Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to CSL's First Half Results Call For Fiscal 2022. It's Mark Dehring speaking, and joining me online today is Paul Perreault, CSL's Chief Executive Officer, Joy Linton, CSL's Chief Financial Officer, and Paul McKenzie, CSL's Chief Operating Officer. As with past practice, Paul will provide an overview of the results and operations, and then Joy will provide some additional detail on the financials. We'll then move into Q&A. As with past practice, with a view to giving everyone an opportunity to ask a question, could you please limit your questions to two? If you do have a further question, you are, of course, welcome to rejoin the queue. Please note this briefing is being webcast. Lastly, before we start, I draw your attention to the forward-looking statement disclaimer contained in the slide deck. I'll now pass you over to Paul Perreault. Paul. Thank you, Mark. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today's review of CSL's half year results for 2022. This reporting period feels a bit more like it used to be than in the last couple of reporting periods. For the first time in about two years, I've managed to find my way back to Melbourne. That's very exciting for me because it's been exceptionally exciting to be here and work with the local CSL team and the board in person. I must say, I've really missed this kind of interaction. I'm cautiously optimistic that we're edging closer to a place where pandemic considerations aren't such a feature in doing business and there's a greater balance to normality. Additionally, I would like to call out our 25,000 CSL employees. They've shown enormous resilience, agility, adaptability, and they continue to remain focused on delivering on our promise to patients and to public health around the world. This is really a true testament to the values of CSL and to the people at CSL. Now, moving on to the matter at hand, I will provide an overview of our first half results, which were delivered in an extremely interesting and difficult global environment. I'll then hand over to my Chief Financial Officer, Joy Linton, who will provide more details on the financials, and I will then conclude with an update on our outlook. And as usual, we're happy to take questions at the end of the presentation. Moving on to slide four in the deck. At the full year result in August, we guided that we expected COVID to continue to have an impact on some aspects of our operations. That's been the case, and the results we present today are in alignment with our expectations. In the CSL Behring business, our sales of immunoglobulins and albumin, the major two products we extract from plasma collected, have been constrained in terms of the volume of plasma collected last year, and the plasma we've collected has come at a higher cost. The plasma products have a long manufacturing cycle, as you're all aware, impacting margin nine-12 months after we collect the plasma when the product sale is finally made. I'm pleased to report those products not limited in this way. Our specialty products, IDELVION and also royalties from HPV, have performed very well. I'm also encouraged by the growth in plasma collections during the first half. In CSL Plasma, we continued to be innovative in our approach. We implemented multiple initiatives that have either seen or are starting to see enablers of driving improvements in the collections. These increased collection volumes will underpin future sales growth, and later in the presentation, I'll provide further detail on these initiatives and how the plasma volumes are tracking against prior periods. Yet again, I have to say Seqirus delivered another very impressive result during the period. The end of 2021 was a busy one as we announced an agreement to acquire Vifor Pharma, and I'll recap the transaction highlights later and how the acquisition is strategically aligned with our 2030 strategy. Moving to the numbers in the first half performance, CSL delivered a first half result in line with our expectations and guidance. Revenue was up 4% at constant currency, and net profit after tax was down 5% at constant currency. In terms of performance for CSL Behring, a very strong performance from IDELVION, our market-leading hemophilia B product, which was up 17% and continues to be the standard for patients that need hemophilia B therapies. Our major specialty products showed extremely strong growth with Kcentra up again 15% and HAEGARDA up 7%. HPV royalties revenue rebounded strongly by 134%, and our core franchise in immunoglobulin declined 9%. As many of you are aware, the plasma products do have, as I mentioned, a long manufacturing cycle, and given that we extract IG from all plasma liters collected, this decline reflects the lower plasma volumes that we collected last financial year when COVID was having a major impact to the industry in terms of plasma collections. We continue to invest in our plasma collection network and adding 18 new centers in the first half. Investment continues in a number of digital transformation initiatives which have expanded our flexibility and really enhanced our customer-facing interactions, both from a commercial aspect but also from a donor aspect. Our influenza vaccine business, Seqirus, has delivered another exceptional performance, as mentioned earlier. Sales of seasonal influenza were up 20% with exceptional growth recorded in Europe and the U.K. Seqirus distributed a record number of