Charles River Laboratories International Inc (CRL) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Charles River Laboratories Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded.

女士們、先生們，感謝你們的支持，並歡迎參加 Charles River Laboratories 2023 年第四季和全年收益電話會議。此通話正在錄音。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Todd Spencer, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在，我想將會議交給我們的東道主、投資者關係副總裁 Todd Spencer。請繼續。

Good morning, and welcome to Charles River Laboratories Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings and 2024 Guidance Conference Call and Webcast. This morning, I am joined by Jim Foster, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Flavia Pease, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. They will comment on our results for the fourth quarter of '23 as well as our financial guidance for 2024.

早上好，歡迎來到 Charles River Laboratories 2023 年第四季和全年收益以及 2024 年指導電話會議和網路廣播。今天上午，董事長、總裁兼執行長吉姆福斯特 (Jim Foster) 將與我一起出席會議。以及執行副總裁兼財務長 Flavia Pease。他們將對我們 23 年第四季的業績以及 2024 年的財務指引發表評論。

Following the presentation, they will respond to questions. There is a slide presentation associated with today's remarks, which is posted on the Investor Relations section of our website at ir.criver.com. A webcast replay of this call will be available beginning approximately 2 hours after the call and can be accessed on our Investor Relations website. The replay will be available through the next quarter's conference call. I'd like to remind you of our safe harbor. All remarks that we make about future expectations, plans and prospects for the company constitute forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated.

演講結束後，他們將回答問題。與今天的演講相關的幻燈片簡報發佈在我們網站 ir.criver.com 的投資者關係部分。本次電話會議的網路直播重播將於電話會議結束後約 2 小時開始播放，您可以在我們的投資者關係網站上觀看。重播將透過下個季度的電話會議提供。我想提醒您我們的安全港。我們對公司未來預期、計劃和前景所做的所有評論均構成 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》規定的前瞻性陳述。實際結果可能與所示結果有重大差異。

During this call, we will primarily discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe help investors gain a meaningful understanding of our core operating results and guidance. The non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be considered superior to or a substitute for results of operations prepared in accordance with GAAP. In accordance with Regulation G, you can find the comparable GAAP measures and reconciliations on the Investor Relations section of our website. I will now turn the call over to Jim Foster.

在本次電話會議中，我們將主要討論非公認會計原則財務指標，我們相信這些指標有助於投資者對我們的核心經營績效和指導有有意義的了解。非公認會計原則財務指標並不意味著被視為優於或取代根據公認會計原則編制的營運結果。根據 G 條例，您可以在我們網站的投資者關係部分找到可比較的 GAAP 衡量標準和調整表。我現在將把電話轉給吉姆·福斯特。

Good morning. The stability and resilience of Charles River's business model were very clear in 2023, although demand trends moderated in the broader life sciences sector, we delivered organic revenue growth of 6.5% and earnings per share of $10.67, both of which were in the upper half of the original guidance ranges that we provided last February. We accomplished this despite the pipeline reprioritization activity and more cautious spending by many of our biopharmaceutical clients, and also by successfully mitigating the impact of the NHP supply disruption in the United States.

早安. Charles River 業務模式的穩定性和彈性在2023 年非常明顯，儘管更廣泛的生命科學領域的需求趨勢有所放緩，但我們實現了6.5% 的有機收入增長和10.67 美元的每股收益，兩者皆處於2023 年的上半段。我們去年二月提供的原始指導範圍。儘管我們的許多生物製藥客戶進行了管道優先排序活動和更謹慎的支出，並且成功減輕了美國 NHP 供應中斷的影響，但我們仍然實現了這一目標。

We are anticipating that constrained client spending will persist into 2024, but that demand will stabilize during the year. At the top end of our financial guidance range, we expect that demand trends will begin to modestly improve later this year. These trends are expected to result in organic revenue that is flat to 3% growth in 2024.

我們預計客戶支出受限將持續到 2024 年，但需求將在年內趨於穩定。在我們財務指導範圍的上限，我們預計需求趨勢將在今年稍後開始適度改善。這些趨勢預計將導致 2024 年有機收入成長 3%。

Since providing a high-level outlook at our Investor Day in September, we have further derisked our 2024 financial plan and believe our current outlook is appropriately balanced as cancellations remained elevated and backlog continued to moderately decline in our Safety Assessment business during the fourth quarter of last year.

自從9 月的投資者日提供高水準展望以來，我們進一步降低了2024 年財務計畫的風險，並相信我們當前的前景是適當平衡的，因為第四季度我們的安全評估業務的取消量仍然較高，積壓訂單繼續適度下降。去年。

Our belief that the macroeconomic environment will stabilize this year is supported by early external indicators that improvement will come, including several successful biotech IPOs in January providing early signs that the capital markets should reopen and biotech funding will improve.

我們相信今年宏觀經濟環境將趨於穩定，這得到了早期外部指標的支持，這些指標將出現改善，包括1 月份幾起成功的生物技術IPO，提供了資本市場應該重新開放和生物技術融資將會改善的早期跡象。

Our internal indicators also suggest that demand trends may be beginning to stabilize in certain businesses including signs of the client destocking activity in Microbial Solutions is easing and increased proposal activity in Biologics Testing business in the fourth quarter.

我們的內部指標還表明，某些業務的需求趨勢可能開始穩定，包括微生物解決方案的客戶去庫存活動正在緩解的跡像以及第四季度生物製劑測試業務的提案活動增加。

We believe the market environment is transitory. The long-term industry fundamentals for drug development remain firmly intact, because the overwhelming need to find life-saving treatments for rare diseases and many other unmet medical needs is unchanged. Biotech will again move into favor in the capital markets and will lead the way using advanced modalities and new technologies to drive innovation.

我們認為市場環境是暫時的。藥物開發的長期行業基本面仍然完好無損，因為對罕見疾病和許多其他未滿足的醫療需求尋找拯救生命的治療方法的壓倒性需求沒有改變。生物技術將再次受到資本市場的青睞，並將引領利用先進模式和新技術推動創新。

Large pharma has consistently adapted to scientific advancements, the regulatory environment and the drive to be more efficient. Therefore, we anticipate little change with regard to the industry's healthy, long-term growth prospects and continued investments in R&D.

大型製藥公司不斷適應科學進步、監管環境和提高效率的動力。因此，我們預計該行業健康、長期的成長前景和持續的研發投資不會有太大變化。

In today's market environment, we will not wait for client spending patterns to improve. We are proactively and continuously engaged in actions to streamline our organization, to drive productivity, enhance our speed and responsiveness, and become an even stronger scientific partner to our clients. We are doing this by continuing to focus our initiatives to win additional market share in new outsourcing opportunities across all 3 business segments. This includes enhanced commercial efforts through optimizing our sales force to accelerate revenue growth by adjusting go-to-market strategies, focusing on selling across our entire portfolio and leveraging technology to enhance sales insights and identify earlier selling opportunities.

在現今的市場環境下，我們不會等待客戶支出模式改善。我們積極、持續地採取行動，精簡我們的組織，提高生產力，提高我們的速度和回應能力，並成為客戶更強大的科學合作夥伴。為此，我們繼續集中精力在所有 3 個業務領域的新外包機會中贏得更多市場份額。這包括透過優化我們的銷售團隊來加強商業努力，透過調整進入市場策略來加速收入成長，專注於整個產品組合的銷售，並利用技術來增強銷售洞察力並發現早期銷售機會。

Our digital strategy is helping us to better connect with our clients including through our Apollo cloud-based platform to provide real-time access to scientific data and self-service tools for clients. We also have a culture of continuous improvement at Charles River that enables us to drive operational efficiencies and cost-saving actions to proactively manage our cost structure and to become an even more compelling partner for our clients for the longer term. Flavia will outline the cost savings from our restructuring initiatives shortly.

我們的數位策略正在幫助我們更好地與客戶聯繫，包括透過我們的 Apollo 雲端平台為客戶提供科學數據和自助服務工具的即時存取。 Charles River 還擁有持續改進的文化，使我們能夠提高營運效率和節省成本的行動，以主動管理我們的成本結構，並成為客戶更有吸引力的長期合作夥伴。 Flavia 很快就會概述我們的重組計劃所節省的成本。

Overall, our successful execution in these areas will enable us to capitalize on new business opportunities as they emerge, while delivering operating margin improvement in 2024 and beyond.

總體而言，我們在這些領域的成功執行將使我們能夠利用出現的新商機，同時在 2024 年及以後實現營業利潤率的提高。

Before I provide more details on our 2024 outlook, let me give you the highlights of our fourth quarter performance. We reported revenue of $1.01 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, a 3.5% decline on an organic basis over the previous year. The decrease was driven primarily by a mid-single-digit decrease in the DSA segment. As we have regularly mentioned, the year-over-year DSA growth rate was affected by a challenging comparison to the 26.5% growth rate reported in the fourth quarter of 2022. As has been the trend throughout 2023, sales to the global biopharmaceutical clients segment outperformed small and mid-sized biotechs again in the fourth quarter. For 2023, we were pleased to report revenue of $4.13 billion with an organic revenue increase of 6.5%. The top line performance was driven by another solid year in our Safety Assessment business as well as healthy growth in the RMS segment.

在提供有關 2024 年展望的更多詳細資訊之前，讓我先向您介紹我們第四季度業績的亮點。我們報告 2023 年第四季營收為 10.1 億美元，比前一年有機下降 3.5%。這一下降主要是由 DSA 業務中個位數的下降所推動的。正如我們經常提到的，與 2022 年第四季報告的 26.5% 成長率相比，DSA 同比成長率受到了挑戰性的影響。正如 2023 年全年的趨勢一樣，全球生物製藥客戶領域的銷售額第四季再次跑贏中小型生技股。我們很高興地報告 2023 年收入達 41.3 億美元，有機收入成長 6.5%。我們的安全評估業務又迎來了堅實的一年，以及 RMS 領域的健康成長，推動了營收績效。

The operating margin decreased 130 basis points year-over-year to 19.1% in the fourth quarter, principally driven by higher unallocated corporate costs, due in part to a meaningful increase in health and fringe-related expenses. The DSA operating margin also contributed, with a small year-over-year decline driven by lower sales volume in the Discovery business. For the full year, the operating margin declined by 70 basis points to 20.3%. The decrease was primarily driven by the Manufacturing and RMS segments, as well as higher unallocated corporate costs.

第四季營業利潤率年減 130 個基點至 19.1%，主要是由於未分配企業成本增加，部分原因是健康和附加相關費用大幅增加。 DSA 的營業利潤率也有所貢獻，由於探索業務銷量下降，營業利潤率較去年同期小幅下降。全年營業利益率下降 70 個基點至 20.3%。下降的主要原因是製造和 RMS 部門以及未分配的企業成本上升。

Earnings per share were $2.46 in the fourth quarter, a decrease of 17.4% from $2.98 in the fourth quarter of 2022. In addition to the lower revenue and operating margin, a higher tax rate, as well as the 53rd week in 2022 and the divestiture of the Avian Vaccine business in the fourth quarter of 2022 were earnings headwinds.

第四季每股收益為2.46美元，較2022年第四季的2.98美元下降17.4%。除了收入和營業利潤率較低、稅率較高，以及2022年第53周和剝離之外2022 年第四季度禽疫苗業務的獲利面臨阻力。

The 2023 earnings per share declined by 4% to $10.67, due primarily to the nonoperating headwinds, including significantly higher interest expense. In total, interest expense, tax and the Avian divestiture reduced 2023 earnings per share by over $1.

2023 年每股盈餘下降 4% 至 10.67 美元，主要是由於非經營性不利因素，包括利息支出大幅增加。總的來說，利息支出、稅收和 Avian 資產剝離使 2023 年每股收益減少了 1 美元以上。

With respect to 2024, we believe our outlook is appropriately balanced. Demand from many of our large biopharmaceutical clients is expected to be stable while small and mid-sized biotechnology clients may continue to spend cautiously as they endeavor to extend the cash runways until clear indications of an improving funding environment emerge. At the same time, we expect both of these client segments to continue to increasingly utilize strategic outsourcing to gain efficiencies and cost effectiveness in the drug development programs. As I mentioned earlier, organic revenue in 2024 is expected to be in a range from flat to 3% growth.

對於 2024 年，我們認為我們的前景是適當平衡的。我們許多大型生物製藥客戶的需求預計將保持穩定，而中小型生技客戶可能會繼續謹慎支出，因為他們努力擴大現金跑道，直到出現融資環境改善的明確跡象。同時，我們預計這兩個客戶群將繼續越來越多地利用策略性外包來提高藥物開發計劃的效率和成本效益。正如我之前提到的，2024 年的有機收入預計將保持持平至 3% 的成長。

Non-GAAP earnings per share are expected to be in a range from $10.90 to $11.40, including at least $0.30 of earnings accretion from the November increase in our ownership stake in Noveprim, our NHP supplier in Mauritius. The range represents earnings per share growth of approximately 2% to 7%, with earnings growth expected to exceed revenue growth due primarily to operating margin expansion of at least 50 basis points this year.

非 GAAP 每股盈餘預計在 10.90 美元至 11.40 美元之間，其中包括 11 月我們增持毛里求斯 NHP 供應商 Noveprim 的股權所帶來的至少 0.30 美元收益增量。該範圍代表每股收益成長約2%至7%，獲利成長預計將超過營收成長，這主要是由於今年營業利潤率至少成長了50個基點。

I'd like to provide you with additional details on our fourth quarter segment performance and our expectations for 2024, beginning with the DSA segment. DSA revenue in the fourth quarter was $625.8 million, a decrease of 6% on an organic basis. The quarterly decline reflected the difficult comparison to the 26.5% growth rate last year as well as a meaningful decline in the Discovery Services revenue in the fourth quarter. Safety Assessment revenue also decreased by the lower rate. In the Safety Assessment business, the elevated cancellations throughout 2023, and slippage had a greater impact on the fourth quarter with work being canceled or start dates moved out of the fourth quarter and into 2024.

