Awesome. Perfect. Good afternoon, everyone. This is Rachel Vatnsdal with the Life Science Tools and Diagnostics team here at J.P. Morgan. Today I'm joined by Rainer Blair from the Danaher team. So, as a reminder, this will be roughly a 40-minute session. The first 20 minutes, roughly, will be prepared remarks and a presentation, followed by 20 minutes of Q&A. With that, Rainer.
Rachel, thank you very much for having us here at J.P. Morgan. It's a pleasure to see all of you. Happy New Year. Good to see some very familiar faces as well. So, let's go ahead and jump right in. Please note our forward-looking advisory statement here, as well as our non-GAAP reconciliation schedule. Please go ahead and peruse those at your own leisure. So, let's go ahead and start with an update on our preliminary results. The fourth quarter 2024 results were consistent with our expectations. Our fourth quarter revenues expected to be essentially flat, which exceeds our expectations, with our Bioprocessing Business in line and Diagnostics slightly above expectations, with higher respiratory sales at Cepheid. And in Life Sciences, we had modestly better than anticipated revenue driven by strong instrumentation sales.
We expect fourth quarter adjusted operating profit margin to be consistent with our prior guidance, with better than expected operational performance offset by foreign exchange. The team finished strong here. We had great execution in the quarter and built some nice momentum here at the end of 2024. As we look at 2024, Danaher generates $24 billion of revenue across three segments and 15 operating companies. These operating companies are global franchises with large installed bases pulling through spectrum consumables. And so, what you have today is really a focused $24 billion life science and Diagnostics innovator with differentiated positioning in really attractive end markets and an improved financial profile. What do I say? Improved financial profile. And that's really because of the intentional portfolio transformation that we have gone through over the last years.
I picked sort of 2018 as that baseline pre-pandemic year to give you a sense of the degree of this transformation and its importance. You see here in 2018, we're a $20 billion player with five segments growing at mid-single digits, operating margins at just over 20%, and cash flow just under $4 billion. During this period, we've exited about $7.6 billion of revenue with Envista and the Veralto spin, both of which were dilutive from a growth and earnings perspective. Then we acquired about $6 billion of revenue, $5 billion the GE Biopharma business, which is today known as Cytiva, and then another approximately $1 billion with Aldevron and Abcam, giving us those important genomic and proteomic franchises. Together, these are accretive both from a growth and earnings perspective. Really important. At the same time, we expanded the molecular diagnostic testing market.
Cepheid is by far and away the leader at the point of care and molecular testing. It has tripled its installed base since the pandemic. We believe we have a $1 billion-plus sustainable incremental annual revenue from that. When you bring all that together here on the right side, you've got really a focused $24 billion innovative franchise in the Diagnostics and Life Sciences. You've also re-rated the growth from mid-single digits to high single digits. Our adjusted operating profit margins from right around 20% to today, right around 30%. The operating cash flow has improved by over 50% to over $6 billion. As you think about what we've been doing before and just during the pandemic here, we've really improved our position significantly in terms of the end markets and the focus, but we've also enhanced our financial profile significantly.
So, let's have a look at these attractive end markets and these high-quality businesses that I'm speaking of. First of all, we've got these leading positions in attractive and fast-growing end markets, which are supported by long-term strong secular growth drivers. And I'll talk about those a little bit more in just a minute. And it's quite sticky revenue as well because it's been supported by regulatory requirements. And you see these attractive end markets here: pharma and biopharma, molecular Diagnostics, clinical Diagnostics, and some select applied markets as well. And as we go to the right, we talk about the quality of our businesses, the operating companies, those global franchises I just talked about that are typically characterized by razor blade business models.
And so, we have large installed bases of instrumentation and equipment that is pulling through spectrum consumables, high-value consumables that are really focused on mission-critical applications. Now, at the same time, this portfolio transformation has improved our recurring revenue profile to right around 80% recurring revenue, whereas 2018 was more on the order of 50%. So, very, very strong transformation there. So, if you think about the exquisite positioning in these attractive end markets, you think about the quality of those business models. You bring that together with innovation and the Danaher business model, you can see how we bring lasting leverage to our growth and earnings profile. So, let's talk a little bit about those secular growth drivers, which are so central to our strategy and how we think about dialing in our portfolio.