Northern Hemisphere doses, some 110 million doses for the 2021-2022 season. There have also been significant developments in product innovation, which I'll discuss more later. However, of particular note is the U.S. and Argentinian approval for Flucelvax, indicated for six months old and older. Construction has commenced on our new world-class cell culture influenza vaccine facility here in Melbourne. On Slide five, in CSL Behring, we look at the sales by therapeutic area. Overall, the Behring portfolio recorded flat growth. IG, our core franchise, had declined 9% at constant currency and albumin was flat. Hemophilia was up 5%, and specialty products were up 2%, inclusive of strong performances by Kcentra and HAEGARDA. You'll note that 97% growth in other, which largely reflects the strong rebound of HPV royalties. In terms of the geographic split of CSL Behring revenue, despite declining 4%, North America continues to be our largest market, accounting for 48% of the total CSL Behring revenue. Our next biggest market in Europe declined 11% in revenue. This is where we really felt the impact of IG supply tightness. Asia Pacific was up 42%, primarily as a result of IG tender extension in Australia and strong albumin demand in China. On Slide six, in immunoglobulins. As an industry, collecting plasma during the global pandemic has been challenging. That's not a surprise to any of you on the call. I think, probably the number one question for most of you. As I mentioned earlier, sales has been constrained by plasma collected last year. Supply is the core limiting factor to the revenue or the sales that we had in the first half. Despite this challenging environment, however, Hizentra remains the clear leader in the subQ market with approximately 60% market share in the U.S., performing consistently with our expectations. CIDP patient uptake remains on a steady trajectory, with roughly three-quarters of targeted physicians having now utilized Hizentra to treat CIDP patients. A recent development has been the combination of the Medicare Part B reimbursement approval and updated Peripheral Nerve Society, PNS, the treatment guidelines, which now recommends subQ IG for maintenance treatment in CIDP and enhanced labeling, dosing, and long-term efficacy information from the path extension data update that we had for the trial. This advancement is expected to support continued strong CIDP growth along with increased healthcare provider patient interactions and improved promotional access. Importantly, Hizentra will now offer an improved patient experience with faster and easier administration options of prefilled syringes. Privigen and Hizentra remain market leaders in the IVIG and subQ segments, despite a volume decline in Europe fueled by constrained supply. We are optimistic that the tide is beginning to turn in spite of the current challenges the industry is facing. There is sufficient evidence to suggest the industry is moving through a recovery phase. Plasma collections are increasing, and we firmly believe that supply tightness will begin to ease as COVID starts to recede even further. Turning now to Slide seven in albumin, where sales were up 1%. Despite increased competition in China, we've maintained our market leadership position through brand differentiation and effective healthcare practitioner engagement. It has just been one year since the GSP license transfer was completed, and even though there's more work to do, we feel that we're now starting to extract greater effectiveness, having increased market transparency, and that's where that engagement with the healthcare practitioner has really helped. Similar to our competitors who are increasing their footprint in China by adding sales and marketing headcount, we have also strengthened our on-the-ground infrastructure. We have expanded our geographic coverage and distribution network, generating greater demand and increased penetration into retail pharmacies and the lower-tier cities and hospitals. Hospital operations and overall demand are reverting back to pre-pandemic levels, with volume growth anticipated to be in the mid to high single digits while competition will be continuing to try to gain that share as well. Outside of China, volume growth declined in Europe and emerging markets following increased competition from local manufacturers who have access to local plasma sources. In the U.S., volume also declined as supply constraints continued, a direct effect of plasma collection downturn in the previous financial year. More broadly, across the markets, clinicians are using albumin in preference to artificial colloids, as well as increased usage of albumin in sepsis and liver patients. On Slide eight, where we start to talk about CSL products not impacted by plasma collections, is hemophilia, where sales were up 5%. IDELVION continued to be a standout performer, up 17%. IDELVION is the clear market leader for hemophilia B patients with a compelling clinical profile that continues to drive patient demand and market share. We continue to explore further opportunities with IDELVION, having recently completed an extension study which evaluated patients for up to four years and confirmed the long-term efficacy and safety profile of IDELVION, which of course no surprise to us. We maintain leadership positions in several key markets, including the U.S., Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Japan, and have also gained 21-day dosing, three-week dosing approval