我想向您提供有關我們第四季度業績的更多詳細資訊以及我們對 2024 年（從 DSA 部門開始）的預期。第四季 DSA 營收為 6.258 億美元，有機下降 6%。季度下降反映了與去年 26.5% 成長率的艱難比較，以及第四季度發現服務收入的大幅下降。安全評估收入也因較低的比率而減少。在安全評估業務中，2023 年全年取消數量增加，而滑點對第四季度的影響更大，工作被取消或開工日期從第四季度移至 2024 年。

For the year, DSA revenue increased 7.9% on an organic basis which met our segment outlook due to another solid year in the Safety Assessment business. As anticipated, the backlog coverage enabled us to achieve our DSA financial outlook of high single-digit organic revenue growth in 2023. At year-end, DSA backlog modestly declined to $2.45 billion from $2.6 billion at the end of the third quarter. Cancellation rate increased from third quarter levels, resulting in a net book-to-bill that remained relatively stable to below 1x. However, the net book-to-bill has moved within a similar range throughout each quarter of 2023.

今年，DSA 營收有機成長 7.9%，由於安全評估業務又取得強勁表現，符合我們的部門預期。正如預期的那樣，積壓訂單覆蓋率使我們能夠實現 2023 年 DSA 財務預期，即實現高單位數有機收入增長。年底，DSA 積壓訂單從第三季末的 26 億美元小幅下降至 24.5 億美元。取消率較第三季水準上升，導致淨訂單出貨比保持相對穩定，低於 1 倍。然而，2023 年每季的淨訂單出貨量都在類似的範圍內變化。

With gross bookings remaining above 1x at the end of the fourth quarter, we expect demand KPIs to improve modestly once the cancellation rate subsides, which is one of the assumptions behind our DSA outlook. We expect flat to low single-digit organic revenue growth in the DSA segment in 2024. The first quarter will exhibit trends similar to the fourth quarter of 2023, due in part to the normal seasonal lag of study starts at the beginning of the year. We expect study volume to improve thereafter, but the first half growth rate will be lower before the easier year-over-year growth comparison and improving demand KPIs benefit the second half DSA growth rate. Another assumption is that DSA revenue growth will be principally driven by modest price increases in 2024. This includes a $15 million to $35 million impact from NHP pricing, which reflects a significantly lower price increase than in recent years.

由於第四季末總預訂量仍保持在 1 倍以上，我們預計一旦取消率下降，需求 KPI 將小幅改善，這是我們 DSA 前景背後的假設之一。我們預計 2024 年 DSA 領域的有機收入成長將持平至低個位數。第一季將呈現與 2023 年第四季類似的趨勢，部分原因是年初開始的研究存在正常的季節性滯後。我們預計此後研究量將有所改善，但在更容易的同比增長比較和需求 KPI 的改善有利於下半年 DSA 增長率之前，上半年增長率將較低。另一個假設是，DSA 收入成長將主要由 2024 年價格小幅上漲推動。這包括 NHP 定價帶來的 1,500 萬至 3,500 萬美元的影響，這反映出價格漲幅明顯低於近年來。

One of the reasons that we are able to navigate a volatile NHP pricing environment is our long-standing, high-quality NHP supply relationships, which give us an important competitive advantage in the preclinical sector. The November acquisition of an additional 41% stake in Noveprim for approximately $145 to a 90% controlling interest firmly supports our stated NHP supply strategy of enhancing safeguards and diversifying our NHP supply through increased ownership and operational control. Noveprim is reported as part of our DSA segment for NHPs vertically integrated into our Safety Assessment supply chain, in the RMS segment for NHP sold to third-party clients. Flavia will provide more details on the financial impact of Noveprim which is now consolidated in our financial results. As we often comment, we are also deeply committed to initiatives to modify and reduce animal use, which are embedded in our 4Rs imperatives of Replacement, Reduction, Refinement and Responsibility.

我們能夠應對不穩定的 NHP 定價環境的原因之一是我們長期、高品質的 NHP 供應關係，這使我們在臨床前領域擁有重要的競爭優勢。 11 月，以約145 美元的價格額外收購了Noveprim 41% 的股份，獲得90% 的控股權，這有力地支持了我們既定的NHP 供應策略，即透過增加所有權和營運控制來加強保障措施並實現NHP 供應多元化。根據報告，Noveprim 是 NHP 的 DSA 部門的一部分，垂直整合到我們的安全評估供應鏈中，屬於出售給第三方客戶的 NHP 的 RMS 部門。 Flavia 將提供有關 Noveprim 財務影響的更多詳細信息，該影響現已合併到我們的財務業績中。正如我們經常評論的那樣，我們也堅定地致力於改變和減少動物使用的舉措，這些舉措體現在我們的 4R 原則（替換、減少、細化和責任）中。

We intend to remain the leader in regulatory required preclinical development services through both enhanced efforts to secure and safeguard our supply chain and also by championing methodologies to reduce animal use, including alternative technologies. Over the last 4 years, we have invested approximately $200 million in these technologies, principally through our strategic partnership activities, to added capabilities from AI to next-generation sequencing as well as through investments in our digital enterprise and our animal-free Endosafe Trillium testing platform.

我們打算透過加強保護我們的供應鏈，並倡導減少動物使用的方法（包括替代技術），繼續在監管要求的臨床前開發服務方面保持領先地位。在過去4 年裡，我們在這些技術上投資了約2 億美元，主要是透過我們的策略合作夥伴活動，增加從人工智慧到下一代定序的能力，以及透過對我們的數位企業和無動物的Endosafe Trillium 測試的投資平台。

Discovery Services had a challenging year and saw a meaningful revenue decline in the fourth quarter across all client segments. Discovery proposal volume remained low throughout the year and clients' decision-making time lines for new projects remained extended. Despite these near-term challenges, Discovery Services remain a critical component of our end-to-end, early-stage portfolio, as we are able to partner with clients and often establish a relationship with them earlier in their life cycle, whether for a single project or an integrated program that are able to work flexibly by providing clients with cutting-edge capabilities to discover their novel therapeutics. As we turn the days to 2024, we are cautiously optimistic that budget replenishment in the new year will lead to healthier demand trends, but have forecast the business to be essentially flat in 2024.

Discovery Services 度過了充滿挑戰的一年，第四季度所有客戶群的營收都大幅下降。全年發現提案量仍然較低，客戶對新專案的決策時間仍延長。儘管有這些近期挑戰，發現服務仍然是我們端到端早期投資組合的重要組成部分，因為我們能夠與客戶合作，並經常在他們生命週期的早期與他們建立關係，無論是為了單一項目或綜合計劃能夠透過為客戶提供尖端能力來發現他們的新療法而靈活地工作。隨著時間轉向 2024 年，我們對新一年的預算補充將帶來更健康的需求趨勢持謹慎樂觀態度，但預測 2024 年業務將基本持平。

The DSA operating margin was 26% in the fourth quarter, a 30 basis point decrease from the fourth quarter of 2022 due to the revenue decline in the Discovery Services business. For the year, DSA operating margin increased by 220 basis points to 27.5% as a result of operating leverage associated with higher revenue and favorable mix in the Safety Assessment business. RMS revenue in the fourth quarter was $195.8 million, a decrease of 0.4% on an organic basis. For the year, RMS organic revenue growth was 5.9%. Demand for small research models across all client segments slowed considerably in the fourth quarter, particularly in North America and Europe. Sales of small models were the principal headwind to fourth quarter growth as well as continued softness in the Cell Solutions business. These headwinds were largely offset by healthy revenue growth in China for both small models and NHPs in the fourth quarter, despite the numerous reports of a difficult demand environment for the life science sectors within the country.

由於發現服務業務收入下降，DSA第四季營運利潤率為26%，較2022年第四季下降30個基點。今年，DSA 營運利潤率成長了 220 個基點，達到 27.5%，這得益於與較高收入和安全評估業務有利組合相關的營運槓桿。 RMS 第四季營收為 1.958 億美元，有機下降 0.4%。今年，RMS 有機收入成長率為 5.9%。第四季度，所有客戶群對小型研究模式的需求大幅放緩，尤其是在北美和歐洲。小型型號的銷售是第四季度成長的主要阻力，也是電池解決方案業務持續疲軟的主要阻力。儘管有大量報導中國生命科學產業的需求環境困難，但第四季中國小型模型和 NHP 的健康收入成長在很大程度上抵消了這些不利因素。

For 2024, we expect RMS organic revenue will be flat to low single-digit growth. The current demand environment will likely limit unit volume growth this year in the research model business in North America and Europe. So we expect to drive most of the growth from modest price increase.

到 2024 年，我們預計 RMS 有機收入將持平至低個位數成長。目前的需求環境可能會限制今年北美和歐洲研究模型業務的單位銷售成長。因此，我們預計大部分成長將來自適度的價格上漲。

In China, we expect continued healthy demand for small models and associated services, albeit tempered from the robust historical double-digit growth rates in the region. We expect NHP revenue in China to decline in 2024, due primarily to lower pricing in the region.

在中國，我們預計對小型車型和相關服務的需求將持續健康，儘管該地區強勁的歷史兩位數成長率有所緩和。我們預計 2024 年 NHP 在中國的收入將下降，這主要是由於該地區定價較低。

Research model services are positioned to be a notable contributor to revenue growth in 2024. We are expanding our GEMS capacity in certain regions to accommodate our clients' increasing requirements for our support of their complex research and maintenance of their genetically modified model colonies. In addition, CRADL, one of the largest growth drivers for RMS in recent years is expected to deliver a solid top line performance in 2024, with growth accelerating in the second half of the year due in part to the ramp-up of several new CRADL sites. Clients are continuing to adopt this flexible model to access vivarium space without having to invest in internal infrastructure, which provides a powerful value proposition to biotech clients in particular, who are trying to conserve capital.

研究模型服務預計將成為 2024 年收入成長的顯著貢獻者。我們正在某些地區擴大 GEMS 產能，以滿足客戶對我們支持其複雜研究和維護其基因改造模型群體日益增長的要求。此外，CRADL 作為 RMS 近年來最大的成長動力之一，預計將在 2024 年實現穩健的營收業績，下半年成長將加速，部分原因是多個新 CRADL 的增加網站。客戶繼續採用這種靈活的模式來訪問動物園空間，而無需投資內部基礎設施，這為特別是試圖節省資本的生物技術客戶提供了強大的價值主張。

The RMS operating margin increased by 40 basis points year-over-year to 23.1% in the fourth quarter, but decreased by 220 basis points to 23% in 2023. The one-month contribution from Noveprim as well as increased shipments of NHPs within China, were the principal contributors to the fourth quarter margin improvement partially offset by lower sales volume in the small models business. As I mentioned, Noveprim's sale of NHPs to third-party, external clients has been included in the RMS segment, which is expected to drive meaningful margin improvement in the RMS segment in 2024. Manufacturing Solutions revenue was $191.9 million for the fourth quarter, growth rate of 2.3% on an organic basis and the full year organic growth rate was 2%. The CDMO business drove the segment growth rate with solid double-digit growth in both the fourth quarter and for the full year.

第四季 RMS 營業利潤率年增 40 個基點至 23.1%，但到 2023 年將下降 220 個基點至 23%。Noveprim 的一個月貢獻以及中國境內 NHP 出貨量的增加是第四季度利潤率改善的主要貢獻者，但部分被小型車型業務銷售下降所抵消。正如我所提到的，Noveprim 向第三方外部客戶銷售NHP 已包含在RMS 細分市場中，預計這將在2024 年推動RMS 細分市場的利潤率大幅提高。第四季製造解決方案收入為1.919億美元，成長有機成長率為 2.3%，全年有機成長率為 2%。 CDMO業務推動了該細分市場的成長率，第四季和全年均實現兩位數的穩健成長。

Initiatives that we implemented to improve the performance of our CDMO business have proven successful in 2023. We believe the business is now well positioned competitively with its centers of excellence for cell therapies, viral vectors and plasmids and that investments made over the past 2 years have enhanced the commercial readiness of our operations. The enhancements to the business have been well received and earned positive feedback from clients. We are generating additional client interest that has undoubtedly been initiated by our announcement in December that our Memphis site received U.S. and EU approval to manufacture CASGEVY by Vertex, the first gene-edited cell therapy targeting severe sickle cell disease. We are very pleased with our relationship with Vertex and believe commercial relationships like this will continue to drive new client inquiries going forward.

我們為提高CDMO 業務績效而實施的舉措在2023 年已被證明是成功的。我們相信，該業務目前在細胞療法、病毒載體和質粒方面的卓越中心中處於有利的競爭地位，並且過去2 年的投資增強了我們業務的商業準備。業務的改進受到了好評，並贏得了客戶的正面回饋。我們正在引起更多客戶的興趣，這無疑是由我們去年12 月宣布我們的孟菲斯工廠獲得美國和歐盟批准生產Vertex 的CASGEVY 引起的，這是第一個針對嚴重鐮狀細胞病的基因編輯細胞療法。我們對與 Vertex 的關係感到非常滿意，並相信這樣的商業關係將繼續推動新客戶的詢問。

Our Biologics Testing Solutions and Microbial Solutions businesses both reported modest revenue declines in the fourth quarter. Microbial Solutions did experience a modest increase in the year-end client order activity as normally occurs, but not to the extent that occurred in the fourth quarter of 2022, when there was a significant budget flush. We are now seeing positive signs that client's destocking activity is starting to wind down and both large biopharmaceutical and CDMO clients, as a number of large clients recently resumed their order activity for reagents and consumables. In addition, we're now seeing confirmed ship dates for instruments, including the Endosafe Nexus 200 automated system that were delayed in 2023.