If we start on the left, the aging global population—by 2050, we'll have over 1.5 billion people who will be over the age of 65. That's two times what we have right now, and aging populations require more healthcare services. As we think about the shift in medicine towards biologics, we have about 600 approved biologics today, but we have over 20,000 in the pipeline, and of course, our portfolio is dialed into the biologic industry in a very big way. We see the proliferation of monoclonal antibodies that have been growing at double digits for a long time and certainly for the last five years, and we expect for the foreseeable future as well, and of course, we're by far the market leader in serving the monoclonal antibody production markets. I'll come back to that in more detail. The adoption of new technologies is before us, right?
We all suddenly know what PCR means. All our family members know what PCR means. That market has increased by a factor of two and a half since the pandemic. And of course, we've got the leading PCR point of care molecular testing franchise in Cepheid. And then lastly, we look to the advancements in life science research. It's happening every day. It is really exciting. We see today an order of magnitude more cell and gene therapies in the pipeline than just 10 years ago and many more. And we're, of course, very well exposed to these trends as well with some of the acquisitions I just highlighted. And while these are relatively small markets, they're important. And we've gotten in on the ground floor here and will be accompanying and pushing forward this very, very interesting and important secular growth driver as well.
So now let's take a look at those three segments. And I start with the bioprocessing business, which by far and away is the largest business within the Biotechnology segment. And that's about a $6 billion franchise here at the end of 2024, with over 75% of that revenue coming from monoclonal antibodies. And you just saw that secular growth driver. Monoclonal antibodies is by far, in a way, the largest biologic therapeutic market. And it will continue to grow. And we are by far the leader in that market. And I'll show you more about that in just a second. But you'll also see that we support over 90% of the global monoclonal antibody manufacturing volumes at Cytiva. So, as we think about Cytiva, we show this broad portfolio.
It's certainly the broadest portfolio, but it is also the deepest, the broadest in that we can really support our customers from the beginning of the process all the way to the end. Of course, we have all the consumables that are required for that, as well as the digital platform to help our customers not only to ensure that the quality is right, but to have the highest yields at the lowest cost possible. This optimization work is what we do every day with our customers. Now, I speak to the broad portfolio. What do I mean by a deep portfolio? Well, we can support essentially any modality. The newer ones I just spoke of, if you think of cell therapy, gene therapy, oligonucleotide therapy, mRNA, we are able to support those from beginning to end throughout our portfolio.
Cytiva and the segment are well positioned for long-term high single-digit core revenue growth. Let's move on to Life Sciences. This is a $7.3 billion revenue segment with strategic end market exposure. We have differentiated positions in genomics, proteomics, and analytical instrumentation. You can see again these attractive business models here, over 60% recurring revenue with still long-term operating margin expansion opportunities as well. Every day we invest in breakthrough innovation to accelerate proteomic and genomic research in order to also help reduce drug development timelines. This segment is also well poised to support high single-digit long-term core growth along with important margin opportunity expansions as well. Now let's talk about our diagnostic franchise, nearly $10 billion franchise that is led here by our best-in-class molecular Diagnostics franchise, Cepheid, the leading molecular player with the largest installed base.
We tripled the size of our installed base since the beginning of the pandemic, over 60,000 instruments installed. We have by far the largest FDA-approved menu, over 30 assays approved, and even more approved outside of the United States. We see Cepheid as a long-term double-digit grower as well. Now, as we think about our scaled specialty diagnostic positions, these both are each over $1 billion, well over a billion dollars in size. Leica Biosystems and anatomical pathology is driving forward the digital pathology journey that the market is asking for. Radiometer, the leading franchise in blood gas and point of care immunoassay testing. These are great businesses that are applying the science and technology to improve human health. We expect them to grow, to continue to grow high single digits for the long term.
Then, of course, we have a strong core lab presence with a comprehensive portfolio and strong footholds in the core lab with Beckman Coulter. Beckman Coulter Diagnostics has renovated, has relaunched nearly their entire product lineup. With this strong innovation coupled with outstanding commercial execution, it is a mid-single-digit plus grower for the long term. As you think about the diagnostic franchise, nearly $10 billion this segment, we are well poised for high single-digit long-term core revenue growth there as well. Now that we have a more focused portfolio, we are able to invest with a great deal of focus around $1.5 billion in R&D, really to start solving some of the higher-level challenges that we see in the industry. I have got three examples for you here. Beckman Coulter Life Sciences just launched the CellMek SPS automated cell culture system.