in Europe, Switzerland, Japan, and Canada. In the hemophilia A market, sales of AFSTYLA declined 13%. This was primarily driven by the continued competitive market pressures. Despite the challenges, high levels of market share were still achieved in Italy, Germany, and Taiwan. Competitive market pressures have also had a negative impact on our plasma-derived hemophilia products. This was offset to some extent by 2% growth in Haemate and Humate-P, underpinned by tender success in Russia. We also saw a decline in Beriate due to the continued competitive market forces. Overall, we are seeing increased movements to the new generation products within the hemophilia space, and we do expect that this trend will continue going forward. On to Slide nine in specialty products. Overall, specialty products grew 2%. HAEGARDA, our transformational therapy for treating patients with hereditary angioedema, or HAE, continues to perform strongly up 7%. Despite increased competition, we continued to add new patients. Recent launches in the EU and Australia have exceeded expectations, with the share in the Australian prophylaxis market quickly surpassing competitors to gain a peak patient share of around 60%. In the U.S., HAEGARDA has a stable patient base with more than 80% of patients, either long-term users, which we define as a minimum of one year on therapy or switchbacks from alternative therapies. Demand is driven by the shift from on-demand to prophylaxis, where we continue to have the highest share of on-demand to prophylaxis switches, and that's why you see Berinert was down 8%. This does reflect patient shifting to HAEGARDA. Kcentra sales were up 15%. Unbelievable, really, and underscoring the unique medical benefit that Kcentra brings. Its profile of small volume, fast infusion is very appealing to the target market and commonly known to be a real gold standard for warfarin reversal. Sales of Respreeza were down 7% as we face competitive pressures, primarily out of the EU. Activities are in place to increase differentiation and development of a customer segmentation strategy, and the early signs have been quite positive. Wound healing products were up 10%, and lastly, Alpha-1 sales were down 31% following supply interruptions at Kankakee. Our commitment to patient care continues to be a priority, and we're taking several steps to ensure the future supply stability, giving us confidence these supply constraints have now been resolved. Turning to Slide 10 in plasma collections, probably of interest to people. COVID has presented the plasma industry with many challenges and the ability to collect plasma having been the most adversely impacted in the industry. In response, CSL Plasma has continued to implement a number of targeted initiatives focusing on growing plasma collections. The plasma team's resilience, dedication, and focus has been quite incredible, and we've seen a volume improvement of 18% first half 2022 versus first half 2021. The following slide will illustrate how we are progressing. Before we get there, I'd like to share some of the initiatives we've undertaken to support the collections growth. First, donor fees have increased industry-wide. Our redesigned donor fee structure has assisted to capture new, more new donors, and it's also helping to retain donors, including those who donate at lower frequencies. The vaccine rollout has undoubtedly increased social mobility, and individuals are more willing to adapt to the new norm as we exit the major COVID restrictions. This is on a state-by-state basis, and you know we have plasma collection centers in many states across the U.S., so it does vary by geography. We have enhanced our operating and marketing efforts to attract not only new donors, but also lapsed donors, both of which are an important source of future donations. For example, we're providing flu vaccination vouchers to U.S. plasma donors following the completion of two plasma donations made within a calendar month. We introduced new technologies to improve the donor experience. Our new donor app has been a success, and we continue to evolve and improve with updates and enhancements. Self-service kiosks and the ability for donors to register online are other components of our digital offering, all of which are dedicated to ensuring a best-in-class donor experience. Continued work with the industry bodies such as the PPTA in promoting the importance of plasma donation and to modify regulations that currently result in unnecessary donor referrals. We continue to lead the industry in the opening of new plasma collection centers, opening 18 new centers in the first half, and we expect to open up around 35 new centers in fiscal year 2022. I'd like to think the worst is behind us. Our numbers indicate that this might be the case. However, industry-wide issues remain. The pandemic is ongoing. New variants are most likely going to come and go. We've seen some impact by Omicron more recently, but that also seems to be receding. Staffing centers for them to remain open and to operate at optimum levels is a real challenge in the industry. You know, like most industries around the world, our employees and therefore the resourcing levels have been impacted by COVID infection as well. The U.S. employment environment is very, very competitive. While we have introduced retention schemes for enhanced compensation for staff, attracting and retaining remains a challenge as people continue to offer incentives for people to