我們的生物製劑測試解決方案和微生物解決方案業務第四季的營收均出現小幅下降。 Microbial Solutions 的年終客戶訂單活動確實出現了正常情況下的小幅增長，但沒有達到 2022 年第四季預算大幅增加的程度。我們現在看到了積極的跡象，表明大型生物製藥和 CDMO 客戶的去庫存活動開始減少，因為許多大客戶最近恢復了試劑和耗材的訂單活動。此外，我們現在看到了儀器的確認發貨日期，包括推遲於 2023 年的 Endosafe Nexus 200 自動化系統。

As we previously mentioned, the Biologics Testing business had a difficult year due to tighter client spending in its end markets. However, we saw an increase in client proposal activity in the fourth quarter, which was the first quarterly increase in 2023. First quarter sample volumes for the Biologics Testing business are always seasonally soft coming out of the holidays. But we believe both Biologics Testing and Microbial Solutions will see improving trends over the course of the year and are positioned to generate modest revenue growth in 2024. In total, we expect low to mid-single-digit organic revenue growth in the Manufacturing segment this year.

正如我們之前提到的，由於終端市場的客戶支出收緊，生物製劑測試業務度過了艱難的一年。然而，我們看到第四季度的客戶提案活動有所增加，這是 2023 年的第一個季度增長。生物製劑測試業務的第一季樣品量在假期後總是季節性疲軟。但我們相信，生物製劑測試和微生物解決方案將在今年看到改善的趨勢，並有望在2024 年實現適度的收入成長。總的來說，我們預計今年製造領域的有機收入將實現低至中個位數的有機增長。年。

The Manufacturing segment's operating margin increased slightly to 25.4% in the fourth quarter that declined by 700 basis points for the year to 21.8%, while the operating margin declined in each of the Manufacturing segment's business units in 2023, the CDMO business was the most meaningful headwind throughout the year. However, as project volumes continue to improve and enhance the business' margin profile, we expect significant improvement this year, contributing to meaningful segment operating margin improvement in 2024. As we mentioned at Investor Day in September, we expect the manufacturing segment will drive the improvement towards the company's margin expansion targets over the next 3 years, and the CDMO business is a key component of that goal.

製造部門第四季的營業利潤率小幅成長至25.4%，全年下降700個基點至21.8%，而2023年製造部門各業務部門的營業利潤率均出現下降，其中CDMO業務最有意義全年逆風。然而，隨著專案數量持續改善並提高業務利潤率，我們預計今年將出現顯著改善，從而有助於2024 年部門營業利潤率的顯著改善。正如我們在9 月的投資者日上提到的，我們預計製造部門將推動改善公司未來3年的利潤擴張目標，而CDMO業務是該目標的關鍵組成部分。

Before I conclude, I'd like to congratulate Bill Barbo on a remarkable 42-year career at Charles River. As we announced previously, Bill will retire as Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at the end of 2024. Bill's career began with a lot of science, working as an animal care intern before joining the company as a full-time research scientist. He continued to assume positions of increasing responsibility eventually moving into our commercial organization. During his time at Charles River, Bill led numerous initiatives, which contributed to our market-leading position and his comprehensive knowledge of our portfolio has made him an indispensable leader of our commercial organization. Bill has dedicated his career to ensuring we deliver on our purpose and has truly embraced our values. I greatly appreciated Bill's contributions and partnerships over the last 42 years and wish him all the best in his next chapter.

在結束發言之前，我要祝賀 Bill Barbo 在 Charles River 度過了 42 年的非凡職業生涯。正如我們之前宣布的，Bill 將於2024 年底從執行副總裁兼首席商務官的職位上退休。Bill 的職業生涯始於大量科學領域，在加入公司擔任全職研究科學家之前，他曾擔任動物護理實習生。他繼續擔任越來越重要的職務，最終進入我們的商業組織。在 Charles River 任職期間，Bill 領導了多項舉措，為我們的市場領先地位做出了貢獻，他對我們產品組合的全面了解使他成為我們商業組織中不可或缺的領導者。比爾將他的職業生涯奉獻給了確保我們實現我們的目標，並真正擁護我們的價值觀。我非常感謝 Bill 在過去 42 年中的貢獻和合作夥伴關係，並祝他在下一個篇章中一切順利。

For many years, Bill has been working with Kristen Eisenhauer, the Senior Vice President responsible for all client services and sales. Kristen has now assumed the Chief Commercial Officer role, so we are fortunate to have a successor in place and anticipate a seamless transition. Thanks again, Bill, and congratulations to Kristen.

多年來，Bill 一直與負責所有客戶服務和銷售的高級副總裁 Kristen Eisenhauer 合作。克里斯汀現已擔任首席商務官一職，因此我們很幸運有一位繼任者，並預計將實現無縫過渡。再次感謝比爾，並恭喜克里斯汀。

In addition to Bill's retirement, Senior Vice President, Kerstin Dolph, has now assumed responsibility for the Microbial Solutions business and will now be responsible for our entire Manufacturing Solutions segment. This aligns the operational leadership for our CGMP-certified businesses under Kerstin, as she has effectively led our Biologics Testing and CDMO operations for a number of years.

除了 Bill 退休之外，高級副總裁 Kerstin Dolph 現已承擔微生物解決方案業務的職責，並將負責整個製造解決方案部門。這使得 Kerstin 領導下的 CGMP 認證業務的營運領導層保持一致，因為她多年來一直有效領導我們的生物製劑測試和 CDMO 業務。

To close, we were pleased with our solid performance in 2023. Our long-term prospects for revenue growth and margin expansion remain unchanged from the targets we provided at Investor Day including averaging 6% to 8% organic revenue growth and approximately 150 basis points of cumulative operating margin improvement through 2026. Charles River is positioned exquisitely to meet the evolving needs of our clients and will capitalize on the opportunities that emerge in today's business environment as the demand trends stabilize and eventually improve.

最後，我們對2023 年的穩健業績感到滿意。我們對收入成長和利潤率擴張的長期前景與我們在投資者日提供的目標保持不變，包括平均6% 至8% 的有機收入成長和約150 個基點的有機收入成長。到2026 年，累計營業利潤率將有所提高。Charles River 已做好充分準備，可以滿足客戶不斷變化的需求，並將利用當今商業環境中隨著需求趨勢穩定並最終改善而出現的機會。

We are taking action to gain additional market share through enhance commercial initiatives and by strengthening our leading, nonclinical portfolio by focusing on innovation, including adding cutting-edge technologies from AI to next-generation sequencing. We are also committed to driving efficiency and appropriately managing our cost structure without sacrificing the flexibility to respond to a changing industry and client requirements, and we have stabilized and continue to secure our supply chain, including through the acquisition of Noveprim. We will continue to lead and to proactively manage the business through this dynamic market environment as well as to deliver value to our shareholders.

我們正在採取行動，透過加強商業計劃，並透過專注於創新來加強我們領先的非臨床產品組合，包括添加從人工智慧到下一代定序的尖端技術，以獲得更多的市場份額。我們也致力於提高效率並適當管理我們的成本結構，同時不犧牲響應不斷變化的行業和客戶需求的靈活性，並且我們已經穩定並繼續確保我們的供應鏈，包括透過收購 Noveprim。我們將繼續在這個充滿活力的市場環境中領導並積極管理業務，並為股東創造價值。

To conclude, I would like to thank our employees for their exceptional work and commitment and for our clients and shareholders for their support. Now I'd like Flavia to give you additional details on our financial performance and 2024 guidance.

最後，我要感謝我們的員工的出色工作和奉獻精神，以及我們的客戶和股東的支持。現在，我希望 Flavia 向您提供有關我們的財務業績和 2024 年指導的更多詳細資訊。

Thank you, Jim, and good morning. Before I begin, may I remind you that I'll be speaking primarily to non-GAAP results, which exclude amortization and other acquisition-related adjustments, costs related primarily to restructuring actions, gains or losses from certain venture capital and other strategic investments, gains on the avian divestiture and certain other items. Many of my comments will also refer to organic revenue growth, which excludes the impact of acquisitions, divestitures, foreign currency translation and the 53rd week in 2022.

謝謝你，吉姆，早安。在開始之前，請允許我提醒您，我將主要談論非公認會計原則的結果，其中不包括攤銷和其他收購相關的調整、主要與重組行動相關的成本、某些風險資本和其他戰略投資的損益，禽類資產剝離和某些其他項目的收益。我的許多評論也會提到有機收入成長，其中不包括收購、剝離、外幣換算和 2022 年第 53 週的影響。

Our fourth quarter 2023 revenue and earnings per share were in line with our expectations and our prior guidance ranges and reflected the continuation of a cautious biopharmaceutical end market demand environment, which we expect will persist into 2024. Therefore, we expect reported revenue growth of 1% to 4% and organic revenue that will be flat to 3% growth in 2024. Higher revenue and moderate margin improvement are expected to drive non-GAAP earnings per share to a range of $10.90 to $11.40 this year, representing year-over-year growth of approximately 2% to 7%. Our guidance also assumes that the tax rate is less of a headwind to earnings growth than in the prior year, and that interest expense will be slightly below 2023. I'll provide more detail on the nonoperating items a bit later.

我們2023 年第四季的營收和每股盈餘符合我們的預期和先前的指導範圍，反映出謹慎的生物製藥終端市場需求環境的持續，我們預計這種情況將持續到2024 年。因此，我們預期報告的收入成長 1到2024 年，有機收入將成長% 至4%，有機收入成長將持平至3%。收入的增加和利潤率的適度改善預計將推動今年非GAAP 每股收益達到10.90 美元至11.40美元，年成長約2%至7%。我們的指導還假設稅率對獲利成長的阻力小於上一年，且利息支出將略低於 2023 年。稍後我將提供有關非經營項目的更多詳細資訊。

As Jim mentioned, in November, we acquired an additional 41% equity stake in Noveprim, a high-quality supplier of NHPs in Mauritius. Noveprim has been a long-time supplier to Charles River, and we made our first equity investment in 2022, acquiring a 49% stake. Now that we own a 90% controlling interest, will consolidate Noveprim's operations into our financial results. The acquisition is expected to be the primary contributor of our operating margin improvement in 2024 and add at least $0.30 to non-GAAP earnings per share. The majority of the financial contribution this year will be derived from NHPs sold to third-party clients, which will be included in the RMS segment. We expect Noveprim will generate $40 million to $50 million of third-party revenue for the full year 2024, which will not impact organic revenue growth until we anniversary the transaction in late November.

正如Jim所提到的，11月，我們額外收購了毛里求斯NHP優質供應商Noveprim 41%的股權。 Noveprim 一直是 Charles River 的長期供應商，我們在 2022 年進行了第一次股權投資，收購了 49% 的股權。現在我們擁有 90% 的控股權，將把 Noveprim 的業務合併到我們的財務表現中。此次收購預計將成為我們 2024 年營業利潤率改善的主要貢獻者，並為非 GAAP 每股收益增加至少 0.30 美元。今年的大部分財務貢獻將來自出售給第三方客戶的 NHP，這些客戶將包含在 RMS 部門。我們預計 Noveprim 將在 2024 年全年產生 4,000 萬至 5,000 萬美元的第三方收入，這不會影響有機收入成長，直到 11 月底交易週年紀念日。

NHPs that will be utilized in regulatory required studies will be included in the DSA segment. The transaction will be a small benefit to our DSA financial results as we will now be sourcing these models internally instead of a third-party supplier. With regard to the quarterly gating of our 2024 outlook, as we have said many times, our business isn't linear and its quarterly performance can fluctuate based on mix, the status of clients' programs, the timing of NHP shipments and other related factors. We expect the second half of 2024 will be stronger for both year-over-year revenue growth and operating margin than the first half, due in part to the challenging growth comparisons in the first half of 2023. We expect organic revenue will decrease at a low to mid-single-digit rate in the first half, followed by a second half increase at a mid- to high single-digit rate.

將用於監管要求的研究的 NHP 將包含在 DSA 部分中。這筆交易將對我們的 DSA 財務表現帶來一點好處，因為我們現在將在內部而不是第三方供應商購買這些模型。關於我們 2024 年展望的季度門控，正如我們多次說過的，我們的業務不是線性的，其季度業績可能會根據組合、客戶計劃的狀態、NHP 發貨時間和其他相關因素而波動。 。我們預計 2024 年下半年的年收入成長和營業利潤率將強於上半年，部分原因是 2023 年上半年的成長比較充滿挑戰。我們預期有機收入將以上半年呈低至中個位數成長率，下半年呈現中至高個位數成長率。

I will now provide additional details on our 2024 outlook, starting with our reportable segments. The RMS segment is expected to generate flat to low single-digit organic revenue growth based on modest growth for research models driven principally by price as well as accelerating growth in the services business with the ramp of new CRADL facilities in the second half. The DSA segment is also expected to generate flat to low single-digit organic revenue growth based on the expectation that early stage demand trends will stabilize during the first half of the year and begin to improve later in the year. The Manufacturing segment is expected to achieve low to mid-single-digit growth, primarily driven by the CDMO business, as well as modest revenue growth in the Microbial Solutions and Biologics Testing businesses.

我現在將提供有關 2024 年展望的更多詳細信息，從我們的可報告部門開始。由於主要由價格驅動的研究模型適度增長，以及隨著下半年新 CRADL 設施的增加，服務業務加速增長，預計 RMS 部門將產生持平至低個位數的有機收入增長。基於早期需求趨勢將在今年上半年穩定並在今年稍後開始改善的預期，DSA 部門預計也將實現持平至低個位數的自然收入成長。製造部門預計將實現中低個位數成長，主要由 CDMO 業務以及微生物解決方案和生物製劑測試業務的適度收入成長所推動。

In 2023, the operating margin declined by 70 basis points to 20.3%. This was caused by higher unallocated corporate costs that reduced the consolidated operating margin by 30 basis points, which I'll discuss shortly and the moderating domain environment during the year, which particularly impacted the RMS and Biologics Testing businesses. The manufacturing margin was also impacted by higher costs in the CDMO business necessary to prepare for regulatory audits and commercial readiness as well as a lease impairment in the first quarter of 2023. We implemented cost-saving actions in 2023 and 2024 to manage our cost structure and align it with the current demand environment, but it takes time for the savings to ramp. These restructuring initiatives will generate approximately $60 million to $70 million in annualized cost savings. Despite the slower top-line growth, we expect to generate operating margin improvement of at least 50 basis points.

