understand and appreciate that we want to continue to provide progression within the margin expansion. As Brent said, we're focused on it from a sustainable margin expansion. That's really where our goal here is to accelerate our growth and accelerate and expand our product portfolio. You start to see many of the actions we're taking today is to build on the fundamentals of the business, such as the consumer brand, where we talked about LUMIFY and expanding the growth of LUMIFY, which is a pretty good product for us. Combining that with, as well, putting in launches and shifting the portfolio to more of a premium type of products.

We're seeing that in the surgical side, where we're shifting more into more of the premium category, which that will end MIEBO, which is more a higher margin product because of the pharmaceutical. We expect that will continue to provide a positive impact on the margin as we move forward. My comment here, Matt, in terms of the expectation with the investment is because it's not just one side, it's both sides. We're actually, we'll be seeing the margin expansion, but you're not gonna see the full margin expansion potential until you start going through this investment cycle.

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Right. It's kind of like a funnel, right? We've, we've got to invest to get to the products that provide the greater margin, but we have to be aware that we need to continue to have, have a focus on, on margin. It's, it's front of mind and, and something we're very focused on.

Matt Miksic (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

No, that's, super helpful. Then just, the one follow-up on, on dry eye, and, is that, is that market is, you know, a variety of different ways that clinicians and, and, you know, manufacturers are coming at providing solutions, and one is a, is a device strategy, you know, that some ways kind of sells against, against drops and things like that, as I'm sure you're aware. You know, any can you talk about, you know, bridging, bridging what now is a pretty solid portfolio on the therapeutic side with, with efforts on, on these sort of like, device solutions that some of your competitors are rolling out to the, to the clinic as well?

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, look, I, we obviously want to, want to make sure there's a steady stream of innovation in the category for physicians and patients, and we keep, and I particularly keep a very close eye on, on those innovations. You know, on the device side, I think there are some, some interesting technologies that, that are emerging and, and could be effective solutions for patients, but none yet that, that I think rise to a level that, that are super impressive or perhaps more, more in the niche category for severe sufferers or the like. You know, we do keep an eye on it, but I think, I think the mainstay will be the variety of options in, in the pharmaceutical side for most patients.

There you see, you know, a lot of, a lot of innovation coming on the inflammatory side of the spectrum, and that's quite a competitive marketplace, and we're excited that we could have potentially a treatment option for both evaporative and inflammatory disease. Different markets, different products, but, you know, providing options for physicians and patients, I think, is important.

Matt Miksic (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Thanks so much for the color.

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Yep.

Operator (participant)

Your next question is coming from Robbie Marcus at J.P. Morgan.

Robbie Marcus (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)

Great. Thanks for taking the question. Congrats on a good quarter. Two for me. Maybe first one, Brent, you, you made the comment before, I forget exactly what it was, but something along the lines of: We're not just a pharma company. Most of the growth in the quarter is coming from pharma. A lot of your pipeline launches, where there's incremental revenue, is from pharma, and you did just do a big deal on the pharma side. Maybe just kind of give us your thoughts on how you're thinking about managing the company, your view on, you know, what, what is Bausch + Lomb, and how you're spending your R&D between the two and thinking about future investments.

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah. Thanks, Robbie, for the question. Clearly, I don't view us as a pharmaceutical company. I view us as an eye care company. We want, we want to plan our heritage of being the best eye health company. That means having a, a strong pharmaceutical business, but also a strong Vision Care business, a strong surgical business, a strong consumer business. I think when all four businesses are, are innovating and driving growth, margin expansion, I think then we can start to, to get into the, to the realm of being the, the most profitable, I mean, the, the best eye health company. When you think about pharma, you know, I, I get why people say that, because we just did, you know, a, a big deal in pharma.

Even when that closes, the pharmaceutical business would still be roughly about a quarter of our business, so 75% will be non-pharma. It's important that we do that. When we look at the potential for solving unmet need in the eye health space. It's very strong in places like Vision Care. Myopia, perhaps, is a huge issue around the world. Surgical, I think moving into accommodating or adjustable IOLs or premium IOLs is really important to give patients great vision near and far and everywhere in between. There's a lot of opportunity, I think, for innovation. There's a lot of opportunity for bringing solutions.

With respect to R&D, to be fair, I think the only real deep R&D expertise we have from a true research perspective is in Vision Care. It's in contact lenses, solutions and drops. It's not in pharmaceuticals. In pharmaceuticals, we're more of a development house, and in, and in surgical, we're more of a development house. Look, I think, I think our, our idea is to to to look at the most impactful innovations across our business, but focused on eye care. That, that's the kind of organizing principle is eye health, not, not necessarily pharma or surgical or or or Vision Care.

Robbie Marcus (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)

Thanks.

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Okay.

Robbie Marcus (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)

Very helpful. Maybe a follow-up from me. You know, clearly lots of different moving pieces in the businesses, but how should we think about growth in volumes versus pricing in the, you know, the OTC business versus pharma versus surgical versus lenses? Thanks a lot.

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, it's, it's absolutely a great question. Look, that's something I, I, I look at very closely. I, I think Q2 was really impressive to me from our consumer team. The majority of the growth in Q2 was from volume, not price. You know, I think historically, the last few quarters, we've seen a lot of price as a result of inflation. I think, obviously, that's moderating, and I think the ability to take price will moderate for the foreseeable future. To be healthy, we need to see volume, and that's what we're starting to really see. You know, kudos to the consumer team here. They did a great job on driving volume this quarter.

Robbie Marcus (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)

Thanks a lot.

Operator (participant)

Your next question for today is coming from Craig Bijou at Bank of America.