This system reduces by 90% the manual steps required in cell line development. So, if you're in cell line development, you need to get to that cell line that is the most robust and the most productive, provides the highest titers as quickly as possible in order to continue down that drug development path. And Beckman Coulter Life Sciences enables that with really this breakthrough innovation. We all know about cell therapy and how effective it can be, but we also know it's very expensive. And the expense of cell therapy is impeding the rapid adoption of some of these life-changing, sometimes even cures provided by cell therapy. And Cytiva has launched the Sefia cell therapy manufacturing platform, which addresses this critical cost factor by improving productivity by 50% and by reducing labor cost by 70%. So, this is the journey that we have to be on.
Danaher is in the forefront of helping push forward these therapies, of course, together with our pharma partners to make sure that we improve penetration and ultimately the care of these patients. And then lastly, on the right side, you see Beckman Coulter Life Sciences really improving patient diagnosis through the high-resolution DxI 9000 platform. This platform is two orders of magnitude, 100 times more sensitive than traditional immunoassay platforms. And so, why does that matter? Well, this allows you now to diagnose different types of diseases really in a high-throughput setting. And the example we use here, and we're super proud to say that we received fast-track approval for our p-Tau assay with the FDA just last week. Our example here is Alzheimer's disease. We all know that today, to diagnose Alzheimer's disease reliably, you have to do a spinal tap or you have to do a PET scan.
But with this technology, you can do it off of a blood draw. And it is sufficiently sensitive to capture that Alzheimer's disease in an early stage. And we're so excited because now the pharmaceutical companies have developed therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease. They're not cures, but at least they slow down the progression. But you have to catch it as early as possible. So, these kinds of technologies, specifically Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, are really that opportunity to start diagnosing Alzheimer's disease earlier and with that allow physicians to finally be able to treat these conditions. Now, we know that capital allocation is such an important part of value creation. And the bias for capital allocation at Danaher remains M&A. And we do this M&A ultimately to be able to compound returns over time. And that provides real leverage in value creation.
And we do this based on the algorithm that you see here before you. We focus on the market and the secular growth drivers you heard me talk about. We dial in our portfolio that way. That's where we're doing our market work. And then we look, of course, at the companies within that particular segment. And we're looking for leading franchises or ones that have value reserves that we're able to help get to the top of the podium. And of course, then the financial model has to make a great deal of sense as well. And so, it's when all these three things come together that Danaher executes. And that's why we've been able to do this for over 40 years very successfully.
So, if you think about our balance sheet positioning, if you think about our team and the experience that we have in M&A, if you think about the Danaher Business System and how we're able to help get companies to a higher level of performance, we're really well positioned to pursue select value creation opportunities here. So, exquisite positioning in end markets, outstanding franchises with large installed bases and recurring revenue, great balance sheet and the opportunity to deploy capital towards M&A. But how do you do all this? How do you execute with discipline? Well, for us, that's the Danaher Business System. And the Danaher Business System is based on our core values. And it is the system of continuous improvement and the culture that makes this execution work. So, we've been doing this now at scale for over 40 years. It's how we do what we do.
It is a competitive differentiator for Danaher in our marketplace. Let me summarize what we talked about today. First, you see that we have the differentiated positions in many of the most attractive markets of the life science, diagnostic, and Biotechnology markets. You've seen this intentional portfolio transformation that not only drives higher revenue growth and profit margins, but even stronger cash flow. You heard me talk about how well positioned we are to generate sustainable long-term shareholder value. Our market positioning, our team, the Danaher Business System, and of course, our balance sheet all together provide lasting leverage. Thank you for your time on that. I look forward, Rachel, to our Q&A. Thank you. There you go.
Great. Thank you, Rainer.
Right on time, huh?
Y es.
On-time delivery. Okay, here we go.
Perfect.
So, as you alluded to in some of your prepared remarks, it's been a little bit of a dynamic time in the industry the last few years, and in 2024, we finally started to see some of that recovery play through, so maybe just taking a step back, I think there's been so much focus on some of the near-term trends, but just bigger picture, how are you thinking about the strength of the underlying end markets, and why do you believe that the end markets that Danaher competes in are the most attractive.
Well, you heard me talk about this. We're incredibly confident in our business. You see how we've dialed into these very attractive end markets and how we've reconfigured this portfolio to really be focused on those markets that have the most growth potential.
Despite all of the pandemic dislocation, our view on those markets has not changed. In fact, we're very confident that we will get back to our long-term growth perspective, which is those high single-digit growth, fall through of 35%-40% on the margin side, cash flow that is well over 100% of net income, and then ultimately the double-digit EPS growth.