2023年，營業利益率下降70個基點至20.3%。這是由於較高的未分配企業成本導致綜合營業利潤率降低了 30 個基點（我將很快討論這一點）以及年內的領域環境的緩和，這尤其影響了 RMS 和生物製劑測試業務。製造利潤率也受到準備監管審計和商業準備所需的 CDMO 業務成本上升以及 2023 年第一季租賃減損的影響。我們在 2023 年和 2024 年實施了成本節約行動來管理我們的成本結構並使其與當前的需求環境保持一致，但節省的費用需要時間才能增加。這些重組措施每年將節省約 6,000 萬至 7,000 萬美元的成本。儘管收入成長放緩，但我們預計營業利潤率將提高至少 50 個基點。

As I mentioned earlier, this improvement will primarily be generated by Noveprim. The balance of the improvement will be derived from continued efforts to manage costs and drive efficiency.

正如我之前提到的，這種改進主要是由 Noveprim 產生的。改進的平衡將來自於管理成本和提高效率的持續努力。

On a segment basis, we expect meaningful operating margin improvement from the RMS and Manufacturing segments. Noveprim is expected to contribute at least 200 basis points to the RMS margin. In the Manufacturing segment, we expect the profitability of each business unit will improve commensurate with sales volume, but expect the CDMO business will be the largest contributor as it grows in scale and adds commercial revenue and as costs related to regulatory audit preparation and commercial readiness moderate. The DSA operating margin is expected to be slightly below the 2023 level. We expect unallocated corporate expenses in 2024 to be similar to the 2023 level at just above 5% of total revenue.

從分部來看，我們預期 RMS 和製造分部的營業利潤率將會顯著改善。 Noveprim 預計將為 RMS 利潤貢獻至少 200 個基點。在製造領域，我們預計每個業務部門的盈利能力將隨著銷量的增長而提高，但隨著規模的增長、商業收入的增加以及與監管審計準備和商業準備相關的成本的增加，預計CDMO 業務將成為最大的貢獻者緩和。 DSA 營業利潤率預計將略低於 2023 年的水準。我們預計 2024 年未分配的企業支出將與 2023 年水準相似，略高於總收入的 5%。

The 30 basis point increase in 2023 to 5.3% was primarily attributable to continued investments in our digital strategy as well as higher health and fringe-related costs, which was the primary driver of the fourth quarter increase.

2023 年成長 30 個基點至 5.3%，主要歸因於我們對數位策略的持續投資以及更高的健康和附加相關成本，這是第四季度成長的主要驅動力。

The non-GAAP tax rate for 2024 is expected to be in the range of 23% to 24%, an increase from 22.1% in 2023. The anticipated increase in the tax rate is principally due to the impact related to stock-based compensation, as well as the geographic mix of revenue. In addition, we do not expect discrete tax benefits, which benefited 2023 to repeat. The headwind from stock-based compensation will cause the first quarter tax rate to be in the mid-20% range because of the more pronounced impact on the tax rate from the timing of vesting of equity awards at current stock price levels. Total adjusted net interest expense in 2024 is expected to be in the range of $125 million to $130 million, compared to $131.5 million last year. The decrease will be primarily driven by debt repayment, as well as anticipated lower variable interest rates later in 2024.

2024年的非公認會計原則稅率預計在23%至24%之間，較2023年的22.1%有所增加。稅率的預期增加主要是由於與股權激勵相關的影響，以及收入的地理組合。此外，我們預計 2023 年的離散稅收優惠不會重演。股票薪酬的不利因素將導致第一季稅率在 20% 左右，因為按當前股價水準授予股權獎勵的時間對稅率的影響更為明顯。 2024 年調整後淨利息支出總額預計在 1.25 億至 1.3 億美元之間，而去年為 1.315 億美元。下降的主要原因是債務償還以及預計 2024 年稍後可變利率下降。

At the end of the fourth quarter, we had outstanding debt of $2.65 billion compared to $2.5 billion at the end of the third quarter. The sequential increase reflected borrowing to fund the Noveprim acquisition. At the end of the fourth quarter, approximately 75% of our $2.65 billion in outstanding debt was at a fixed interest rate. Our gross leverage ratio was 2.3x, and our net leverage ratio was 2.2x at the end of the fourth quarter.

截至第四季末，我們的未償債務為 26.5 億美元，而第三季末為 25 億美元。環比成長反映了為收購Noveprim 而藉款的情況。截至第四季末，我們 26.5 億美元的未償債務中約 75% 為固定利率債務。截至第四季末，我們的總槓桿率為 2.3 倍，淨槓桿率為 2.2 倍。

For 2024, we expect free cash flow will be in a range of $400 million to $440 million, representing a meaningful increase over $365 million in 2023. This increase will be driven by our earnings growth as well as our continued focus on working capital management. In addition, capital expenditures are expected to decline both on a dollar basis and as a percent of revenue. CapEx for 2024 is expected to be approximately $300 million or about 7% of total revenue, down from $318.5 million or 7.7% of revenue in 2023. This outlook is in line with our long-term target level of 7% to 8% of revenue for CapEx, and reflects our disciplined approach to aligning capacity and capital investments with market demand.

2024 年，我們預計自由現金流將在 4 億至 4.4 億美元之間，較 2023 年的 3.65 億美元大幅增長。這一增長將由我們的盈利增長以及我們對營運資本管理的持續關注推動。此外，預計資本支出以美元計算和占收入的百分比都會下降。 2024 年的資本支出預計約為3 億美元，佔總收入的7% 左右，低於2023 年的3.185 億美元，佔收入的7.7%。這一前景符合我們佔收入7% 至8% 的長期目標水平資本支出，反映了我們根據市場需求調整產能和資本投資的嚴格方法。

A summary of our 2024 financial guidance, including Noveprim can be found on Slide 38. With regard to the first quarter of 2024, we expect revenue will decline in a low to mid-single-digit range on a reported basis and declined in a mid-single-digit range on an organic basis as we expect demand trends will be similar to the fourth quarter of 2023.

我們的 2024 年財務指引摘要（包括 Noveprim）可在幻燈片 38 中找到。關於 2024 年第一季度，我們預計收入將在報告的基礎上下降到中低個位數範圍，並在中期下降。 -有機基礎上的個位數範圍，因為我們預期需求趨勢將與2023 年第四季類似。

As a reminder, despite the stronger first quarter in 2023, there is typically a seasonal impact in Safety Assessment, reflecting fewer study starts at the beginning of the year. The Biologics Testing business is also impacted by seasonally lower sample volumes in the first quarter.

提醒一下，儘管 2023 年第一季表現強勁，但安全評估通常會受到季節性影響，反映出年初開始的研究較少。生物製劑測試業務也受到第一季樣本量季節性下降的影響。

From an earnings perspective, we expect non-GAAP earnings per share of at least $2 in the first quarter. The decline from the fourth quarter will be primarily driven by a lower operating margin due in part to seasonal business trends. Unallocated corporate costs will also remain above 6% of revenue in the first quarter and similar to the fourth quarter level. A challenging comparison to the robust DSA operating margin in the first quarter of last year also impacts the year-over-year comparison.

從獲利角度來看，我們預計第一季非 GAAP 每股盈餘至少為 2 美元。第四季的下降主要是由於季節性業務趨勢導致營業利潤率下降所致。第一季未分配的企業成本也將維持在營收的 6% 以上，與第四季的水準相似。與去年第一季強勁的 DSA 營業利潤率相比，具有挑戰性的情況也影響了同比比較。

As I mentioned, we expect a meaningfully higher tax rate in the mid-20% range, reflecting a headwind from stock-based compensation. We do expect revenue and operating margin will improve sequentially after the first quarter, as we move beyond the seasonal trends at the beginning of the year, and market demand improves marginally as the year progresses.

正如我所提到的，我們預計稅率將大幅提高到 20% 左右，這反映出基於股票的薪酬所帶來的阻力。我們確實預計第一季後營收和營業利潤率將連續改善，因為我們超越了年初的季節性趨勢，隨著今年的進展，市場需求略有改善。

In closing, despite the ongoing cautious biopharma spending environment, our business continues to be resilient, and we remain confident in the long-term health of the industry. Our solid 2023 performance reflected our ability to manage the challenges in the marketplace while continuing to focus on making disciplined investments to support our businesses and managing costs to capture efficiencies.

最後，儘管生物製藥支出環境持續謹慎，但我們的業務繼續保持彈性，我們對該行業的長期健康仍然充滿信心。我們 2023 年的穩健表現反映了我們應對市場挑戰的能力，同時繼續專注於進行嚴格的投資以支持我們的業務並管理成本以提高效率。

Although 2024 organic revenue growth is forecasted to be below our long-term targets, we remain confident in our Investor Day targets of averaging 6% to 8% organic revenue growth through 2026 and delivering meaningful margin expansion, which is supported by the sustained long-term fundamentals for drug development and our position as an industry leader. Thank you.

儘管預計2024 年的有機收入成長將低於我們的長期目標，但我們仍然對投資者日目標充滿信心，即到2026 年平均有機收入增長6% 至8%，並實現有意義的利潤率擴張，這得到了持續的長期成長的支持。藥物開發的術語基礎以及我們作為行業領導者的地位。謝謝。

That concludes our comments. We will now take questions.

我們的評論到此結束。我們現在將接受提問。

(Operator Instructions) We'll take our first question from Derik De Bruin with Bank of America.

（操作員說明）我們將回答美國銀行 Derik De Bruin 提出的第一個問題。

Jim, so I'm a little bit surprised to sort of see the significant ramp you're embedding in the second half. I mean your book-to-bill is hovering around, what, [0.75, 0.8]. Your cancellations are up and you're assuming some NHP pricing, which I think is contrary to what some of the market surveys are showing. I'm just -- can you sort of like break these down so like and how you're sort of like getting the confidence you're doing with that. I think particularly on the pricing standpoint, I mean, are -- is it something with Noveprim acquisition is allowing you to sort of get this incremental pricing?

吉姆，所以我有點驚訝地看到你在下半場嵌入的顯著斜坡。我的意思是你的訂單出貨比徘徊在 [0.75, 0.8] 左右。您的取消數量增加了，並且您假設了一些 NHP 定價，我認為這與一些市場調查顯示的情況相反。我只是——你能不能把這些分解一下，以及你如何獲得你正在做的事情的信心。我認為特別是從定價的角度來看，我的意思是——收購 Noveprim 是否能讓你獲得這種增量定價？

Sure. this would not be the first time and actually would be the third time that we've had a ramp, 23% was in the first half of the year, 22% was in the back half of the year. And they were pretty big ramps. So it's -- I don't want to say it's the nature of the business, but it's not been unusual. The first quarter tends to be a little bit slower as the clients sort of sort out what molecules are going to work on and what they're going to delay. And then there's obviously a lot of issues, right?

當然。這不是第一次，實際上是我們第三次成長，23% 是在今年上半年，22% 是在今年下半年。它們是相當大的坡道。所以，我不想說這是業務的本質，但這並不罕見。第一季往往會慢一些，因為客戶正在整理哪些分子將起作用以及它們將延遲什麼。然後顯然有很多問題，對吧？

So I guess we're looking at a lot of things. Yes, cancellation rates were higher than we would like, and that's somewhat concerning. And by the same token, we think those will ameliorate. We're seeing sort of a stabilization demand in as much as seeing our microbial folks destocking, meaning that they've been loaded up in the prior year, and they've been working through that bolus of inventory now that we believe if they're getting out to buy incrementally.

所以我想我們正在考慮很多事情。是的，取消率比我們希望的要高，這有點令人擔憂。基於同樣的原因，我們認為這些情況將會改善。我們看到了某種穩定的需求，因為我們的微生物人員正在去庫存，這意味著他們在前一年已經裝滿了，現在他們一直在處理大量庫存，我們相信如果他們「正在出去逐步購買。

We saw increased proposal activity in Biologics in the fourth quarter, and that business was down last year. Again, that's one of those businesses where the work comes in very quickly. The studies are relatively short term. So you turn them around very quickly and build them very quickly. And that's a bit of a commentary on the necessity to test and the growth rate of large molecules, which we still feel really positive about it. I think everybody has.

我們看到第四季度生物製劑領域的提案活動有所增加，而去年該業務有所下降。這又是那些工作來得很快的企業之一。這些研究是相對短期的。所以你可以很快地扭轉它們並很快地建造它們。這是對測試必要性和大分子成長率的一點評論，我們仍然對此感到非常積極。我想每個人都有。

We're looking at a ramp of new CRADLs that we either built at the end of last year or are opened or will open this year. So we should see more of that in the back half of the year. We're watching biotech IPOs carefully as you all are, as everybody is or about half a dozen -- in the first quarter, they priced well, but $8 billion was raised. And so we feel good about them. We're seeing an enormous amount of biopharma M&A. So that's injecting a lot of cash into the system of VC -- VCs are flushed with cash. So sequential movement after the first quarter is, I want to use the word normal. It tends to be quite usual. So look, we're piecing together without trying to overread the situation that there are a bunch of sort of smaller subtle things that in the aggregate are coming together to provide confidence. Lots of questions about NHP pricing. So just to sort of bottom line that for you.

我們正在考慮建造新的 CRADL 坡道，這些坡道要么在去年年底建成，要么已啟用或將於今年啟用。因此，我們應該在今年下半年看到更多這樣的情況。我們和你們一樣，和大約六家生技公司一樣，正在仔細觀察生物技術的 IPO——第一季度，它們的定價很好，但籌集了 80 億美元。所以我們對他們感覺很好。我們看到大量的生物製藥併購。因此，這就為創投系統注入了大量現金——創投公司現金充裕。因此，第一季之後的連續運動是，我想使用「正常」這個詞。這往往是很常見的。所以看，我們正在拼湊在一起，但沒有試圖過度解讀這種情況，即有一堆較小的微妙事物聚集在一起以提供信心。關於 NHP 定價的很多問題。所以只是為了給你一個底線。

Our prices never got as high as some of the competition, including some of the much smaller competitors. So we didn't pay as much, we didn't pass along extremely high prices to our competitors. And that's a manifestation, I think, of the supply sources that we have. And now we have this new supply source, Noveprim in Mauritius which was always -- we've used them for years, but it's always been the highest quality provider, and that's going to both provide NHP for safety and also to sell directly to clients.

