Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

But despite that, we’re talking about mid-single-digit growth this year. From a cost synergy standpoint, we’re ahead of our expectations. And in the numbers that we’ve reported, there’s a clear benefit included for Hillrom integration. And then as we look forward, I think we have a lot of optimism about the portfolio, the interaction with Baxter products and where we can take this going forward. And maybe, I’ll turn it over to Joe to talk a little bit about some of the things that we’ve seen there.

José Almeida: Yes. We have a pretty rich pipeline of products, starting with progressive FLOSEAL. As I said, it’s going to really put Baxter — continued probation of a very solid leadership position in the PET market. our Centrella bed has done a great job and is a product that continues to sell well. When we look at our Front Line Care, that business could have grown double digits easily in 2022 as well as in 2023. We’re planning for Hillrom as a whole to grow around 4%. It could be north of that if few components become more available. We’re starting to see that showing up the market, primarily from like to see more components coming. We just look at them in the month of January. We’re able to see some of that coming through.

And also the innovation pipeline coming out of those 2 businesses look really good. And the Connected Devices, what we call care communications. We see good backlog coming into Nurse Call System as well as installation of Voalte. We see in the first half of the year a little bit depression in that as the nursing shortages continue to apply pressure the hospitals and also the macroeconomic indexes make hospitals be more cautious but we see that improving in the second half. So, you look at the market for capital, improving the second half. We look at the product launches that we have coming up. And the pipeline of innovation coming out of Hillrom is very exciting. Further to that, we’re putting more money into research and development in 2023 disproportionately into Hillrom to accelerate the growth of that business.

Matt Miksic: That’s super helpful. And if I could, just maybe at a high level, Joe, you touched on some of the things just now but I think most folks are looking at the guide and more conservative than folks were expecting. And I think you get that and I think we’ll be able to sketch out the script for today. They might have recommended something like that, given the struggles that the company and the sector really has had in energy and technology, everything last year. So, maybe — with that in mind, if this is kind of sort of rebasing and taking all these things into account, what are some of the things that you think could kind of potentially present some bright spots and upside as we kind of get into — from the year, getting to kind of a turning point in the business, turning point in some of the inflationary pressures that you’re seeing? What are some of the things that you say could possibly go well or better this year?