Alcon Inc. Ordinary Shares 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Welcome to Alcon's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Yesterday, we issued our press release, interim financial report, and earnings presentation. All of these documents are available on our website at investor.alcon.com. Joining me on today's call are David Endicott, our Chief Executive Officer, and Tim Stonesifer, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, please note that our press release, presentation, and remarks will include forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our future outlook. We undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events, except as required by law. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements, so please do not place undue reliance on them.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are included in our Form 20-F, earnings press release, and interim financial report, each of which is available on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on their website at sec.gov. We'll also discuss certain non-IFRS financial measures. These measures may be calculated differently from, and may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies. They should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for, IFRS-prescribed performance measures. Reconciliation between our non-IFRS measures and the most directly comparable IFRS measures can be found in our earnings press release. For discussion purposes, our comments on growth rates are expressed in constant currency. In a moment, David will begin with highlights from the second quarter. After his remarks, Tim will walk through our financial performance and outlook for the remainder of 2026.

David will then return with closing comments before we open the line for Q&A. With that, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, David Endicott.

Thanks, Dan, and good morning, everyone. Our second quarter results demonstrate the strength of our new products and the benefits of our innovation investments. We delivered 7% sales growth, which was broad-based across both franchises and geographies, reinforcing the impact of our diverse portfolio and our commercial reach. I'll start my remarks today with UNITY, which is one of the clearest examples of our innovation translating into commercial success. Demand for UNITY VCS remains robust, reflecting its versatility across both cataract and vitreoretinal procedures. Surgeons are experiencing firsthand the benefits of UNITY CS, including its advanced energy delivery for phaco, improved fluidics, and streamlined workflow. Encouragingly, UNITY ASPs have exceeded our expectations and underscore our customers' belief in the platform's differentiated value. With strong customer engagement and a healthy sales funnel, we have clear visibility into our second half placements.

Turning to Implantables, as we highlighted in our earnings release, we made the decision to discontinue our work on the PowerVision IOL programs following the analysis of the latest clinical study data. This data demonstrated persistent, unpredictable shifts in postoperative distance vision in a subset of patients that remain unresolved after multiple developmental efforts. As a result, the programs did not meet our standards for visual performance and patient outcomes. Although we are disappointed that the programs ultimately did not advance, they generated valuable insights into accommodation, tunability, and long-term visual outcomes that will inform future innovation efforts. Looking at our performance in the quarter, Implantables grew 1% with IOLs up 2% despite new competitive launches. The PanOptix family grew double digits in the quarter, driven by strong adoption of PanOptix Pro.

Building on the foundation of PanOptix, the world's most implantable trifocal IOL, PanOptix Pro enhances quality of vision through its advanced optical design and continues to gain traction with surgeons globally. In the U.S., adoption has exceeded expectations. Nearly all PanOptix accounts have been converted to PanOptix Pro, with the platform now representing approximately 90% of PanOptix implants. Feedback on visual performance and reduced light scatter remains very encouraging. We expect this momentum to extend internationally as we roll out PanOptix Pro and continue to build on the strength of Clareon Toric. Early launches in Japan, Canada, Australia, and more recently in Europe, have been well received, supporting our confidence in share stabilization and long-term growth. We're also excited about the acceleration of our pipeline of new IOLs. We've begun a KOL launch of TruPlus in the U.S. and recently received CE mark for Europe.

This lens is an important addition to our portfolio and provides an entry point into the monofocal plus segment. We intend to phase these launches deliberately as we continue to prioritize the scale-up of PanOptix Pro in international markets and prepare for the introduction of Vivity Pro. Expected to launch with KOLs late this year, Vivity Pro builds on the success of the Vivity platform through a next generation lens that is designed to extend the range of vision and enhances near performance. The new lens is designed to deliver up to one additional line of near vision while maintaining Vivity's strong distance and intermediate vision performance, and its clinically proven low visual disturbance profile. Importantly, TruPlus and Vivity Pro represent only the next wave of innovation from our IOL portfolio.

