Thanks everyone for coming to stick around with us for day three of the Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference. We are really excited to have Bob McMahon, CFO of West Pharmaceutical Services, with us here today. Thanks a lot for coming. Maybe best place to start, new CEO, Michel. How do you think about leadership change is going to impact the business?
Yeah. First of all, Evan, thanks for having us. It is great to be here. One year ago, this was the first conference that I had
I remember.
coming to West, and it has been a great year, but I will tell you there is still a lot more opportunities going forward. I feel really good about the business. I would say Michel is joining the company at a really great time. As you guys know, we are the market leader and really serving a critical role within the pharmaceutical supply chain. We have had some very nice momentum this year, and I am sure we will talk about that. I think there are opportunities even to continue to expand that. Speaking with Michel, it is his week two , and I think what is really great about him is he knows our markets extremely well. He knows our customers, and in fact, he has already spent time with our customers. He is on a site visit and going around looking at our sites, talking to our employees.
I think he will continue to accelerate the work that is already being done. Actually, I think elevate our conversations with customers, which I think will be good not only in terms of our current opportunities, but future opportunities. I expect not only a seamless transition, but an acceleration of the opportunities that we have in front of us.
Great. You reported 2Q recently. It was a strong beat. $35 million, 4.2 organic revenue beat. What kind of exceeded your expectations and what were the puts and takes in the quarter?
Yeah, we were really pleased with Q2. The momentum of the business continues to be strong. The market is constructive demand continues to be there. It is very good. I am very pleased with Q2. As you have mentioned, we beat by over $35 million, and really the area that beat was our HVP components business, which is really over 50% of our business and the business that we expect to continue to have the strongest legs going forward. Really both HVP, non-GLP-1, as well as GLP-1s performed very well. This was on the back of recovering out of a cyberattack as well. We are very pleased with the team. The biggest contributor actually was non-GLP-1 HVP.
When you think about the growth drivers going forward, the continued rise of biologics where we have greater than 90% participation rate, the regulatory requirements around Annex 1, and just the overall kind of mix shift there, feel very good about the continued momentum in that side of the business. As a result of Q2, we actually took our guidance up by 250 basis points at the midpoint. That is now 10%-11% growth for the full year, and very good.
Yeah, that's great. That's where I was going to head next was on the guidance. Across the peer group, that's among the highest. What were the drivers of that increase?
Yeah.
Then just kind of as we flow that through to margins, what kind of margin expansion are you now anticipating within the guidance?
Yeah. We started the year. The strong growth is really driven by our HVP business, as I was mentioning before. Of that 10%-11%, that's over eight points of growth is HVP components growth. So very strong performance there, really driven by the underlying factors that I just kind of mentioned, and we expect that to continue as we move forward. The rest of the performance was actually in our drug delivery device business, particularly in the first half of the year. But what's really nice is the HVP business also drives very nice margin expansion. So with the addition of that, going from 7%-9% to 10%-11% for the full year, we are now forecasting greater than 200 basis points, almost 250 basis points of margin expansion growth for the year.
That's 50 basis points higher than what we had seen in our previous guide. So very good start to the year. Not done yet, but feel good about the momentum in the business.
That's great. You mentioned a couple times HVPC, and the strength that you're seeing there. It was up, I think, high teens in the quarter.
Yeah
What were some of the underlying drivers of that performance? Were there any particular impacts within that segment from the cyberattack that you also mentioned? How should we think about any follow-through acceleration in that growth as we go through the rest of the year?
Yeah. We're really pleased about the recovery that we had in Q2. Although there was some mix shift within HVP, the HVP growth has really been driven by a couple of things. We talked a little bit about this, continued mix shift really driven by Annex 1 or the regulatory requirements that's been driving a very strong performance, not only last year, but continues to do that this year. When we think about the number of programs, this is a regulatory framework that's come out of Europe, and now we're actually starting to see some of those requirements and changes here in the U.S. as well. We had initially sized that at 6 billion components. We're about 1 billion into that right now, so still a long way to go, and that was just the European side.