switch and move to new locations or new jobs. The cost of collecting plasma has increased. Donor fees and employee labor costs have increased in the industry. Lower volumes being processed through the manufacturing plant means that we're left with a greater fixed cost absorption going through the cost of goods sold. Joy will talk to this in more detail in the financial section of the presentation. A brief update on the Mexican border closure to donors. Litigation is still ongoing. We have appealed the initial decision, which was really a non-decision, and was unfavorable on a technicality, if you look at it in that perspective. In addition, a new complaint has been filed by people who have been adversely affected by the border closure. Finally, in our collaboration with Terumo to deliver a new plasmapheresis device, Terumo have submitted their 510(k) to the FDA. While it's difficult to estimate, we're hopeful of regulatory clearance in the first half of calendar 2022. Turning to the next slide, to the donors per week graphic. It's a busy slide, but I think quite informative, so let me take just a minute to walk through it with you. The red line is calendar year 2021, the black line 2020, and the gray 2019. Let's focus on the red line for a minute, and given it is the strongest indicator to the extent of our plasma volume recovery growth, measuring the most current periods. You can clearly see the improvement on the prior corresponding period, which was +18% overall. As I mentioned before, the plasma team have left no stone unturned when executing initiatives to grow plasma volumes. From period July 2021 to early November 2021, we experienced solid growth. We then saw the usual effect of the annual holiday season in December, but with an overlay of the latest COVID variant, Omicron, as I mentioned earlier, particularly in our ability to staff our centers. Unlike this time last year, growth in the new year has been encouraging. I will, of course, update you at our next result. Moving on to slide 12 in our influenza vaccines business, Seqirus. Seqirus delivered an exceptionally strong performance in the first half of 2022. Total revenue was over AUD 1.7 billion, up 17% at constant currency, with seasonal influenza vaccines up 20%. The increase reflects an ongoing shift to Seqirus' differentiated products, particularly Fluad, our adjuvanted product, which was up almost 50%. The Northern Hemisphere continues to be the dominant market for Seqirus, with the E.U. and the U.K. delivering particularly strong growth. Continuing with Seqirus on Slide 13 and the operational highlights. Seqirus continues to achieve significant growth in its seasonal influenza vaccines, which as I mentioned earlier, saw a record volume of 110 million doses distributed into the Northern Hemisphere for the 2021-2022 season. In Europe and the U.K., the successful launch of Fluad in Ireland, a continued growing support for our cell-based vaccines with increased Fluad and Flucelvax sales in the U.K., as the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization recognized the incremental value these products have to offer. Product differentiation is still a key driver for growth in our industry. Our fill and finish capacity expansion at the Liverpool site is now complete. In the U.S., for Seqirus, they delivered vaccine revenue in excess of $1 billion for the first time. We were also awarded a new pandemic contract by the U.S. government, or BARDA, for the development of two influenza A virus vaccine candidates using both our cell-based adjuvanted combination technology platform and our self-amplifying mRNA technology. Looking forward, there's a great deal of opportunity for us. The pandemic has seen the acceleration, clearly, of mRNA technology, and we are undertaking preclinical assessment of our next-generation self-amplifying mRNA vaccine in seasonal and pandemic flu, including in phase I, which is expected to commence in calendar year 2022. The construction has commenced on the clinical GMP mRNA facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, to supply clinical trial material for this program. Construction has also commenced on our new world-class cell culture influenza vaccine facility here in Melbourne. The pipeline is, of course, far more broader than sa-mRNA. Flucelvax for infants aged six months and over is scheduled to be launched in the U.S. Northern Hemisphere 2022-2023 season. Flucelvax for children aged two years and over to be launched in the private market here in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere in the 2022 season. The Holly Springs fill and finish expansion will be operational in the Northern Hemisphere 2022-2023 season. Exciting opportunities for Seqirus going forward, and I have to say just a tremendously great job by the whole team. Moving on over to R&D on slide 14, just a few highlights since Dr. Bill Mezzanotte and his team updated the market on the portfolio in October this past year. Beginning with immunology, garadacimab for hereditary angioedema, the phase III study enrollment was completed with the last patient in. The FDA confirmed that they had designated Fast Track eligibility for garadacimab and HAE, and the EMA also had Orphan Drug Designation granted for the product. Berinert subQ for HAE was submitted to the PMDA in Japan. In hematology, CSL888 or Haptoglobin also had US Orphan Drug Designation granted, and the primary endpoint was achieved in etranacogene dezaparvovec for hemophilia