Our pipeline remains robust, and we expect to continue to deliver a steady cadence of new technologies and product enhancements in the years ahead. Beyond cataract surgery, we continue to see enthusiasm from Valeda, our first of its kind treatment for dry AMD. This technology uses three specific wavelengths of light to improve mitochondrial activity and retinal health. Importantly, clinical studies showed that more than 80% of patients maintained or improved their vision at approximately two years. Adoption accelerated during the quarter as we expanded the installed base and increased utilization across existing accounts. We were also encouraged by continued progress with the Medicare administrative contractors, which we believe will further support access to this therapy. Based on current adoption trends, clinical experience, and reimbursement progress, we continue to believe the platform has the potential to generate sales of between $100 million and $150 million over time.

Turning to contact lenses, innovation continues to drive growth across our portfolio. The overall contact lens market remained healthy in the second quarter, providing a supportive backdrop for continued category expansion. Against that backdrop, we achieved a record global market share position, supported by strong U.S. share gains and continued momentum across both dailies and reusables. In dailies, TOTAL1 and PRECISION1 remain important growth drivers and continue to gain share in one of the largest, fastest-growing market segments. We're also encouraged by the momentum in reusables. TOTAL30 continues to perform well across the family, supported by the recent launch of TOTAL30 Multifocal for Astigmatism, which expands our reach into an attractive and underserved segment. In addition, PRECISION7 sales have more than doubled versus the prior year, reflecting strong adoption of the weekly replacement category and providing another meaningful avenue for growth.

With multiple platforms across dailies and reusables, we believe we're well positioned to continue capturing share and pursuing attractive growth opportunities across the contact lens market. Finally, in ocular health, execution remains strong across both our prescription and consumer dry eye franchises. TRYPTYR, our novel prescription treatment for dry eye disease, continues to gain momentum. Market access now includes nearly two-thirds of commercial lives and more than 20% of Medicare lives, including the recent addition of Humana Medicare Part D. Less than a year post-launch, TRYPTYR has already captured approximately 5% market share, reflecting strong early adoption in a market that's growing double digits. On the OTC side, Systane continues to perform well, delivering another quarter of double-digit growth and share gains, further strengthening its leadership position in artificial tears.

Given the strength of the franchise and the opportunities we see ahead, we believe Systane remains well positioned on its path towards becoming a billion-dollar brand in the coming years. As we look ahead, we see a robust pipeline of growth catalysts across both our surgical and our vision care franchises. Beyond the positive contributions from our recent launches, we're preparing for the introductions of Vivity Pro, as well as the planned launch of our new eye whitener, among others. In addition, I'm pleased to report that we recently made our first sale of UNITY M, our new microscope, and are beginning to ramp up our commercialization efforts. Together, these near-term opportunities are expected to support steady future growth across our portfolio and further strengthen our market positions. We're also excited about the potential of our recently announced collaboration with RxSight.

While still in the early stages, the collaboration combines Alcon's expertise in advanced optics and lens architecture with RxSight's adjustability platform. Together, we aim to develop a next-generation lens designed specifically for the platform with the potential to further enhance visual performance and refractive precision. Before discussing the individual markets, it's worth highlighting the attractiveness of Alcon's portfolio. We participate across a variety of surgical and vision care markets, including cataract, vitreoretinal, refractive, contact lenses, ocular health, and dry eye, among others. Each of these markets is supported by unique growth drivers, ranging from procedural growth to innovation, premiumization, and increasing adoption of advanced technologies. Taken together, we estimate these aggregated markets grew approximately 3%-4% in the second quarter. Within cataract, we estimate global procedure volumes grew low single digits in the quarter, led by strength in international, while the U.S. was flat.

This was a sequential improvement compared to the first quarter. Importantly, AT-IOL penetration increased by approximately 110 basis points globally and 180 basis points in the U.S. In contact lenses, we estimate the global market remained healthy and grew mid-single digits, led primarily by strength in the U.S. This was moderated by international markets, where prices contributed less to growth. In summary, our focus remains on disciplined execution of a steady flow of new product launches. Combined with our leading positions in a broad range of attractive eye care markets, we believe Alcon is well positioned to extend its leadership, capitalize on future growth opportunities, and create long-term shareholder value. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tim, who will walk you through the financials.