If you think about the U.S., that would obviously expand that 6 billion to even more. We're actually seeing a potential acceleration in that. The number of programs that we have year-on-year was greater than 50% higher than it was this time last year, and so really feel good about that. The biologic approvals continues to be very strong, and that's where we also have a very good performance and participation. I mentioned our overall market share in the elastomer side is greater than 70%, but in biologics, it's greater than 90% as we measure it by participation. So as that grows, we feel good. We've been ahead of our plan from a pricing perspective as well.
I mean-
GLP-1s, which I am sure we will talk about.
Yeah. You mentioned approvals. It just came to my mind. Is that the best leading indicator to think about your business and potential growth? Just because your attachment rate there seems so high, I was just thinking that, is that something-
Yeah, it is one of them. I would look at it in two elements. One is just the number of biologics that are in the pipeline, the clinical pipeline, relative to small molecule. The majority of biologics are injectable drugs, and so that is even a further leading indicator, and then certainly in the more near term would be the number of approvals. I would also say, as we think about going forward, the opportunities that we have because of the way that we are specced into these businesses, and so we have a very sticky business as some of those products or our molecules are going off of patent. When we talk about biosimilars, it is a real opportunity for us to actually continue to capture the volume there. Potentially, it could even be greater because of lower pricing and greater market access.
We also see that as more of a longer-term growth opportunity for us as well. I think that's a unique kind of opportunity that we're well-positioned to take advantage of.
You mentioned Annex 1 a couple of times. If you can kind of contextualize it, the contribution from that and HVP components conversion in the quarter, what's driving this, and how should we think about that going forward?
Sorry.
No, I think maybe you are able to frame the actual number of projects.
Yeah
in the quarter, that would also be helpful.
We've talked about Annex 1 contributing an incremental 200 basis points of growth for the total company. If you think about the component, the business for HVP, it obviously has even a bigger impact for the HVP side. That continues to be very robust in terms of the number of projects. It's approaching a little over almost 800 projects now, which is 50% greater than where it was this year. That's a combination of projects that are currently being in production or development as well as production. You're starting to see those come through as higher value, moving up that value chain. As I mentioned before, from a penetration standpoint, we're still relatively early inning, so to speak, of that penetration. We're very optimistic about the continued growth of the Annex 1 opportunity for us going forward.
As I mentioned, it's been primarily in Europe, but we are now seeing opportunities come in those projects in the U.S., which would expand that $6 billion market opportunity even further. We see this as a multi-year tailwind for us, that we're uniquely positioned because we're on these drugs already. Being able to take a Standard Product into an HVP, we are the supplier of choice from that standpoint, the partner of choice.
Got you. Another thing that you mentioned a couple of times already, GLP-1s. It's very high level. Can you just talk about the trends you're seeing there? I know people are talking a lot about the orals and how that might be impacting the injectables. Any comments related to those?
Yeah. We are still very optimistic about the GLP-1 business. It is, from an elastomer side, about 10% of our revenues. But we think there is still a long runway of that market in terms of just the amount of penetration to date in the U.S. as well as the rest of the world. It is just getting started. Orals have been. I know that has been a lot of topic. It is kind of playing out as we expected, which is actually bringing new patients into the market as opposed to cannibalizing the injectable side. The injectables still have benefits in terms of better efficacy, lower side effect profile. And if we think about the additional opportunities going forward, there certainly are additional indications that are being investigated with the current drugs on market.
There is a very robust pipeline of next generation GLP-1s that will have even better side effect profiles, better weight loss, or better efficacy. We have a very strong participation in those as well. I think we are very well positioned to continue to drive that business going forward. And we have continued to increase our expectations for the GLP-1 contribution to growth throughout this year.