我們的價格從來沒有像一些競爭對手那麼高，包括一些規模小得多的競爭對手。所以我們沒有付出那麼多，我們沒有將極高的價格傳遞給我們的競爭對手。我認為，這就是我們擁有的供應來源的體現。現在我們有了這個新的供應源，毛里求斯的 Noveprim，我們已經使用它們很多年了，但它始終是最高品質的供應商，這既可以提供 NHP 的安全性，也可以直接銷售給客戶。

And so we do think we can have a modest price increase, which is where you're seeing that $15 million to $35 million that we pointed to. Lots of noise from the competition about reducing prices. That's not just positive of anything that we're going to do because their prices interestingly, have been higher than ours.

因此，我們確實認為我們可以適度提高價格，這就是我們指出的 1500 萬至 3500 萬美元。來自競爭的大量關於降價的噪音。這不僅對我們要做的任何事情都是積極的，因為有趣的是，他們的價格比我們的價格高。

And so if they bring the prices down, whatever they said, I think 10%, 20%, 30% they're going to get in the same ZIP Code that we are. So we think we have a modest amount of NHP pricing. And those aren't huge numbers, but we'd be happy to get that incremental revenue. Supply sources are in really good shape. Solidified by this Noveprim acquisition in a whole litany of smaller, I don't want to say unrelated smaller strengthening activities across portfolio.

因此，如果他們降低價格，無論他們說什麼，我認為 10%、20%、30% 他們將獲得與我們相同的郵遞區號。因此，我們認為 NHP 定價適度。這些數字並不大，但我們很高興獲得增量收入。供應來源狀況非常好。透過這次收購 Noveprim，我不想說整個投資組合中不相關的小型強化活動。

So while it definitely is back-end loaded, we do think it's doable. We also have very easy comps. I don't necessarily like to say that, but that's a mathematical fact. So the weak back half of the year in '23. So we have a meaningful level of confidence in the ramp and definitely in our guidance for the year, Derik.

因此，雖然它肯定是後端加載的，但我們確實認為這是可行的。我們也有非常簡單的比賽。我不一定喜歡這麼說，但這是數學事實。所以23年下半年表現疲軟。因此，我們對產能成長和今年的指導充滿信心，德瑞克。

If I can do just one follow-up, which is any sign that the Chinese are going to reintroduce NHPs or start exporting again?

如果我可以做一個後續行動，這是否表明中國將重新引入 NHP 或再次開始出口？

There continues to be conversations about it. We haven't seen anything either from an importing point of view or an exporting point of view. So while it's possible, I think it's unlikely. I mean, the thesis has clearly keep those animals within country to provide some sort of competitive advantage, although I don't think it's going to be. But they think that's an important sort of natural resource and scientific resource that gives them a leg up. So I think we're going to want to hold on to those animals and use them inside. I think there's been a little bit of noise around that just because the economy has been tougher over there than people anticipated. And the investment in life sciences has been a little less robust. So -- there has been a fair amount of speculation that they would export. And by the way, anything is possible, we're just not seeing it. And I'm not sure there's actually a logical reason for them to do it, particularly not as to when things heat up again in China.

關於它的討論仍在繼續。無論是從進口的角度還是從出口的角度來看，我們都沒有看到任何東西。因此，雖然有可能，但我認為不太可能。我的意思是，這篇論文顯然將這些動物保留在國內，以提供某種競爭優勢，儘管我認為這不會。但他們認為這是一種重要的自然資源和科學資源，可以讓他們佔優勢。所以我認為我們會想要保留這些動物並在裡面使用它們。我認為這方面存在一些噪音只是因為那裡的經濟比人們預期的要艱難。而對生命科學的投資則稍微不那麼強勁。因此，有相當多的猜測稱他們將出口。順便說一句，一切都有可能，只是我們還沒看到而已。我不確定他們這樣做是否真的有邏輯上的理由，尤其是在中國局勢再次升溫的情況下。

I will take our next question from Patrick Donnelly with Citi.

我將回答花旗集團帕特里克·唐納利的下一個問題。

Jim, maybe on the DSA piece, you talked about the cancellation rates picking up a little bit. It seemed like the book-to-bill was stable. Can you just talk about what you're seeing there? It seemed like 3Q, there were signs of a little bit of improvement on the cancellation rates. Now we're kind of taking another step back. What do you see in there? Again, you mentioned the biotech IPOs, does that give you a little more confidence? How are you thinking about just that backlog step down as we work our way forward here.

吉姆，也許在 DSA 文章中，您談到取消率有所上升。訂單出貨量似乎很穩定。您能簡單談談您在那裡看到的情況嗎？看起來第三季取消率有一點改善的跡象。現在我們又退了一步。你在那裡看到什麼？您再次提到了生物技術 IPO，這是否讓您更有信心了？當我們在這裡努力前進時，您如何看待積壓工作的減少。

Yes. We've been trying to not overread it. We were very pleased to see the cancellation rates, which have gotten higher than historically -- higher than they have been historically starting to come down, and we said that that's fabulous. But one quarter is not just positive of anything. And they were up again in the fourth quarter. So we do think that they will come down. We do think that we need to see it come down for a couple of quarters. It's somewhat related or very much related to the elongation of the backlog. And I think as you'll recall from the last quarter's conference call.

是的。我們一直在努力不過度解讀它。我們很高興看到取消率已經高於歷史水平，也高於歷史水平開始下降的水平，我們說這太棒了。但四分之一不僅僅是積極的。他們在第四節再次崛起。所以我們確實認為它們會下降。我們確實認為我們需要看到它在幾個季度內下降。這與積壓的延長有一定的關係或很大的關係。我想你會記得上個季度的電話會議。

We talked a lot about how the backlogs have gotten to be 18-plus months. And while that felt good, to some extent, the problem with that was we definitely had some clients that were just booking slots. I want to have a slot. I'm not actually sure what I'm going to do with that slot, but by the time I get there, 18 months from now, I'm sure I'll have some work. And what's happened with a lot of the clients if they get to 16 months out and they say, "Gee, sorry, we actually don't have a study. So we'll give up that slot. So the elongation of the backlog, I think from that (inaudible) point is probably too long and not all that helpful. So it's back down to about 12 months, that seems more rational, and it appears from the nature of the conversations we're having with the clients with real specificity about what they're up to, that they actually have actual studies with the sliding in whatever it is within that 12-month period, which would stabilize the cancellation rate and help to recede.

我們討論了很多關於積壓訂單為何長達 18 個月以上的問題。雖然這感覺很好，但在某種程度上，問題是我們肯定有一些客戶只是預訂時段。我想要一個插槽。我實際上並不確定我會用這個空檔做什麼，但當我到達那裡時，即 18 個月後，我確信我會有一些工作。如果很多客戶的期限到了 16 個月，他們會說：「哎呀，抱歉，我們實際上沒有進行研究。所以我們將放棄這個時間段。所以積壓的時間延長了，我認為從（聽不清楚）這一點來看可能太長了，而且沒有多大幫助。所以它回到了大約12 個月，這似乎更合理，而且從我們與客戶進行的對話的性質來看，它是真實的具體來說，他們實際上對12 個月內的下滑情況進行了實際研究，這將穩定取消率並有助於回落。

I think as you know, there's always been sort of a healthy amount of slippage, and that's when the drug isn't quite ready on time. And some percentage of the stuff just cancels because the clients have to reprioritize things if the drug isn't formulating properly or run out of cash or blah, blah, blah. There's a bunch of reasons for it. So we are guardedly optimistic that the cancellation levels are normalizing and will continue to normalize throughout the year with cancellation with these sort of backlog. We're fine with it in a dozen months. We've had years where it was kind of 6 to 9 months if it drops even further, I think that's fine. You want some healthy backlog. So when things do cancel or postpone that the clients have -- that we have something else to slot back in to that. So probably somewhat of a normal ebb and flow of the bookings, and we are happy to see it normalizing.

我想如你所知，總是會有一定程度的下滑，那就是藥物沒有準時準備好。部分產品會被取消，因為如果藥物配方不正確或現金用完或諸如此類，客戶必須重新安排事情的優先順序。這有很多原因。因此，我們對取消水平正在正常化持謹慎樂觀態度，並將在全年繼續正常化，並因此類積壓的取消而繼續正常化。十幾個月後我們就可以接受了。我們已經有好幾年了，如果它進一步下降，我認為這很好，大約是 6 到 9 個月。你想要一些健康的積壓。因此，當客戶取消或推遲事情時，我們還有其他事情可以重新安排。因此，預訂量可能會出現一定程度的正常波動，我們很高興看到它正常化。

Okay. That's helpful. And then maybe, Flavia, one for you. Just on the margin cadence for the year. Can you just talk about the ramp? Obviously, the 1Q earnings number is a bit light in terms of a percentage of the year a lot smaller than typical. So can you just talk about the moving pieces as we work our way through the year on the margin and just visibility into the ramp and the exit rate there?

好的。這很有幫助。弗拉維亞，也許，也有一款適合你。就在今年的邊際節奏上。可以簡單談談坡道嗎？顯然，第一季的獲利數據在全年中所佔的百分比比一般情況要小得多。那麼，您能否談談我們在這一年中的進展以及對坡道和退出率的可見性？

Sure. Good morning, Patrick. As you pointed out, there are a few factors that are putting pressure on the Q1 margin and then throughout the year that those factors are going to ameliorate and the margin will ramp. Mainly the tax rate that I talked about in Q1 will be in the mid-20s versus our guidance for the year of 23% to 24%. I also talked about the ramp -- the seasonal ramp of our business, which Jim just alluded to, with those normal seasonal trends, we'll see the margin improving throughout the year.

當然。早上好，派崔克。正如您所指出的，有一些因素對第一季的利潤率造成壓力，然後全年這些因素將會改善，利潤率將會上升。主要是我在第一季談到的稅率將在 20 多歲左右，而我們今年的指導值為 23% 至 24%。我還談到了成長——吉姆剛才提到的我們業務的季節性成長，按照正常的季節性趨勢，我們將看到全年的利潤率有所改善。

And then in addition to the normal seasonal trends, you're going to have a tailwind of Noveprim that tends to be higher in the later part of the year that aligns with sort of gestational periods for their Colony as well as CRADLs that Jim talked about that will ramp in the second half.

然後，除了正常的季節性趨勢之外，您還會看到 Noveprim 的順風，它在今年下半年往往會更高，這與他們的殖民地的某種妊娠期以及吉姆談到的 CRADL 一致這將在下半年增加。

And then finally, corporate is also a little bit higher in the first quarter vis-a-vis our guidance for the year. So between corporate and tax alone, that's about $0.25 in Q1. Then you have the normal seasonality and the $60 million to $70 million that I talked about in terms of benefit from some of our restructuring actions, that will pick up as the year progresses as well. So we have good line of (inaudible) film on that margin accelerating throughout the year and confidence that we'll be able to achieve that.

最後，第一季的企業業績也比我們今年的指導高出一些。因此，僅在公司和稅收之間，第一季的成本約為 0.25 美元。然後是正常的季節性，以及我談到的從我們的一些重組行動中獲益的 6000 萬至 7000 萬美元，隨著今年的進展，這種收益也會增加。因此，我們擁有良好的（聽不清楚）電影系列，全年都在加速成長，並相信我們能夠實現這一目標。

And we'll take our next question from Elizabeth Anderson with Evercore ISI.

我們將接受 Evercore ISI 的 Elizabeth Anderson 提出的下一個問題。

I was hoping you could talk a little bit about -- I know you talked about the biotech demand environment sort of small versus midsize. Could you maybe specifically talk about some of the pharma demand? I think one question people have some of the restructurings that are going on, which seems to be maybe disproportionately impacting preclinical that seems to be a sort of question.

我希望你能談談——我知道你談到了小型與中型的生物技術需求環境。能否具體談談一些製藥需求？我認為人們有一個問題是正在進行的一些重組，這似乎可能對臨床前產生不成比例的影響，這似乎是一個問題。

And then secondarily, can you talk about any sort of share gain opportunities during the year? Obviously, there have been some bills in Congress that might potentially impact some of your competitors or willing of some sponsors to work with those competitors. So any comments there would be broadly helpful as well.

其次，您能談談今年任何形式的股票收益機會嗎？顯然，國會中有一些法案可能會影響您的某些競爭對手或某些贊助商與這些競爭對手合作的意願。因此，那裡的任何評論也會有廣泛的幫助。

Yes. So our pharma business in '23 was particularly strong. We've had a long legacy with the pharmaceutical industry. So that's not necessarily new, except sort of the scale and rate and depth and longevity. And when I say longevity, I'm just talking about long-term contracts that we have with these folks -- 2- to 5-year contracts have been ticking up really, really nicely. So we have a fair amount of our work locked in for multiple years with escalating price points that are already prenegotiated. And increasingly, we're seeing big pharma buy very thoroughly across the portfolio. So many of them buy everything that we sell.

是的。所以我們的製藥業務在 23 年特別強勁。我們在製藥業有著悠久的歷史。因此，除了規模、速度、深度和壽命之外，這不一定是新的。當我說長壽時，我只是在談論我們與這些人簽訂的長期合約——2到5年的合約一直在增長，非常非常好。因此，我們有相當多的工作被鎖定多年，而且價格點已經預先商定。我們越來越多地看到大型製藥公司對整個投資組合進行了非常徹底的收購。他們中的許多人購買我們出售的所有東西。

We also have several biotech companies that do all of their, let's say, pharma companies do all of their safety work with us, some that do most of the safety work for us and even the ones where we're not necessarily -- that's just a few of them where they do a lot of work internally. I think where the default. So I mean, obviously, pharma is extremely well-financed. It's probably the best thing you can say about the very well financed, placing bets with multiple biotech companies that have become the discovery engines. You've seen lots of acquisitions of drugs or geography to sell the drugs or entire drug companies almost daily since the beginning of this year with big pharma. I do think that's going to continue. And we always hope that 1 plus 1 is more than 2 for us. But certainly, if we're already doing work for the target and the parents we will hold lot of that work.

