The qualified pipeline is up strong double-digits, again, across the board. So, I don’t know what else to tell you. I don’t — you heard anything that I don’t know, let me know.
Luke Sergott: No, that’s why I’m in my seat and you’re in your seat. Appreciate. Thank you.
Ari Bousbib: All right. Thank you.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Elizabeth Anderson from Evercore ISI. Your line is open.
Elizabeth Anderson: Hi guys. Thanks so much for the color on the complexity of the demand environment. I had a question about the 4Q bookings. Can you comment on sort of what percentage was FSP? I know you said it, obviously, with the revenue shift is very incremental over the course of the year. But I would just be curious, sort of, level set what you’re seeing in the current environment there?
Ari Bousbib: The question is how much of our bookings was FSP. I think a little over 20%, is that correct?
Ronald Bruehlman: Yes, — was the bookings in the quarter and that’s for the full year for FSP.
Ari Bousbib: How much — can you be more — well, how much was EVP? 25%?
Ronald Bruehlman: Yes. Total EVP is about one-quarter of our bookings for the year.
Ari Bousbib: Right. And I think FSP is mostly large pharma, right?
Ronald Bruehlman: Yes.
Elizabeth Anderson: And then how would you comment on the rate card as we think about 2024 in terms of both full service work and FSP?
Ronald Bruehlman: Talk about pricing?
Ari Bousbib: Yes. No, no, rate card, the rates, labor and so on.
Ronald Bruehlman: Yes. I mean, look, this continues to be pressure from clients and negotiate and tough negotiations that’s been the biggest surprise for me over the past several years, and that is that you got a better mode, you’ve got a better company, a better delivery system, better capabilities, then we should be able to actually charge more. But lo and behold, we’ve got competitors. And as I said before, clients are — clients that we want to continue to have. We have with whom we sell a lot to we sell a lot of stuff. And we have strong relationships. And when the client tells you, listen, CEO calls you and says, I need you to lower the rate here on this because it’s going to help me in my cost reduction program, it’s hard to say, listen, I’m better than a competitor and the answer is no.
So we don’t say yes to everything, but this is part of managing our long-term relationships, and we — I wouldn’t hide the fact that we are having maybe more pressure than we had before, generally on pricing that’s across the board. There’s no secret there.
Elizabeth Anderson: Got it. That’s super helpful. Thank you.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of David Windley from Jefferies. Your line is open.
David Windley: Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. A little bit of a follow-up to Elizabeth there. Ari, we spent in December, quite a bit of time talking about the decision cycle environment with, I think, principally large pharma. So I joined late, but I’ve heard you describe that your RFP flows look pretty good. Your awards look pretty good. Those things seem to be holding up, but you had described that whether it was IRA or pending loss of exclusivity of important products or whatever that clients were kind of mulling over their prioritizations and processes a lot longer than normal. And I suppose part of that is probably also a little bit of Elizabeth — your answer to Elizabeth’s question around pricing and trying to meet budget cut targets and things like that.
How would you — I’d love for you to elaborate on that environment? And do you feel like you’re closer to the end of it? Or are we still in the middle of it? When do we think large pharma will be back the business, so to speak?
Ari Bousbib: Well, again, I want to make sure — I mean, it’s not like back to business, not like people are on hold and they are not doing anything again. I mean, look, our backlog continues to grow. The RFP flow is up double-digits.
Nicholas Childs: Second highest bookings quarter ever.
Ari Bousbib: Right. We had the second highest bookings quarter ever and the first — the one that was the highest, which was last year, I think that was — we had a very big proportion of pass-through from specific large award. That’s why it was like over $3 billion, if I recall, in that quarter. So, this quarter, we had, what, $2.8 billion. I mean — and that was like a regular quarter with nothing unusual, no big one-timer award or anything like that. So, it’s a pretty — the numbers are the numbers. Now, the conversations are more difficult, longer, more negotiations, but the volume — the answer to your question is I think the volume and the number of opportunities, it keeps going up. And again, EBP funding very strong, all-time high.