That is great. Sticking with GLP-1s again, you mentioned generics. It sounds like some companies are not using West. You had indicated here as well as previously, that you have
Yeah
strong participation in generics in India, Canada, China, Turkey, and Brazil. Maybe just talk about, just broadly, what is going on in the generic space with GLP-1.
Yeah. I think if we think about the GLP-1 space in general, I will answer your question directly in just a second. There is still, as I mentioned before, a very long runway. Not only in the emerging markets through generics, but also in the developed markets with some of the things that I was talking about. We are very optimistic about the continued volume growth of this. What generics bring is a lower price point, and you are actually even seeing a lower price point in the U.S. and in certain markets in Europe as well. We actually see that as very positive for us because that actually increases access for patients, more affordability. Even in the U.S., not all employers cover GLP-1s. As more and more employers cover it, as the government covers it, there will be more patients that will have access to these drugs.
We see that as very good in the developed markets. To your point, specifically about generics, we have very good participation. You can see that in our numbers. In Q2, we had very strong growth in Asia Pacific, over 25% growth, on an organic basis. That was really driven by, in large part, some GLP-1 business, in places like India and China. I would also say, as we think about the path for whether it be GLP-1s or biosimilars in general, the fastest path typically is to use the same delivery mechanism or packaging as the innovator drug does. Because you do not have to do as many studies. It lowers the regulatory and potential risk, and speed to market is critical there.
What we see is if we are on the innovative drug or the branded drug, the biosimilar, or generics will come to us and use the same elastomer equipment or same elastomers as the branded drug and use that in their process. There is a very small kind of dropout from that standpoint. We feel very good about our participation, to get back to your original question, in the generic marketplace for GLP-1s and I think more broadly for biosimilars going forward.
Right. Maybe moving to Standard Products.
Yeah.
Slower growth there, but you are up 1% in the quarter.
Yeah.
Maybe talk about what drove the performance there.
Yeah. Standard Products, roughly about 20% of our revenues. Think about that as the feeder pool into what we were just talking about as part of the HVP upgrade mix. So these are products that really are out in the marketplace today, but really have the opportunity, not all of them, but a lot of them have an opportunity to be upgraded to HVP over time. So some of that is actually being impacted by, as we are moving up the value chain, the growth rate in Standard Products kind of gets offset by that. But we think about this as kind of a really important pipeline for HVP going forward. It is a lower growing business. But, we think about that as a way to stay with customers and then upgrade over time.
Got you. Just thinking, it sounds like slower growth there and coupled with higher growth elsewhere is actually a good indication, right?
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Not just for your business, but also from a margin perspective.
Yeah. That's exactly right. One of the things that as you think about moving up that HVP value range, the number of units actually doesn't change. But the value that we're providing to our customers and able to capture ourselves, is very beneficial. To the extent that that continues to be a source, and the HVP business growing faster, that's actually a good thing for us. It says that strategy is working.
Okay. HVP DD was also strong. I think you exited a business within that. What can we expect from that business going forward?
Yeah, we had a really good first half of the year with our HVP Delivery Devices business. This is where our SmartDose 3.5 is. We actually did better than we anticipated, both in first quarter and second quarter, really helping support the transfer of that business to AbbVie, that closed on July 1st. But that business isn't solely SmartDose. If we actually take the SmartDose 3.5 business out there, Q2, we actually grew double digits. This is our products like Crystal Zenith, Administration Systems, and our SmartDose 10, which we will continue to develop. We're optimistic about the continued growth. That's probably a slower grower, a slightly lower growth business today than what our HVP component growth is, call it mid-single digits. But this year, if we think about the full year, it's double digit because of the strong first half.
Great. You did mention APAC. I think you said it grew 20%?
Yeah, in excess of 25%.
25% in the quarter. Yeah, 27%. What drove that performance, and how should we think about that going forward?