我們還有幾家生技公司，他們的所有工作，比方說，製藥公司與我們一起完成所有的安全工作，有些公司為我們做大部分的安全工作，甚至還有一些我們不一定要做的工作——這只是其中一些人在內部做了很多工作。我覺得預設在哪裡。所以我的意思是，顯然，製藥公司資金非常充足。對於那些資金雄厚、押注於已成為發現引擎的多家生技公司來說，這可能是你能說的最好的話了。自今年年初以來，您幾乎每天都會看到大型製藥公司收購大量藥品或地理位置以出售藥品或整個製藥公司。我確實認為這種情況會持續下去。而我們總是希望1加1對我們來說大於2。但當然，如果我們已經在為目標和父母做工作，我們將承擔很多工作。

Having said that, biotech for the last decade has been a larger and more aggressive driver of growth. So let me just unpack that. So while we have much larger -- certain large amount of revenue that we're selling to pharmaceutical companies and they are very, very big clients, obviously, we have many more biotech clients, none of whom have internal capacity to do the type of work that we do. So without overstating our importance, they're very dependent on either us or some company like us to move their drug through preclinical, get their IND filed and ultimately gets into the clinic.

話雖如此，過去十年來，生物技術一直是更大、更積極的成長驅動力。那麼讓我來解開它。因此，雖然我們有更大的收入——我們向製藥公司出售一定數量的收入，而且他們是非常非常大的客戶，但顯然，我們還有更多的生物技術客戶，他們都沒有內部能力來做這種類型的事情。我們所做的工作。因此，無需誇大我們的重要性，他們非常依賴我們或像我們這樣的公司來將他們的藥物通過臨床前，提交 IND 並最終進入臨床。

So pleased with our sell-through, particularly in pharma and as the capital markets strengthen, which they will. I mean it's -- we all have our own prognostication on when that's going to happen, but they will little will be happening in January as VC monies continue to be robust. And as the pharma companies continue to bet on biotech and as the modalities continue to strengthen things like cell and gene and immunotherapy. The biotech will continue to ramp up more aggressively with us again.

我們對我們的銷售情況非常滿意，尤其是在製藥領域，隨著資本市場的走強，他們會的。我的意思是——我們都對這種情況何時發生有自己的預測，但隨著創投資金繼續強勁，一月份幾乎不會發生這種情況。隨著製藥公司繼續押注於生物技術，以及這些模式繼續加強細胞、基因和免疫療法等技術。生物技術將繼續與我們一起更積極地發展。

So -- we like our client base pretty much across the board. We like the share percentage in the numbers of drugs we work on, which is over 80% of all the drugs approved in the U.S. over the last -- more than the last 5 years and probably on the increase.

所以——我們非常喜歡我們的客戶群。我們喜歡我們開發的藥物數量所佔的比例，佔過去美國批准的所有藥物的 80% 以上——超過過去 5 年，而且可能還在增加。

On the share gain question, I do think we have enormous opportunities to take share in virtually everything we do, certainly in safety -- certainly in biologics, certainly in the CDMO business certainly in Discovery, even in our MS where we have the principal amount of share. Some of that is, as you said, is probably bolstered by new legislation. I think some of that is just supported because of our scale, the depth of our portfolio and the fact that every client that we work with is very interested in speed to market and the nature in both of our portfolio helps them get things at least to the clinic faster.

關於份額增益問題，我確實認為我們有巨大的機會在我們所做的幾乎所有事情中分享份額，當然是在安全領域——當然是在生物製品領域，當然是在CDMO 業務領域，當然在發現領域，甚至在我們擁有本金的MS 領域。的份額。正如您所說，其中一些可能得到新立法的支持。我認為其中一些只是因為我們的規模、我們的投資組合的深度以及我們合作的每個客戶都對上市速度非常感興趣這一事實而得到支持，而我們兩個投資組合的性質至少可以幫助他們實現目標診所更快。

So we should be able to pick up meaningful share as the clients are more comfortable and less cautious and less conservative with the spending patterns, which we think will be a sequential movement through the back half of the year.

因此，隨著客戶對支出模式更加放心、不那麼謹慎和保守，我們應該能夠獲得有意義的份額，我們認為這將是今年下半年的連續變化。

Got it. And one additional follow-up question. The [$29,000] of average NHP pricing that you cited at your Investor Day, is that still the right way to think about sort of the pricing level for 2023 as a whole?

知道了。還有一個附加的後續問題。您在投資者日引用的 NHP 平均定價 [29,000 美元]，這仍然是考慮 2023 年整體定價水準的正確方法嗎？

Yes, Elizabeth, it's Flavia. I'll just say the numbers we shared in the 3Q call related to NHPs, whether it's the price, the price gain over 3 years, the units, the amount of NHP work as a percent of Safety's revenue, they're all still -- with the year-end results, they're all still similar. So there's been no significant update from what we shared with you before.

是的，伊莉莎白，我是弗拉維亞。我只想說我們在第三季度電話會議中分享的與 NHP 相關的數字，無論是價格、三年內的價格漲幅、單位、NHP 工作量佔 Safety 收入的百分比，它們仍然是 - - 就年終結果而言，它們仍然相似。因此，我們之前與您分享的內容沒有重大更新。

And we'll take our next question from Dave Windley with Jefferies.

我們將回答戴夫溫德利 (Dave Windley) 和傑弗里斯 (Jefferies) 提出的下一個問題。

So on the Noveprim, I was trying to quickly scroll back through the deck and unable to find it. But I think it would be helpful for me certainly to understand a little bit more of the mechanics of how much revenue you expect that to contribute and what the margin structure of that business looks like relative to your comments that, that is providing I think you said most or all of the margin lift for the company in 2024. And then I have a follow-up.

因此，在 Noveprim 上，我試圖快速向後滾動甲板，但找不到它。但我認為，對我來說，更多地了解您期望貢獻多少收入的機制，以及該業務的利潤結構相對於您的評論是怎樣的，這對我來說當然是有幫助的，我認為您提供了這些資訊。說2024年公司的大部分或全部利潤率都會提升。然後我有一個後續行動。

Dave. Yes, I'll take that. So just to reiterate, we expect Noveprim to add between $40 million and $50 million of top-line revenue. which will obviously impact reported revenue but not organic. We also expect that Noveprim will add about $0.30 of EPS, which, if you do the math, is about 50 basis points of margin expansion. And just to articulate a little bit how the construct will work at this point in time, even though Noveprim is definitely a move that will allow us to have additional oversight control and eventually higher volume of NHPs in support of our safety business.

戴夫.是的，我會接受的。重申一下，我們預計 Noveprim 的營收將增加 4,000 萬至 5,000 萬美元。這顯然會影響報告的收入，但不會影響有機收入。我們也預計 Noveprim 將增加約 0.30 美元的每股盈餘，如果你計算一下，這相當於利潤率擴張約 50 個基點。只是為了闡明該結構在此時將如何運作，儘管 Noveprim 絕對是一個讓我們能夠進行額外監督控制並最終增加 NHP 數量以支持我們安全業務的舉措。

In the short term, the majority of the financial impact will be reflected in the RMS segment, where that external revenue will be reported. And so that $40 million to $50 million of third-party revenue will also increase the RMS margin approximately 200 basis points.

短期內，大部分財務影響將反映在 RMS 部門，該部門將報告外部收入。因此，4,000 萬至 5,000 萬美元的第三方收入也將使 RMS 利潤率增加約 200 個基點。

If you think about the benefit for the Safety Assessment and DSA segments it's going to be relatively small, especially in 2024 as we obviously already have safety stock of NHPs from Noveprim and other suppliers in the case of Noveprim that were acquired prior to the acquisition. So it's only once we start having models that go into studies that benefit from Noveprim being consolidated into Charles River that will start having an impact in the DSA margin, and that will be impacted by timing. So the majority of the impact in 2024 will be reflected in the RMS segment.

如果你考慮到安全評估和 DSA 領域的好處，它會相對較小，特別是在 2024 年，因為我們顯然已經擁有來自 Noveprim 和其他供應商的 NHP 安全庫存，就收購之前收購的 Noveprim 而言。因此，只有當我們開始將模型納入研究中，並受益於 Noveprim 併入 Charles River 後，才會開始對 DSA 利潤率產生影響，而這將受到時間的影響。因此，2024 年的大部分影響將反映在 RMS 領域。

Understood. Thank you for reiterating some of that. My follow-up question is around I guess, more general pricing environment, some of your competitive -- I guess a couple of different dynamics. One being some of the competitors, albeit smaller competitors have also addressed cost structure in a way to significantly lower their costs and have expressed at least to me, a willingness to be more price competitive on studies and another angle on this being to the extent that small biotechs might evaluate a trade-off between Charles River or other providers in the Western world or an Asian provider at a much lower price in the Eastern world that primate prices in China have dropped a lot, which makes the cost structure of those competitors significantly lower as well. And so the general question here is, how much price competition is seeping into the safety assessment market as a result of these lowering cost structures.

明白了。感謝您重申其中的一些內容。我想我的後續問題是圍繞著更一般的定價環境，你的一些競爭力 - 我想有幾個不同的動態。其中之一是一些競爭對手，儘管規模較小的競爭對手也以顯著降低成本的方式解決了成本結構問題，並且至少向我表達了在研究上更具價格競爭力的意願，以及對此的另一個角度是小型生物技術公司可能會評估Charles River 或西方世界其他供應商或東方世界價格低得多的亞洲供應商之間的權衡，因為中國的靈長類動物價格下降了很多，這使得這些競爭對手的成本結構顯著下降也較低。因此，這裡的普遍問題是，由於這些降低的成本結構，有多少價格競爭正在滲透到安全評估市場。

Let me take that one. So Dave, I would say that all of our competitors and the smaller they get, the more this is factor compete with us primarily on price. And so to some extent, that's an always, always. And we accept that and clients that either can't afford it or think we're too expensive or running out of cash or whatever or prefer the competition, whether it's Eastern or Western, can and will go there. And that's okay. So I mean, that's an always, always.

讓我拿走那個。所以戴夫，我想說，我們所有的競爭對手，他們規模越小，與我們主要在價格上競爭的因素就越多。所以某種程度上，這是永遠，永遠。我們接受這一點，那些要么買不起，要么認為我們太貴，要么現金用完之類的客戶，要么喜歡競爭，無論是東方還是西方，都可以而且將會去那裡。沒關係。所以我的意思是，那是永遠，永遠。

The Chinese capacity -- there are certainly some small, let's say, U.S. biotech companies that do their work in China. There's a limited amount of capacity in China. So that will happen. They'll come and go. And yes, the cost of labor is lower and the cost of everything that is lower there. And I won't comment on the quality of the work, I mean they'll have to make that determination themselves. We try to be rational and appropriate and professional with our pricing, as I said earlier in my comments, we have a lot of long-term contracts with big pharma for some reason, most of them came to fruition in fiscal '23. So they've all been resigned. The pricing is locked in. So that's a significant amount of what we do.

中國的能力——當然有一些小型的，比如說美國的生技公司，在中國開展業務。中國的產能有限。所以這將會發生。他們會來來去去。是的，那裡的勞動成本較低，所有東西的成本也較低。我不會評論工作的質量，我的意思是他們必須自己做出決定。我們試圖在定價方面保持理性、適當和專業，正如我之前在評論中所說，出於某種原因，我們與大型製藥公司簽訂了很多長期合同，其中大多數在 23 財年實現。所以他們都辭職了。定價是鎖定的。所以這是我們所做的重要工作。

We do think that folks come to us because our portfolio is larger. Our proximity is closer. The depth of our science is better. And our scale is better. And of course, if they know us well, the presumption that were too big and too expensive is really not true. So we will use pricing as well in certain instances. And I would say those just kind of fall into a few categories, which is to protect share in big -- just a big clients that we have that is out shopping specifically for price. And so we may have to do something there. We certainly will be price aggressive if we're going after a big slug of share with a client that we either don't have at all or have very [little]

我們確實認為人們來找我們是因為我們的投資組合更大。我們的距離更近了。我們的科學深度更好。而且我們的規模更好。當然，如果他們很了解我們，那麼太大、太昂貴的假設確實是不正確的。因此，在某些情況下我們也會使用定價。我想說的是，這些只是分成幾類，這是為了保護大客戶的份額——我們擁有的大客戶專門為了價格而購物。所以我們可能必須在那裡做點什麼。如果我們想要與我們根本不擁有或擁有非常[很少]的客戶分享大量份額，我們肯定會在價格上採取激進的態度

But we often pass when the price point just gets too low because it's going to be at cost or below cost or a trivial operating margin, and it's just not worth it given the complexity of the studies. I guess one other thing I would say is that where -- I don't know the exact numbers these days, but it's probably in the high 30% range what our market share is. While we're pleased and proud of that. I do think our share will be much larger over time. But if we only have a 30 -- whatever, 6% share, there's lots of share that they're going elsewhere. So I think it's important that we have decent competition regardless of their price points. And regardless of where they do the work. And I think it's important to engender large clients, particularly big pharma clients to outsource that they feel that they can outsource to folks that are capable.