For sure. Maybe just digging into some of the comments that you gave at your recent analyst day that was focused on Diagnostics, your team pointed towards high single-digit growth for that business long-term. You've also talked about high single-digit for the total company as well. Can you walk us through what gives you confidence in those long-term targets? Which segments do you feel like you have the highest degree of visibility on those as well across the Biotechnology, Life Sciences, and Diagnostics businesses?
Yeah, well, you heard me talk about these end markets and the amount of potential that we see in the drug development pipeline in our businesses and Diagnostics. Just think about Alzheimer's. These are really great positions. These are really great businesses. And we've got a great deal of confidence that we are on the way to that long-term growth perspective. And in fact, we're in the middle of the recovery. You heard me talk about it here as it relates to the fourth quarter. And we expect this recovery to continue.
For sure. Another long-term question that we have is just on China. I think China has been very dynamic in recent years, even heading into the pandemic as well. Historically, if we look at Danaher's portfolio, China has been accretive to top-line growth.
But given some of those recent dynamics, how are you thinking about China growth in the long-term? And how does that compare to your pre-COVID assumptions?
Well, look, we have a lot of confidence that the China market will recover. And as you've heard me talk about, we believe that it has reached a degree of stability here at a lower activity level. The China government has been and will continue to be very focused on improving the healthcare services for their population. This remains a top priority in China. And we see the government there making decisions that ultimately support growth for the long term. Now, as we think about our pre-pandemic growth in China, I would say it was sort of a mid-teens to low double-digit growth.
And while we believe there'll be a recovery of that growth, and we believe that the long-term China will be accretive to our overall growth at Danaher, perhaps not exactly at that level. So, probably closer to high single digits, maybe low double digits as an outlier year. So, strong growth, but probably not as strong as it was in the pre-pandemic era.
Maybe shifting a little bit more near-term just in terms of some of the recent trends you're seeing. You guys pre-announced numbers yesterday afternoon. You said that revenue growth was flat versus your guidance of down low single digits. So, can you unpack a little bit of what you saw throughout the quarter across your various businesses in Q4?
So, let's start with bioprocessing. We were pleased to see that high single-digit growth.
We saw sequential orders also grow high single digits, which is now several quarters of strong sequential order growth. And that to us is indicative of the fact that the recovery is well in play. We certainly see a trend there. We see that this particular performance in the fourth quarter was led by consumables growth with instruments better, but perhaps not yet at the full cycle. Keep in mind, instruments are usually ordered 12 months before delivery, sometimes a little bit shorter. But ultimately, what we see in bioprocessing is the recovery that we've been expecting. And as such, the fourth quarter in bioprocessing was expected. Now, as we think about our Diagnostics performance, there we saw a beat on the top line driven by better than expected respiratory at Cepheid. And that offsets some weakness that we saw in China.
All of you have heard us talk about the Volume-Based Procurement. We see that accelerating a little bit after a slow start earlier in the year. We saw that accelerate a little bit in the fourth quarter. So, we'll see how that plays out here. While we don't think that changes our total perspective on Volume-Based Procurement, we did see a bit of an acceleration there in the fourth quarter because China did get off to a slow start in 2024. And then lastly, as we think about life science instruments, we were encouraged now by the second quarter in a row of instruments being a little bit stronger than we had anticipated. We saw that primarily in developed markets. So, think U.S. and Europe. And that was really in the pharma end market as well as the applied end market.
So, we're encouraged that we see pharma coming back to the table here slowly but surely. And that's two quarters in a row. So, that's starting to look like a solid basis going forward.
That's great. Maybe follow-up question to that. Can you talk about how pricing held up in the quarter? And then any thoughts on pricing for Danaher going forward across your various businesses?
So, pricing held up as expected for the quarter. It's starting to normalize more towards historical levels. And we think that's the case going forward here. So, if we assume that there are no other sorts of dislocations here in the near term, we can continue to believe that pricing will be in historical patterns, that sort of range.
Then just a question in terms of China, but more near-term trends.
Obviously, China has been soft for Danaher and many other players throughout this year. So, can you elaborate on what you've seen in the region throughout 2024 and more specifically in Q4 across those three businesses? And what do you expect that recovery trajectory to look like as we get into 2025?