B gene therapy in the HOPE-B study. In respiratory, garadacimab for IPF has started with the phase II study being initiated. In cardiovascular and metabolic, the phase III trial for CSL112 continues to progress well, and we now have over 80% of the patients enrolled. In influenza vaccines, most of these I mentioned on the previous slide, so for the ones I didn't, our aQIVc, our cell antigen plus MF59 adjuvant phase II study is complete. For Fluad Quadrivalent, adults 50 to 64 years old, the phase III study enrollment has also been completed. We also maintain multiple partnerships and alliances with many global biotech companies like ourselves. We also have recently formed a partnership with the globally renowned Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and the University of Melbourne to create an incubator biotech startup, which will be located at our new global headquarters here in Melbourne. We are also expanding our R&D capacity. In Melbourne, a new headquarters and R&D facility is under construction and on track for completion in early 2023. In Marburg, a new seven-story R&D campus to house over 500 researchers is set to open later this calendar year in 2022. In Boston, a new Seqirus facility in Waltham, Massachusetts, to be operated in 2022, which will host approximately 300 employees supporting CSL's R&D portfolio. Moving on now to slide 15. In December, we were thrilled to enter into an agreement to acquire Vifor Pharma, a global specialty pharmaceutical company with leadership in renal disease and iron deficiency and associated anemia, and revenues in excess of CHF 1.7 billion. We indicated at the time of announcement that we expected to fund the acquisition through an institutional placement, which we are pleased to say was oversubscribed and completed, and we thank many of you on the call for your participation. An additional source of funding was a share purchase plan for CSL's private shareholders in Australia and New Zealand, which raised AUD 750 million. We are also working to establish new debt facilities in quarter four of this fiscal year. The tender offer for Vifor shareholders is underway and will close on the second of March. Integration planning is also underway, and we anticipate regulatory approvals and deal closure to occur by the end of this fiscal year. Turning to slide 16. Just to review a bit, the acquisition of Vifor really presented a rare opportunity for CSL to augment our business with successful products and attractive pipeline and underscores the complementary and adjacent areas to the existing areas of focus and interest to CSL. In addition to the strong strategic merit of the transaction, the acquisition fits strongly with our disciplined financial approach, significantly enhances our revenue and free cash flow generation. This combination of CSL and Vifor Pharma brings us the following. It really strengthens CSL's strategy by adding a durable and a growing business with leadership positions across nephrology, dialysis, iron deficiency. It builds a renal franchise, becoming the partner of choice in the growing renal disease market. It extends the reach of CSL's high-value pipeline in the renal space by leveraging enhanced access to unique patient population and supports clinical trial execution. It also provides a complementary portfolio and provides an opportunity to build new adjacencies. It also materially enhanced the scale and the free cash flow for the company, and finally, it provides a compelling financial profile. Slide 17 really brings together the key rationale of the value of this acquisition, highlighting how our collective renal assets are highly complementary, and how through the Fresenius joint venture, we could accelerate progression of CSL's high-quality renal assets through better use of patient data and treatment algorithms. As an example, Clazakizumab in phase III as a potential first-line treatment for antibody-mediated rejection in kidney transplant patients shows how this is possible. As we progress through all the regulatory approvals, we look forward to welcoming Vifor employees and industry-leading products to the CSL family later this year. Now I'm gonna hand over to Joy Linton, our CFO, who will provide details on our financial statements and an update on our sustainability strategy. Joy, over to you. Thank you, Paul, and good morning, everyone. As Paul said at the beginning, CSL has delivered a first half result in line with our expectations. On slide 19, you'll see reported net profit after tax declined from $1.81 billion to $1.76 billion, a fall of 3%. On a constant currency basis, net profit after tax was $1.72 billion, a decline of 5%, after adjusting for a currency tailwind of $38 million. The main drivers of this result are the lower IG sales due to the constrained plasma collections in FY 2021, largely offset by the strong performance in IDELVION and our specialty products, along with the continued growth in Seqirus. While we're still experiencing some impacts of the pandemic, we have benefited from diversification in our product ranges, with growth in parts of our business not affected by lower plasma collections. Consistent with the second half of the last financial year, the lower plasma volumes and the increased collection costs have continued to put downward pressure on the Group's gross margin. This pressure will continue in the second half, but only to a modest extent, as the collection volumes have been increasing and our absorption