Craig Bijou (Equity Research Analyst)

Hi, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking questions, and congrats on a, on a strong quarter. I, I have a just, I guess, a couple topics, somewhat related that, I'll just ask the questions up front. How should we think about the impact of the supply chain challenges in, in the second half? I guess, what's, what's assumed in guidance, and is there an expectation that those challenges get better or worse? Then related, Brent, with your comments on improving quality and bringing in a new supply chain leader, are there other facilities that, you know, may need a significant upgrade or update, like the Lynchburg facility, that, that we should be aware of, or, or that you're contemplating that could potentially, you know, have a similar impact or, or I guess, put that risk out there?

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Sure. I'm gonna start with something I said earlier. I'm, I'm a tough grader, and the way I think about, you know, our business is, is level of confidence. For example, you know, I have very high level of confidence in our ability to execute in the sales force. I have very high confidence in our ability to execute in our R&D and, and clinical capabilities. When it comes to supply chain, we have a really good team working very hard, but I'm, but I don't have the confidence that we can deliver our products on time and, and, and, and at the right cost levels, right? As Sam said, you know, for example, in surgical, we're out spot buying, you know, lots of componentry at, at much higher prices than we would otherwise.

Now, the issue isn't necessarily because we have a issue in one of our plants, we have an issue in a third-party supplier that can't make a microchip. This isn't about us upgrading our, our facilities or investing capital, it's about qualifying multiple vendors or multiple suppliers, so we don't, we don't get stuck or held hostage by one supplier. That is a lot of our issues. You know, the Lynchburg facility was a self-inflicted wound, right? We, we tried to upgrade a system. It wasn't capital intensive necessarily, but when the system goes down and you have boxes stacking up and you can't ship to customers, that's a, that's a foul, right?

It had an impact on the business, particularly the U.S. contact lens business, which Sam quantified at about 600 basis points of growth that didn't materialize in the quarter. You know, when you add up all those things, it becomes an issue I'm just not satisfied with, and I think we need to fix it. It's not of the level of, you know, we're talking about, you know, massive need of invested capital, but or capital into the plants. This is more about process. It's about managing third-party suppliers. It's having qualifying additional third-party suppliers. It's about getting things right. That will take a year or two to fix completely, but, you know, we're well on our way. We've got a fresh look coming with a very senior experienced leader.

You know, we're, we're gonna roll up our sleeves and tackle the problem. I don't know, Sam, any other color you'd...

Sam Eldessouky (CFO)

No, Craig, to your, to your thing, a question about how we're thinking about it in terms of guidance. Couple of things I will highlight here for you. One is, in my prepared remarks, I talked about our gross margin. I said our gross margin is still holding around approximately 60%. I also commented that the fact that we're seeing some pressure on, on that 60%, so it might, might have been a very strong 60 or, there might be a little bit of a rounding down, that's coming out because of that 60. There's a pressure that we're seeing, and that's coming out of what we talked about on the surgical side.

In terms of, just when you step back and you think about, what we're doing from the supply chain, I think there's, it's not lost on us that it is taking time to be able to work through this, and there's multiple outcomes, and ranges of outcomes that will potentially come out in terms of, the work in supply chain. We factored those ranges of outcome in our thinking within the guidance range of the $700-$750. That was baked into, again, it's, it's hard to pinpoint the specific one scenario that can play out. There's multiple scenarios, and we try to think through those scenarios as we're thinking through the range. That's been already baked into our thinking in terms of our guidance range.

Craig Bijou (Equity Research Analyst)

Great, thanks, guys.

Operator (participant)

We have time for one more question. Your next question is coming from Patrick Wood at Morgan Stanley.

Patrick Wood (Stock Analyst)

Amazing. thank you very much. I'll keep it to one, given time running out. quite a specific one, but the IC-8, the Apthera lens. it's I know it's very early stage, but that's quite a unique asset, you know, given an EDOF lens and the, you know, partial, I guess, astigmatic coverage. You know, how's the initial feedback going there? You know, how do you feel about that launch in general, and the capacity to potentially take a little bit of share within that sort of premium AT-IOL market? Thanks.

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah. Thanks, Patrick. I'm, I'm glad you asked about it because I, I do think it's a very important product for us, and for patients and for surgeons. You know, I was just at a major surgical conference with some of the top U.S. KOLs, and I can tell you that the physicians or surgeons that have been trained and have implanted the lens have phenomenal feedback. A very enthusiastic, positive response. Small end, right? It's a small group of surgeons and a small group of patients, but very impressive early, early start. The key is getting surgeons trained and comfortable with the lens.

I do think there is a real segment of the market for patients who, who perhaps need a more middle-of-the-road economic solution to an EDOF outcome that IC-8 is, is the perfect fit and early, but incredibly exciting, initial days and outcomes. I remain pretty optimistic and bullish on, on the product. We're just in the US launch. It'll be a phased launch to the rest of the world, but, I think, you know, in a year or two, this could be a really significant product in our surgical portfolio. So thanks for the question. I'm, I'm pretty excited about that particular launch.

Patrick Wood (Stock Analyst)

Amazing. Thank you.

Brent Saunders (Chairman and CEO)

Great! Well, operator, maybe I'll, I'll just say a, a few closing words. Thanks everyone for attending, and, and thank you for your questions. I do think we put up a, a very strong quarter this year, this, this, this quarter, I mean. 12% constant currency revenue growth is, is I think, quite a testament to our team who has worked so hard in the quarter to deliver. As I, as I mentioned, certainly the highlight is performance and progress, as we continue to execute against our roadmap and, and to create the best eye health company in the world. Again, thank you for your time, and we look forward to keeping you updated.

Operator (participant)

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.