Operator: Thank you. And one moment while we move to our next question. And our next question is going to come from the line of John Sourbeer with UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
John Sourbeer: Good morning and best to Bernard. I guess, just starting off on GLP-1s just any additional color or even maybe broader biologics, but how do you see this market evolving maybe between auto-injectors and multi-dose pens and maybe GLP-1s, more specifically just any thoughts on potential transition to more oral products there?
Eric Green: Yeah. No. It’s — I don’t want to be putting — speaking on behalf of my customers, we’ve got to be careful here. So what we’re prepared to do for them is will continue to be the primary the key manufacturer of elastomer components, that go into several of these auto injectors and other modalities. And so from elastomer position we’re very encouraged with our HVP plunger portfolio. And we’re able to support them on the demand and then actually stay ahead of the demand with our manufacturing capabilities. We mentioned a little bit earlier today that some of the assets we put in for COVID are actually fungible for this not just for GLP-1, but for HVP in general. I think in regards to multi-use pens again I would refer to our customers in that discussion.
But from our point of view we participate in all. And we are the market leader in injectable medicines. Now, we don’t participate in oral. And that is the uptake of oral the effectiveness of oral that — those are all discussions I would really encourage you to speak with our customers on it directly. But as the injectable space continues to grow in GLP-1, as new molecules are approved and launched where — and the investments we’re making both on the Proprietary and CM side, we have a good visibility of cadence of what we’re being asked to build support through our global network to support the demand. I’ll just be clear one other aspect is on the Proprietary side, we always enjoy a very high participation rate. On the CM side, we’ve been very clear that our customers are looking at multiple suppliers to support them and we’re one of them.
So we’re positioned very well on both sides of the business. Hopefully that gives you some context of what we’re seeing.
John Sourbeer: Yeah. Thanks. Appreciate the color there. And also just looking to the high-level framing around next year, you’ve had pretty strong pricing this year I think in the 5% to 6% range. Just any color on what you think pricing could look — shake out to for 2024?
Eric Green: Yeah. I won’t give exact at this point, because we are still working through our details and we have been in discussions with customers. I think one thing to think about, you’re right. This year we were communicating between 5% to 6% net price realization. I think we’re clearly in that corridor on the upper-end and which is positive when you think about the inflationary pressures that all of us around the world are faced with. And we were able to offset majority of that pressure. We are taking consideration of additional inflation if, what that would look like for next year. So just to give you a little context of how we look at this and that will help us, inform our decision about exactly what corridor we’re going to be in. But I would say — I can say here that the historic, I’m talking a few years ago when we were at sub-1% or between 1% and 2%, I believe that’s behind us. We do think we’re in a better position to capture, more price going forward.
John Sourbeer: Thanks Eric. And then last one just on my end. On COVID, it sounds like you’re no longer going to break that out next year. There was an increase in the guidance for this year. Any way just to think about what is the pandemic level there on COVID going forward?
Eric Green : Yes. I think the — just based on the guidance Quintin articulated, I think both Bernard and Quintin have been clear on is about. We’re looking at about $68 million for this year. So it would basically — if you do the delta it’s about $8 million in the fourth quarter. Just — and that means compare that to $388 million prior year and we had a little bit more of that than previous year to that. It’s hard to predict. And — but we’re — we in the last two quarters we’ve been basically between $10 million and $20 million a quarter. And so the way, we look at it is yes that could potentially be a headwind if there’s less doses that are administered or it could be a tailwind if there’s more doses depending on how this pandemic evolves.
But we’re just — we’re going to — right now our thinking is to put it into the base and run the business as a whole, because at this point it’s becoming a very small portion of overall West. So, yes, we’ll be clear for the balance of this year, but then we’ll give better clarity in February if we think if we do need to still call it out, but our thinking right now is to eliminate that.
John Sourbeer : Thanks for taking the question.
Eric Green : Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. One moment as we move on to our next question. Our next question is going to come from the line of Matt Larew with William Blair. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Matt Larew: Good morning. Obviously, the focus in terms of the Contract Manufacturing and auto-injector investments right now are around GLP-1s, but there’s growing is just I think more broadly in new delivery modalities, and obviously, you have your SmartDose platform. So just curious if you can maybe update us on either the interest the funnel pipeline or more generally what discussions with customers are like in more of the device category that you’ve been investing in?
Eric Green : Matt, thank you for the question. Excellent question. Quintin, do you want to start?
Quintin Lai : Yes. So Matt, let me clarify. So when we think about injection delivery platforms, we at West can participate in two ways. One, if the customer has the IP then we can manufacture on behalf of that customer. And that’s where our contract manufacturing is. We’re really good at it. We’re not the only ones that will be there though. As we’ve said in the past, the customers with the IP will typically outsource to two to three. And if it’s a very big project, it could be up to five to six different players. So that’s how we participate. And very often those customers also happen to be key proprietary product elastomer customers. And then on the SmartDose side, there that is proprietary to us. That is our design and that’s when customers come to us and work with us to spec in that device with their drug to make a drug device combination therapy.