Yeah. If we think about our opportunities going forward, we've got a new leader in Asia now here for about the last nine months. I see it as a real opportunity to continue to capture growth. Today, a lot of that has been driven by GLP-1s that I mentioned before. If we think about the emerging dynamics that are happening in Asia, you're not only having an increasing number of aging individuals in Asia that want access to healthcare, which will drive volumes for us, but I think just as importantly, and maybe more importantly, is the amount of innovation that's coming out for novel therapies and therapeutics out of Asia, particularly in China. It's just skyrocketed over the last, I'd say, decade, and I would expect that to continue.
Those are not only In China, For China, but also taking those molecules and bringing them into the U.S. and Europe as well. Getting on those molecules early on is really what our strategy has been and will continue to be. I think there's more growth in Asia for that going forward to really get a good bead on what are the development activities that are going on there, and then how do we actually help support them as they license those products back. Because typically what they'll do is, and you're seeing this, many of the major pharma companies or major biotech companies are now licensing those products. Those are customers of ours already.
If you can talk to them and say, "Hey, we've already got the best-in-class kind of containment systems," that's a much easier way to market in Europe than in the U.S. We're optimistic about the growth in Asia, not only for this year, but for many years to come.
Yeah. No, based on what you were saying, I was going to follow up with that. Since we've seen this kind of explosion in China, people in the space across tools have been asking if it's coming from Asia, are they using cheaper copycat products?
Yeah.
And typically the answer is no, because actually, their exit strategy is to
That is exactly right. Yes.
go to the U.S. So that is what you are seeing as well, and so you are specced in at the trial. They know that they want to
That is correct.
enter the U.S. market.
Yeah. Typically what you'll start to see is, depending on the company, they want to standardize on a certain containment platform. If there is a local platform that they want to bring into the U.S., they'll have to do additional studies or actually change it. To the extent that we can get there upfront and do that makes the diligence as well as that transition much easier for the multinational corporations that would want to bring those products into the U.S., not only from the standpoint of manufacturing, but even regulatory as well.
Makes sense. Maybe moving to West Vantage. You invested heavily into this business a couple years ago. How should investors think about the return on those investments? Do you expect them to drive an acceleration in growth in that business? Going forward, how much left, or how are you thinking about further investments there?
Yeah. So it's a good question. Our West Vantage business is a little less than 20%, I think it was 17% of the revenues in the quarter. This was one area where we did have some deferred revenue associated with the cyberattack, just because of the way the business model worked. We'll catch that up in Q3 and Q4. Just for the benefit of everyone, Q3 will be a trough in terms of performance because we exited a CGM contract that we've been talking about, and are ramping up Drug Handling Solutions. The reason I bring that up is because Drug Handling Solutions is where really our strategy is going forward. We're on track for $20 million. The CGM contract was about an $80 million annual contract, so about $40 million. It's already been built into our forecast.
You'll see that come out in the second half of this year, roughly $20 million in Q3 and Q4 each. What we do have is a program and a strategy to actually add more value to the work that we're doing with customers. We call it Drug Handling Solutions, but think about it as, we make the auto-injector and pens today. We assemble the product, then somebody else actually puts the cartridge of drug product into that to make a finished good. Drug Handling Solutions for us is then getting the cartridge ourselves. Taking it because it's right off the manufacturing line, we do the QC to ensure that it's the right product, it's still within spec, actually put that in, and make the finished good ourselves. That is more value added. What does that benefit our customers? It reduces a step in the manufacturing.
Somebody else would be doing that, so it should reduce the time it would get to take that product to market to finish because of the transit time. It also creates a more consistent regulatory or quality system, at least in that side. We're taking some additional steps out of that manufacturing process. That's a higher profit. It's a higher risk for us because now we're handling drug product, but it's higher profit for us. We're just getting into that business. Our strategy is to get more upstream into that business with West Vantage going forward. That $20 million that I mentioned before is on track. Most of that's in the back half of this year.