So, I would say China is, and that was validated here in the fourth quarter, is stable at a lower activity level. For us, it was down mid-single digits in the quarter with bioprocessing actually growing, albeit off of lower comps. Nonetheless, that gives us a sense that that market is stabilizing. Life Sciences was down incrementally with some stimulus orders, certainly, but we didn't see those provide a more general inflection. Nonetheless, we are seeing some stimulus there. And then as we think about Diagnostics, Diagnostics was strong in terms of patient volumes out there.
There you see where this Volume-Based Procurement impact that we've been talking about for a while has started to come into the fourth quarter. All in all, we would say that China appears to be stabilizing. If we see a growth inflection here in the future, it'll probably be more related to stimulus activity than the general demand setting improving. We think that will take a little bit longer.
Great. Follow-up comment on that VBP comment that you made saying there was a little bit of a pull forward dynamic. Can you just clarify for us, is $150 million total in that range still the right way to think about the impact of VBP?
That's how we're thinking about it today. Those $150 million, we had laid those out $50 million for three years each. That's not what happened in 2024.
It was quite a bit less than that. And so, there's probably a little bit of catch-up going on there in China on VBP. Perfect.
That makes sense. Then maybe looking at some of the life science instrumentation strength that you called out, can you clarify? Can you give us any more color on what the growth actually looked like in the quarter? And you alluded to some of the China stimulus dynamics. Which products are you seeing that in? And also just budget flush. Did you see any budget flush trends throughout the quarter?
So, like I said, instruments were stronger for us, particularly in the developed markets. So, not China to my earlier commentary. And we see that again primarily in the end markets of pharma and the applied markets. So, think PFAS testing, these sorts of applications.
Pharma is coming back to the table really across our instruments portfolio, Cytiva, Beckman Coulter, Leica Biosystems. So, we did see that more broadly. As we think about China, once again, we did see stimulus orders there. And that's certainly encouraging. But again, not at the level that we expect based on some of the communications around that.
Yeah, perfect. And then digging into the Biotech segment, you called out that bioprocessing went according to expectations. It grew high singles. Orders also grew high single digits in the quarter as well. So, can you walk us through what underlying trends did you see, whether it was by customer type, by product type, or by geographic region in the quarter as well?
So, high single digits, revenue growth, bioprocessing, Q4, high single digits, sequential order growth. That order growth was driven by consumables, primarily by on-market drugs.
We continue to see large and medium-sized pharma or CDMOs supporting those pharmas to have what we would call normal demand. So, our lead times are at normal levels. The ordering patterns for those customers are at traditional levels. And so, we're very encouraged by that. And then we would just say on the instrument side, while that's slowly improving, it's still not up to the traditional level simply because the lead time requirements take some time for that to kick in. So, generally speaking, we continue to be encouraged by the recovery in the bioprocessing markets.
Perfect. And then one portion that I think sometimes doesn't get talked about often is just the 10% of the Biotech segment that's not related to bioprocessing. So, you said that that was one of the areas that didn't outperform in the quarter, the Discovery & M edical portion of that.
So, can you walk us through what color did you see there? What really drove it? And how sustainable is some of the growth that you saw there?
So, we saw double-digit growth in our Discovery & M edical business. We had some one-time effects going on there. But really, it bifurcates in two general directions. The first one is the lab business. And this lab business go to market is typically via distribution. And we think that distribution is getting a bit more of a pull through lab activity and pharma and other places. Perhaps inventories were a little bit lower than traditionally. And that's created a bit of a pull here in the fourth quarter for our lab business. And then we have the protein characterization analysis business.
So, the Biacore platform, the ÄKTA platforms, which behave a little bit more like the life science instrumentation business in terms of the purchasing patterns. And since we saw strength in that in the life science portfolio, it also makes sense for us to have seen some strength in that as well in the Discovery & M edical Business.
Perfect. Maybe shifting then to 2025. Obviously, you guys will have earnings in a few weeks here. But just any early thoughts on how we should frame up 2025 at this point for Danaher?
Look, we're encouraged by a strong finish here and building some momentum at the end of 2024. And I know you're all anxious to hear about what 2025 looks like. We're just two weeks away from the 29th of January. And of course, I'll provide a lot more color on 2025.
But we like the way we finished the year.
Yeah, for sure. Maybe one area that I could poke on on 2025 is just respiratory assumptions. You previously have stated that you believe that the endemic level is 1.5-1.6 billion. So, is that still the right way to think about that respiratory endemic rate, especially as we head into 2025? And what underpins those assumptions as well?