但當價格點太低時，我們經常放棄，因為它將達到成本或低於成本，或營業利潤微不足道，而且考慮到研究的複雜性，這是不值得的。我想我要說的另一件事是——我現在不知道確切的數字，但它可能在我們的市場份額的 30% 左右。我們對此感到高興和自豪。我確實認為隨著時間的推移，我們的份額將會更大。但如果我們只有 30%——無論如何，6% 的份額，那麼他們就會把很多份額轉移到其他地方。因此，我認為無論價格如何，我們都有良好的競爭，這一點很重要。無論他們在哪裡工作。我認為重要的是讓大客戶，特別是大型製藥客戶外包，讓他們覺得可以外包給有能力的人。

But I think from a pricing point of view, we have been and we'll continue to hold our own. We will invest in price in Safety in fiscal '24. That is not just in fiscal '23. So I think that's a commentary and lots of things, commentary on the nature of your question, commentary on the overall economy, commentary on the cautiousness of our clients as they put a little more emphasis on post-IND work and clinical work, maybe to the detriment of some of the earlier tax work and certainly on the Discovery work. But I think most of the time, we feel that we're being paid quite well for our work.

但我認為從定價的角度來看，我們一直並將繼續保持自己的地位。我們將在 24 財年對安全價格進行投資。這不僅僅是在 23 財年。所以我認為這是一個評論和很多事情，對你的問題性質的評論，對整體經濟的評論，對我們客戶的謹慎態度的評論，因為他們更加重視 IND 後工作和臨床工作，也許是為了這損害了一些早期的稅務工作，當然也損害了探索號的工作。但我認為大多數時候，我們覺得我們的工作報酬相當不錯。

We'll take our next question from Justin Bowers with Deutsche Bank.

我們將回答德意志銀行賈斯汀鮑爾斯的下一個問題。

So just a 2-parter for me. Can you talk about the sort of like the pros and cons of owning [NH] farms and [NHP] suppliers? I know you've -- we've done this in the past, and there's been -- your strategy is evolving over the last 18 to 24 months. So could you just sort of give us some thoughts there on that? And then -- and then part 2 would just be around competition, just given the demand environment has slowed in general, there had been, I think, some competitors funded over the last few years. Just what are you seeing in the competitive environment?

所以對我來說只是兩個人。您能談談擁有 [NH] 農場和 [NHP] 供應商的利弊嗎？我知道你們——我們過去就這麼做過，而且——你們的策略在過去 18 到 24 個月裡不斷發展。那麼您能否就此給我們一些想法呢？然後，第二部分將圍繞競爭展開，考慮到需求環境總體放緩，我認為過去幾年裡有一些競爭對手獲得了資助。您在競爭環境中看到了什麼？

Competitive environment. Generally, what are you asking about specifically with regard to competition?

競爭環境。一般來說，關於競爭，您具體想問什麼？

Sorry, within like within DSA, for example. Are we seeing exits from competitors or anything? Yes.

抱歉，例如在 DSA 內。我們是否看到競爭對手退出或其他什麼？是的。

The competition is pretty static. We have -- we're the largest player by 100%. Our next largest competitor is kind of LabCorp and that's a capable, relatively large, stable enterprise, very good in sort of general toxicology. Then you have another tier, which used to be sort of fourth or fifth tier, which kind of became third tier because we bought 3 of our competitors in the second tier, Covance by one of them. And those are much smaller companies. When I say much smaller, may or maybe they do. So I'm just trying to do this quickly in my head, maybe they do, 5% of what we do; maybe they do 8%, maybe they do 10%, but they're much, much smaller. I don't know what their financial status is.

競爭是相當靜態的。我們是 100% 最大的參與者。我們的下一個最大競爭對手是 LabCorp，這是一家有能力、相對較大、穩定的企業，在一般毒理學方面非常出色。然後你有另一個層次，它曾經是第四或第五層，現在變成了第三層，因為我們購買了第二層的 3 個競爭對手，其中之一是科文斯。這些都是小得多的公司。當我說小得多時，可能或也許他們會這樣做。所以我只是想在腦海中快速完成這件事，也許他們會做，我們所做的 5%；也許他們只做了 8%，也許他們只做了 10%，但它們要小得多。我不知道他們的經濟狀況如何。

One of our competitors -- market CapEx shrinking. There is enough business to go around. But I do think it has to do with quality and science and speed and technological rigor, particularly IT capabilities. I think it's virtual -- I think it's incredibly unlikely that we'll have new competitors. There are several decent competitors in China that I think will focus. They're probably doing some work now for Western companies, but the raise on (inaudible) is to do toxicology work in China for Chinese drug companies. So I think many of them are funded and/or supported by the Chinese government. So I'd say the competitive dynamics is kind of -- it is what it is and is unlikely to change. It seems to be sufficient. When I say sufficient, there seems to be enough scale to support the client base. So that's positive.

我們的競爭對手之一—市場資本支出萎縮。有足夠的生意可以做。但我確實認為這與品質、科學、速度和技術嚴謹性有關，尤其是 IT 能力。我認為這是虛擬的——我認為我們不太可能出現新的競爭對手。我認為中國有幾個不錯的競爭對手值得關注。他們現在可能正在為西方公司做一些工作，但加薪（聽不清楚）是為了在中國為中國製藥公司做毒理學工作。所以我認為其中許多都是由中國政府資助和/或支持的。所以我想說，競爭動態是這樣的，而且不太可能改變。似乎已經足夠了。當我說足夠時，似乎有足夠的規模來支援客戶群。所以這是積極的。

To go back to the other part of your question. I don't see cons in owning the suppliers. So let's just talk about the one that we just bought. We now own 90% of. It happens to be probably the highest quality and the one that we know the most about and the one that has just done an exquisite job in terms of the quality of the NHPs themselves. But it just gives us control on the ground of everything control of husbandry, breeding, veterinary oversight, nutrition, housing, ultimately shipping. We have a very, very close relationship with the government there, and we've already spoken to them about scaling up the project over the next number of years and have a workforce that we're confident in, and it's hard.

回到你問題的另一部分。我不認為擁有供應商有什麼缺點。那我們就來談談我們剛買的那一款吧。我們現在擁有 90% 的股份。它恰好可能是最高品質的，也是我們最了解的，而且就 NHP 本身的品質而言，它剛剛做得非常出色。但它只是讓我們能夠控制畜牧業、育種、獸醫監督、營養、住房以及最終的運輸等一切方面。我們與那裡的政府有著非常非常密切的關係，我們已經與他們討論了在未來幾年擴大該項目的規模，並擁有一支我們有信心的勞動力隊伍，但這很難。

So any sort of concern about, I don't know, transportation or animals getting ill before they're put on transport or just the overall genetics or breeding methodology. Number one, it's on us because we own it. Number two, we have a high degree of confidence in our own ability to do it at the highest quality level. We have -- I don't even know the number anymore, but dozens and dozens and dozens of veterinarians are (inaudible) from primate veterinarian.

因此，我不知道是否有任何關於運輸或動物在運輸前生病的擔憂，或者只是整體遺傳學或育種方法。第一，它歸我們所有，因為我們擁有它。第二，我們對自己以最高品質水準做到這一點的能力充滿信心。我們——我甚至不知道具體數字了，但有數十名獸醫（聽不清楚）來自靈長類動物獸醫。

So we own another one in China, a much smaller one. We are considering doing more of this just to have control of our supply sources. Some of these providers are newer. They're just sort of getting their sea legs under them and I think we can -- we're trying to teach them a lot about all of the things I just said.

所以我們在中國擁有另一家，規模也小得多。我們正在考慮採取更多措施來控制我們的供應來源。其中一些提供者是較新的。他們只是在努力學習，我認為我們可以——我們正在努力教他們很多關於我剛才所說的所有事情。

Obviously easier to teach them and train them and ensure that they're doing the right things if we own them. So it's -- we have a very, very large revenue base in NHP toxicology and growing. All large molecules have to be tested in the nonhuman primates. So the demand will continue to be significant and we need to continue to have access to large numbers of animals, but also the highest quality. So we don't see cons. We see a lot of pros. We're delighted with the deal that we just did, both in terms of the supply source and the accretion on the top and the bottom line.

如果我們擁有他們，顯然更容易教導和培訓他們並確保他們做正確的事情。所以，我們在 NHP 毒理學方面擁有非常非常大的收入基礎，而且還在持續成長中。所有大分子都必須在非人類靈長類動物中進行測試。因此，需求將繼續很大，我們需要繼續獲得大量的動物，而且還要獲得最高的品質。所以我們看不到缺點。我們看到了很多專業人士。我們對剛完成的交易感到高興，無論是在供應來源還是在營收和利潤的成長方面。

We'll take our next question from Jacob Johnson with Stephens.

我們將回答雅各布·約翰遜和史蒂芬斯提出的下一個問題。

Maybe a 2-parter on Manufacturing -- the Manufacturing segment. Can you just discuss probably it sounds like a lot of that's going to be driven versus -- from the CDMO versus Biologics, Microbial, but maybe if you could talk about the breakdown of that. If you'd like to quantify the benefit from the CRISPR, Vertex relationship, that would be great. And then just on margins in that segment on the path to 30%. As we think about that margin expansion opportunity, how much of that is really driven by the top line? Or are there cost savings opportunities that could get you there quicker?

也許是製造領域的兩方——製造部門。你能不能討論一下，聽起來很多東西都是由 CDMO 與生物製品、微生物驅動的，但也許你可以談談其中的細分。如果您想量化 CRISPR 和 Vertex 關係帶來的好處，那就太好了。然後該細分市場的利潤率就達到了 30%。當我們考慮利潤擴張機會時，其中有多少是真正由營收所驅動的？或者是否有節省成本的機會可以讓您更快實現目標？

So the CDMO business has been a huge headwind for us. For the past couple of years, right? Losing money -- growing okay. The back half of last year, grew very nicely, but had been slower than we thought it would be. And as you know, we've literally had to recapitulate, redesign, restaff all 3 of these businesses, and I'm talking about general management all the way down to the technicians in the study rooms. And I think we've done a really good job as evidenced by the fact that we've had multiple regulatory audits culminating in with Vertex's new sickle cell drug, which we're going to be producing a large amount of that.

因此 CDMO 業務對我們來說是一個巨大的阻力。過去幾年，對嗎？虧錢－成長還好。去年下半年，成長非常好，但比我們想像的慢。如你所知，我們確實必須對這 3 個業務進行概括、重新設計和人員重組，我說的是綜合管理，一直到研究室的技術人員。我認為我們做得非常好，事實證明我們已經進行了多次監管審核，最終推出了 Vertex 的新鐮狀細胞藥物，我們將大量生產這種藥物。

So a couple of things with that. That's obviously our key clients. That's obviously sort of wonderful -- almost marketing to be out there when other clients are thinking about who they're going to use, they're going to call Vertex and they're going to ask them about our relationship.

有幾件事與此相關。這顯然是我們的主要客戶。這顯然有點美妙——幾乎是行銷，當其他客戶考慮他們要使用誰時，他們會打電話給 Vertex，詢問他們我們的關係。

And we have other clients who we're talking to right now who are about to file BLAs or finishing Phase IIIs. And I do think that sort of success begets for the business. That business, while it won't end in fiscal '24, where it should have been given our valuation models will have significantly better margins and significantly higher revenue not growing quite. We don't have -- our operating plan doesn't have it growing quite at the rate that we thought it would when we bought them. But I still think that's transitory. And I think particularly as we get commercial clients that's going to crank up nicely.

我們現在正在與其他客戶交談，他們即將提交 BLA 或完成第三階段。我確實認為這種成功會為企業帶來成功。雖然該業務不會在 24 財年結束，但根據我們的估值模型，它應該具有明顯更好的利潤率和顯著更高的收入，但增長幅度不大。我們沒有—我們的營運計劃沒有讓它以我們購買它們時預期的速度成長。但我仍然認為這是暫時的。我認為，尤其是當我們獲得商業客戶時，情況會很好。

So we're liking this business a lot now. It has great connectivity with our Biologics business and also with our Safety Assessment business. And so the portfolio effect is alive and well. The other two businesses in the Manufacturing segment, first being the Microbial Business had its first year. I think it had 1 year where it grew at 9%. And we've owned it for 28 years. One year it grew at 9%, every other year, it grew double digit. Last year was the only year it grew slowly. And that's so we've explained that 50x what happened there with that business. The top line will expand because the clients have worked through a lot of the backlog because they loaded up on supplies during COVID. And the margins are stunning in that business. So that should continue to bolster the operating mines.

所以我們現在非常喜歡這個行業。它與我們的生物製品業務以及我們的安全評估業務有著密切的聯繫。因此，投資組合效應仍然存在且良好。製造領域的另外兩項業務（首先是微生物業務）迎來了第一年。我認為它有 1 年增長了 9%。我們已經擁有它 28 年了。有一年增長 9%，每隔一年增長兩位數。去年是唯一成長緩慢的一年。我們就這樣解釋了該業務發生的 50 倍。收入將會擴大，因為客戶在新冠疫情期間增加了供應，從而解決了大量積壓的問題。該業務的利潤率非常驚人。因此，這應該會繼續支持正在運作的礦場。

And then Biologics, which is a business that in '22 and '21 had dynamic top line growth in teams and escalating operating margins had a very slow year last year, all because the economy, less numbers of drugs to test. It had a bunch of their capacity show but COVID stuff we're still working through anyway. That business, as we said in the prepared remarks, proposal levels were up in the fourth quarter, which is a good sign that work comes back very, very quickly typically. And so we should see that whole segment, not our largest business, but to be significant not only in fiscal '24, but if you look at the kind of 3-year guidance that we gave, the CDMO business will be instrumental in driving operating margin and revenue growth. For sure, it will be accretive to the manufacturing segment that will also be accretive to the business as a whole, and just reorganized that business with new general management and a different and tighter way of selling with single leadership and more commonality across those businesses.