About five of it was in the first half of the year, so 15 in the second half of the year, about five in Q3, then the rest in Q4. That program is a $60+ million program at full maturity, which is probably going to happen in 2028. It will continue to grow in 2027. You could expect we're exiting at a $40 million kind of run rate in Q, and that will continue to grow into 2027. We've got in our pipeline a number of other opportunities to expand. That's based in our Dublin facility. We're looking for opportunities here in the U.S. to do that as well.
Great. Sticking with West Vantage margin performance, as you move towards these higher-value services-
Yeah
How should we think about, like Drug Handling Solutions you mentioned, how should we think about the margin cadence or
Yeah
expectations for that going forward?
Yeah. I'll start with Q2 was impacted because of the cyberattack. I mentioned it before. That's a highly levered business, so if you don't get the production out, you do have the cost and so forth. As I mentioned, because that's a kind of a captive program, that revenue isn't lost. We'll capture it in Q3 and Q4. But it did impact our margin performance in the quarter. So I would expect margins to improve in Q3. That's built into our guidance and then continue to improve going forward. The Drug Handling Solutions should help accelerate our margin improvement in our West Vantage business over time as that ramps up. Our goal is to get it much closer to the overall company average over time.
We've invested heavily from a capital perspective in creating capacity for that business, so I would expect the large amount of capital investments are largely behind us for the next several years there as we build out the programs to take advantage of that capacity that we've built. Where we would go invest, I would say more disproportionately going forward from a capital standpoint, is really behind our HVP business, particularly in the finishing areas where we would have a higher ROI, where, from a capital perspective, moving into a 6%-8% kind of range of CapEx spend for revenue. It's roughly $250 million this year. Feel good about the capital efficiency going forward.
That's one of the areas that I'm really focused on, making sure that we're investing in our highest return businesses and getting the returns up for the investments that we've already made.
Right. You mentioned this already, moving upstream from where you are, and it sounds like West Vantage is part of that strategy. I think your CEO knows a lot about
Yeah
moving upstream. When you think about, I guess, organic investments and also M&A, what should investors expect on that front and where are your capital allocation priorities?
Yeah. One of the things I think we're blessed with is a very strong balance sheet. We generate a lot of cash as a company, and I think there's an opportunity to be better efficient or more efficient with that cash going forward. We've spent time over the last year driving that, and I think you can see the results of some of that this year already in terms of how we're thinking about capital allocation. I would say first and foremost, it is around how do we continue to invest in the business to drive that organic growth, and as I mentioned before, disproportionately invest behind our HVP businesses to take advantage of the secular drivers that we were talking about earlier in the discussion, as well as staying ahead of the curve, so to speak, in terms of taking advantage of that. That's priority one.
I do think there is an opportunity to look beyond just our organic growth to more organic means. I would say to stay tuned from that standpoint, but I think we have a right to play beyond kind of the critical component that we are in providing solutions to solve our customers' pain points across the supply chain. I do think that that will be a more important thing over time. We obviously have to demonstrate the ability to do that. The last I would say is we continue to be committed to our dividend, but more importantly, returning cash to shareholders is also important, and we have an outstanding $1 billion share repurchase. We purchased about half of that, $450 million, the first half of the year, and I would expect us to continue to be active in deploying capital.
Great. That's all I got.
Okay.
Sounds like you covered a lot. Is there anything you want to
No, I would just say, maybe I'll end where we started, which is I think West, one of the reasons I came to West is really excited about the unique position that we play, and the strong competitive position, the stickiness of our business, and the ongoing structural growth drivers that we have. I think there's not too many stories like that out there. Having an organization to be able to be focused and taking better execution and continuing to drive that, I'm really excited about. Not only on the top line, but the margin expansion opportunity here as well. So we've got good business momentum here in 2026. I would expect that continue, not only in the top line, but have disproportionate growth through margin expansion, as well as we're not only moving up that value chain, but also really driving better performance in the company.
I am super excited about it. Looking forward to having Michel on board, and having a chance to talk to investors. And we are good.
Great. Any chance you want to give 2027 guidance now?
No, we will hold on that.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.