Well, we finished a little bit stronger here in 2024. And so, of course, we're going to review that as we now discuss with our customers as to how they see things developing. But I still think that 1.5, 1.6, maybe 1.7 billion is the right way to think about the endemic level. And how do we triangulate on that? Well, we talk to the epidemiologists.
We talk to our customer base and how they're thinking about positioning themselves from an inventory perspective. You have to get ahead of the outbreaks in terms of your inventory positioning. So, that communication is critical. And then, of course, we look at the ILI, the influenza-like illness. That is an index which has correlated quite well with the respiratory season. So, we take three data points and some of our own proprietary data to come up with that endemic estimate.
Great. Maybe shifting to a topic that we've gotten a lot of investor questions on is just the new administration following the election a few months ago. Obviously, there's a few different areas that could potentially impact Danaher and the broader life science tools market, whether that's customer behavior within pharma, biotech, some of the tariff impacts, also NIH funding as well.
Could you unpack some of your exposure to these various risks that we perceive within the new administration? And how are you guys thinking about that impact going forward?
Well, first of all, I would just say that it's early days here. The administration hasn't even been inaugurated yet. And so, many things remain to be seen. But as we lean back, there's a couple of things to take away. First of all, we suspect this is going to be a more business-friendly administration that we believe provides an environment that is positive and helpful to our industry as a whole. Two, when we look at our exposure to some of these conversations, vaccine business is less than 1% of our revenue. If you think about, excuse me, the NIH is also less than 1% of our revenue.
And as we think about academic research, which is often a multiplier to the NIH, that's less than 5% of our global revenue. So, I think we see that with interest, of course. But we don't view that as something that changes it. Our portfolio is indexed on pharma, on clinical, and on applied markets, and less so on the academic side. So, we feel we're a little bit less exposed there.
Perfect. Then maybe shifting over to capital allocation. Can you just give us an update on how you guys are approaching your capital allocation strategy? And especially how are you thinking about M&A in the near to medium term? Are there any key gaps across your portfolio that you're looking for? You alluded to some of that in your presentation.
But are there areas that you would rather prefer filling via an acquisition versus building out internally and why?
Well, our capital allocation bias to M&A remains unchanged. As you heard me speak about, we focus on our algorithm, end market, company, and the financial model. And the ROIC targets that we're not going to compromise on. So, we're very disciplined on that. And we've seen more activity here in our funnels and in the market. And that's certainly encouraging. We still think that valuations are a little bit elevated. But nonetheless, the fact that there's more activity is indicative of the fact that there's opportunity ahead. So, we're going to stay focused. Our balance sheet position is exquisite. And we're going to take advantage of specific opportunities that are out there in the market.
Great.
And then if we look at some of the areas that Danaher has been investing in from R&D, you've seen things like Alzheimer's on the diagnostic side. So, what are some of the pockets that Danaher is most interested in investing from an R&D standpoint going forward?
Well, you see us investing really in pushing the science and technology forward to improve human health. So, you mentioned the example of Alzheimer's. You see us accelerating the time to IND or to BLA for our customers, pharma customers. And then we talk about precision Diagnostics because the time is ripe for us to be closer to clinicians to be able to help them to arrive at the right diagnosis at the right time. And then also to identify whether their patient is a responder to the available therapeutic set in the marketplace.
So, you heard us talk a little bit about digital pathology. We've just done a deal with Indica Labs. Or when you see us invest with Innovaccer in order to take data in order to be able to more quickly and more accurately diagnose a patient, perhaps even proactively. Those are all indications of where Danaher is investing really to improve health outcomes.
Yeah, perfect. Then maybe in the final minute or two here, Rainer, can you just walk us through what do you think is the most underappreciated aspect of the Danaher story?
Well, there's really two things. First of all, you saw this intentional portfolio transformation. And in the post-pandemic dislocation, it's been a little bit difficult to see all the benefits of that.
But as the industry and as Danaher now returns to growth, you're going to see the power of the earnings leverage that we have built in the portfolio. That would be the first thing. The second thing I would say is independent of the administration, the quality of our end markets, the quality and the positioning of our franchises and our business models remains untouched. And we're very confident that whatever changes, the puts and takes that we might see in the next administration, that we are prepared with Danaher Business System and our team to outperform in that environment.
Perfect. And with that, we are out of time. So, Rainer, thank you so much for joining us tonight.
Thanks, Rachel. Thank you.