然後是生物製劑業務，該業務在22 世紀和21 世紀實現了團隊營收的動態增長，營業利潤率不斷上升，但去年的增長速度非常緩慢，這一切都是因為經濟形勢、需要測試的藥物數量減少。他們展示了很多能力，但無論如何，我們仍在解決新冠病毒問題。正如我們在準備好的演講中所說，該業務的提案水平在第四季度有所上升，這是一個好跡象，表明工作通常會非常非常快地恢復。因此，我們應該看到整個細分市場，不是我們最大的業務，而是不僅在 24 財年具有重要意義，而且如果你看看我們給出的 3 年指導，CDMO 業務將有助於推動營運利潤率和收入增長。可以肯定的是，這將對製造部門產生增值作用，也將對整個業務產生增值作用，並且剛剛通過新的綜合管理和不同的、更嚴格的銷售方式重組了該業務，並在這些業務中採用了單一領導力和更多的通用性。

Because couple of them are GMP businesses, which is the same sort of regulatory oversight and that sort of mindset is beneficial across the clients. So important segments has high margin opportunity. Last thing just to specifically answer your question, that segment before we got in the CDMO business was around mid-30s operating margin. We had a few years where it was higher, maybe a few years where it was lower. It will continue to grow back towards that. It's a little bit difficult to say if and when it will get higher than mid-30s. But what we did say when we bought the company was that we believe that when we had a substantial bolus of commercial work at higher price points, with greater efficiency and greater predictability and just larger volumes definitely would be accretive to our operating margins.

因為其中一些是 GMP 業務，這是同樣的監管監督，這種心態對客戶來說是有利的。因此重要的細分市場具有高利潤機會。最後要具體回答你的問題，在我們進入 CDMO 業務之前，該細分市場的營業利潤率約為 30 多歲。我們有幾年它的水平較高，也有幾年它的水平較低。它將繼續朝著這個方向成長。很難說它是否以及何時高於 30 多歲。但我們在收購這家公司時確實說過，我們相信，當我們以更高的價格點進行大量商業工作、提高效率、提高可預測性以及更大的產量時，肯定會增加我們的營業利潤。

So that's going to take a while since we've only really signed our first one. But there will be more to follow. And as we get more of those and they get locked in for long periods of time. It will definitely benefit the operating margin of that segment. So we feel very optimistic, particularly optimistic about the CDMO business, in particular, but I'm quite optimistic about the whole Manufacturing segment in terms of its importance to our client base, in terms of the commonality of a lot of the work and in terms of the potential for better financial performance.

所以這需要一段時間，因為我們才真正簽署了第一個協議。但還會有更多的事情發生。當我們得到更多這樣的東西時，它們就會鎖定很長一段時間。這肯定有利於該部門的營業利潤率。因此，我們感到非常樂觀，特別是對 CDMO 業務感到樂觀，但我對整個製造領域非常樂觀，因為它對我們的客戶群的重要性，很多工作的共性以及更好的財務表現的潛力。

We'll take our next question from Max Smock with William Blair.

我們將回答馬克斯·史莫克和威廉·布萊爾提出的下一個問題。

Just a quick one for me here on DSA. Can you just confirm that net bookings were down sequentially in the quarter and then discuss how you're thinking about net bookings here moving forward in 2024. And cancellations obviously elevated again here in the quarter. Can you just give us some detail around how gross bookings trended quarter-over-quarter? Is it -- I think you called out still above 1, but maybe just sequentially, any color there would be helpful.

我在 DSA 上簡單介紹一下。您能否確認本季的淨預訂量連續下降，然後討論您如何看待 2024 年的淨預訂量。本季的取消預訂量明顯再次增加。您能否向我們詳細介紹一下總預訂量的季度環比趨勢？是嗎——我想你仍然喊出高於 1，但也許只是按順序，任何顏色都會有幫助。

I can jump in. So yes, the DSA backlog was sequentially down. I think we talked about $150 million still about 12 months, as Jim pointed out. And the gross bookings were still above 1x. So we're not going to (inaudible) this specific number, but gross bookings still above. And as Jim pointed out, with hopefully cancellation normalizing, we expect net book-to-bill will improve marginally when that happens.

我可以插話了。所以，是的，DSA 積壓的工作量連續下降。正如 Jim 指出的那樣，我想我們在 12 個月內就討論了 1.5 億美元的問題。總預訂量仍高於 1 倍。因此，我們不會（聽不清楚）這個具體數字，但總預訂量仍高於此。正如吉姆指出的那樣，隨著取消訂單預計將正常化，我們預計當這種情況發生時，淨預訂比將略有改善。

Yes, understood. Had to give it a shot there at the gross bookings. Maybe just a quick follow-up for me. Given the back half guide, can you just talk about when you need to see demand trends within these segments started to improve in order to hit the midpoint of your guide for this year? You had that comment in the deck about how the top end of your financial guide. You assume demand trends will begin to modestly improve later this year. But just wanted to clarify your assumptions for when the management start to pick back up at both the low end and the high end of your guide and how that maybe differed by segment.

是的，明白了。不得不嘗試一下總預訂量。也許對我來說只是一個快速跟進。鑑於後半部指南，您能否談談您何時需要看到這些細分市場內的需求趨勢開始改善，以便達到今年指南的中點？您在甲板上有關於您的財務指南的高端的評論。您認為需求趨勢將在今年稍後開始適度改善。但只是想澄清你對管理層何時開始在指南的低端和高端有所回升的假設，以及不同細分市場的差異。

Yes, maybe I'll start Jim and you can add. Max, we're not going to comment on the timing, to your point, by each of the segments and when precisely would that have to happen to get the bottom and the top end of the guidance. I think suffice to say, at the top end of the guidance, as we pointed out, we expect the main trends to marginally improve through the year. At the bottom end, it's more of the seasonal improvement that we tend to see. And I think at that top line.

是的，也許我會開始吉姆，你可以補充。麥克斯，就您的觀點而言，我們不會評論每個部分的時間安排，以及何時必須準確地獲得指南的底部和頂部。我認為足以說，正如我們所指出的，在指導的最高端，我們預計主要趨勢將在今年略有改善。在底部，我們傾向於看到更多的季節性改善。我認為在這一點上。

And as I said, -- and I think I made a comment about Q1 being a low point and talking about the drivers of that. And just to clarify, it's a combination of both tax, corporate and the ramp-up of our restructuring benefits that will together add about $0.25 of EPS. So the timing of it, it's probably going to defer depending on business. We have fast portfolio of different businesses that have different drivers. So we're just providing you a top and bottom for the total company. Jim, I don't know if you want to add anything else.

正如我所說，我想我對第一季的低點發表了評論，並談論了其驅動因素。需要澄清的是，這是稅收、企業和重組收益增加的結合，將總共增加約 0.25 美元的每股收益。因此，它的時間安排可能會根據業務情況而推遲。我們擁有不同業務的快速投資組合，這些業務具有不同的驅動力。所以我們只是為您提供整個公司的頂部和底部。吉姆，我不知道你還想補充什麼。

I mean I think that was fine. I mean we're quite confident that we're going to see a sequential improvement in top and the bottom line throughout the year. Some of that has to do with the comps of last year. Some of it has to do with our assumptions. I went through a bunch of those with the first question I answered. So business by business, there are some subtle things that are improving. There are definitely some subtle things that are improving in the marketplace, in the M&A space and with the capital markets.

我的意思是我認為那很好。我的意思是，我們非常有信心，我們將看到全年收入和利潤的連續改善。其中一些與去年的比較有關。其中一些與我們的假設有關。我回答了很多問題，並回答了第一個問題。因此，逐一業務，有一些微妙的事情正在改善。市場、併購領域和資本市場肯定有一些微妙的事情正在改善。

Look, the one thing that you should all keep in mind is that there is -- there would be and there was enormous demand for our services. The preponderance of our clients have to do the work externally. They have no internal capacity. Their portfolio is quite full and robust given the plethora of modalities that they have to work on. And so our clients are holding back. Our clients have reprioritized. The clients have good drugs sitting on the shelf. So our clients are clearly very frustrated by that. And so I think we think that we get to the point where they are more comfortable spending because they have greater access to capital. The demand should improve nicely. Is it going to improve overnight in 1 month, 1 quarter, I don't know, but we do think that it will sequentially continue to grow when we've seen this before.

聽著，你們都應該記住的一件事是，對我們的服務會有巨大的需求。我們的大部分客戶必須在外部完成工作。他們沒有內在能力。考慮到他們必須處理的模式太多，他們的投資組合相當完整且強大。所以我們的客戶猶豫不決。我們的客戶已經重新確定了優先順序。顧客的貨架上有好藥。所以我們的客戶顯然​​對此感到非常沮喪。所以我認為我們認為我們已經達到了他們更願意花錢的地步，因為他們有更多的機會獲得資本。需求應該會得到很好的改善。我不知道它是否會在 1 個月、1 個季度內一夜之間有所改善，但我們確實認為，當我們之前看到這種情況時，它會繼續增長。

We have several of our businesses where the work does come in and go out very, very quickly, particularly Discovery and Biologics, and we have others that we have very close relationships with the clients and the pricing is all fixed. And so their ability to get a slot is quite straightforward.

我們有幾個業務的工作確實非常非常快地進來和出去，特別是發現和生物製劑，我們還有其他業務與客戶有非常密切的關係，而且定價都是固定的。因此，他們獲得席位的能力非常簡單。

So we're optimistic that -- I'm so optimistic with our guidance, so I'm optimistic that the demand comes back. It's not -- yes, it comes back, it's only when. It's a little bit murky to call, but we're calling it as best we can given our decades in the business given the fact that we talked to thousands of clients every week. Given the fact we actually we have a very good understanding of the competition and what the strengths and limitations are. So yes, that's -- we would be very surprised if anything, happens to change the slope of growth.

因此，我們對我們的指導非常樂觀，因此我對需求的回升感到樂觀。不是——是的，它會回來，只是何時而已。打電話的方式有點模糊，但考慮到我們每週與數千名客戶交談，我們已經在數十年的行業經驗中盡力而為。事實上，我們實際上對競爭以及優勢和限制有很好的了解。所以，是的，如果有什麼事情碰巧改變了成長的斜率，我們會感到非常驚訝。

Obviously, there are exogenous things under our control, but the things that we see that are within our control or that are already in sort of calculated in our guidance, it's unlikely those things will change.

顯然，有一些外生的事情在我們的控制之下，但是我們看到的那些在我們控制範圍內的事情或已經在我們的指導中計算出來的事情，這些事情不太可能改變。

And we have time for one more question. We'll take our last question from Dan Leonard with UBS.

我們還有時間再問一個問題。我們將回答瑞銀集團丹‧倫納德的最後一個問題。

I just wanted to clarify, are you seeing any of these improved external indicators in the biotech market translate into increased inquiry activity or RFPs in DSA. And if you're not, what would you expect any lag to look like if there was a sustained capital markets recovery in biotech?

我只是想澄清一下，您是否看到生物技術市場中這些外部指標的改善轉化為 DSA 中詢價活動或 RFP 的增加。如果您不這麼認為，那麼如果生物技術領域的資本市場持續復甦，您預計會出現什麼滯後情況？

It typically doesn't turn on a dime. I mean we get asked this question a lot. And of course, we live through lots of different, I hate to turn cycle, but lots of different sort of funding time periods in biotech. I think the biotech companies have increasingly gotten very careful about the way they're spending money. Having said that, as I said in the last question, I do think that they will spend more aggressively and more boldly if they have a sense that access to capital is easier and will be sustained as opposed to something that's going to be lumpy.

它通常不會立即啟動。我的意思是我們經常被問到這個問題。當然，我們在生技領域經歷了許多不同的融資時期，我討厭轉變週期，但也經歷了許多不同類型的融資時期。我認為生技公司對花錢的方式越來越謹慎。話雖如此，正如我在上一個問題中所說，我確實認為，如果他們意識到獲得資本更容易並且能夠持續，而不是變得不穩定，他們就會更積極、更大膽地支出。

I wouldn't say that we've seen any dramatic change in the slope. I mean, we watch our bookings and we watch the proposal lot in bookings very closely. We obviously, as we talked about earlier in this call, very, very interested in cancellation and slippage levels, which I think are -- we're hopeful that those will come down. I mean the fact that we have a 12-month backlog, I think it's a positive. And as I said earlier, if that were to turn into a 6- or 9-month backlog that would be fine as well. So there's a lot of work out there, a lot of interest, limited competition and cautiousness across the board with our clients who are just like we have to hold off until we have a better understanding of where we're going to have better access to the capital markets.

我不會說我們看到坡度有任何戲劇性的變化。我的意思是，我們會密切關注我們的預訂，並密切關注預訂中的提案。顯然，正如我們在本次電話會議早些時候討論的那樣，我們對取消和滑點水平非常非常感興趣，我認為我們希望這些水平能夠下降。我的意思是，我們有 12 個月的積壓，我認為這是正面的。正如我之前所說，如果這會變成 6 或 9 個月的積壓，那也沒關係。因此，我們的客戶有很多工作要做，興趣很大，競爭有限，而且全面謹慎，他們就像我們必須推遲，直到我們更好地了解我們將在哪裡可以更好地訪問資本市場。

And it's certainly -- there's certainly some -- at least some early indications that, that's around the corner. You can see in our guidance, we believe we're going to see that at the latest in the back half of this year. And that will obviously be meaningful to, I think, most parts of our business. and should accelerate our growth rate. We do have sufficient capacity, certainly physical capacity, and we're trying to manage our headcounts according to demand. So I think our headcount is in good place. So as the work comes, we will be able to accommodate.

當然——肯定有一些——至少有一些早期跡象表明，這即將到來。您可以在我們的指導中看到，我們相信最遲會在今年下半年看到這一點。我認為，這顯然對我們大部分業務都有意義。並且應該加快我們的成長速度。我們確實有足夠的能力，當然是物質能力，我們正在努力根據需求來管理我們的員工人數。所以我認為我們的員工人數處於良好狀態。因此，隨著工作的到來，我們將能夠適應。

Thank you. I will now turn the conference back over to Todd Spencer for closing remarks.

謝謝。現在我將把會議轉回托德·斯賓塞致閉幕詞。

Thanks, Shelby, and thank you all for joining us this morning. This concludes the conference call.

謝謝謝爾比，也謝謝大家今天早上加入我們。電話會議到此結束。

Thank you. That does conclude today's Charles River Laboratories Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.

謝謝。今天的 Charles River Laboratories 第四季和 2023 年全年財報電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與，您現在可以斷開連接。