of fixed costs per unit is coming down, which in turn will benefit the gross margin looking further out. It's also worth noting that the first half result included transaction costs of AUD 17 million relating to the agreement to acquire Vifor Pharma. Looking at the financials in more detail on Slide 20. Total revenue was up 4% on a constant currency basis to AUD 6 billion. Gross profit of AUD 3.4 billion at constant currency was down 2%, reflecting the decline in gross margin that I talked about on the previous slide. EBIT was down 8% on a constant currency basis to AUD 2.2 billion, and I'll talk about this a little more shortly. Both NPAT and EPS were down 5% at constant currency. Cash flow from operations was AUD 1.4 billion, down 39% from the prior year. Factors driving this include an increase in inventory due to the higher costs of plasma and improved plasma volumes, an increase in receivables for Seqirus arising from the timing of shipments with a relatively late Northern Hemisphere flu season, as well as some one-off items in the prior year. We have maintained our interim dividend consistent with the prior year at $1.04 per share, despite the softening in net profit after tax. For Australian shareholders, this translates to approximately AUD 1.46, up 8%. Turning to the segment results on Slide 21. For CSL Behring, total reported revenue was up 1%, essentially flat at constant currency. The increase in other revenue, as already indicated, is largely due to a significant rebound in HPV or Gardasil royalties. Gross profit was down 8% at constant currency. As already mentioned, the higher collection costs and lower volume-driven manufacturing variances have resulted in the compression of the Behring gross margin to 54%. EBIT was down 22% at constant currency, and I will talk to this further on the next slide. For Seqirus, total revenue was up 17%, gross profit up 17%, and EBIT up 24%, reflecting the strong demand for influenza vaccines and the continued success of our product differentiation strategy, as well as improved manufacturing efficiencies. I'm sure everyone is now familiar with the seasonal nature of the Seqirus business, with in excess of 80% of our sales in the first half, while costs are spread more evenly throughout the year. Seqirus will make a loss in the second half. On Slide 22 are the Group's expenses with changes for the period shown on a constant currency basis. Firstly, R&D expenses increased 13% to AUD 486 million, largely reflecting a pause in clinical trials in the prior comparable period, given the COVID environment. Trials have now all resumed, and we expect R&D expenses for the full year to come in between 10%-11% of revenue, in line with our stated guidance. Sales and marketing expenses were up a modest 4% as we prepare for the upcoming commercial launches, most notably TAVNEOS. General and admin expenses were up 24%, and the main factors contributing to this increase were, firstly, higher I&T costs as we transition to a new managed service provider, and they're largely one-off in nature. You will recall in the second half of last year, the Accounting Standard Setters announced a change with respect to cloud computing arrangements or software as a service that is now expensed rather than capitalized and amortized. This change was effective in the second half of last year, but not in the first half of last year. That change was not reflected. We also had the Vifor transaction costs of AUD 17 million, which I mentioned earlier. Overall, as a percentage of revenue, we would expect full-year general and admin expenses to be similar to that of FY 2021. Finance costs were down AUD 40 million or 38%, mainly due to the movement in unrealized FX on our Swiss debt. Finally, the Group's effective tax rate for the half was 17.9%, reflecting movements in the geographic profit split and some R&D tax benefits. For the full year, we will expect the range to be in 18%-20% range. Before I hand you back to Paul, I would like to give you an update on CSL's sustainability strategy on Slide 23. At the full-year results announcement last August, we communicated our new sustainability strategy that had been endorsed by the Board, and that shared our vision, and captures our commitment to a healthier world. Six months down the track, I'm pleased to say we are making very good progress. We have an executive sustainability committee in place, which I chair, and it is well represented by all areas of the business. This committee provides direction and oversight to our sustainability activity across the enterprise. Across our three strategic pillars of environment, social, and sustainable workforce, we are working on a number of focus areas to define meaningful and achievable targets for both the near and the medium terms. We are working through our roadmap of initiatives, and we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. We expect to be sharing these targets with you at our full year results in August this year. With that, I'll hand you back to Paul, who will finish up with some comments on the outlook. Well, thank you, Joy. Now on to the outlook. Looking specifically at CSL Behring. Plasma collections are improving, and that is expected to underpin our future sales growth for our market-leading products of IG and albumin. The seasonality trend continues, in excess of 80% of sales in the first half for Seqirus, yet expenses are spread more evenly over the course of the year, as usual. Joy mentioned the seasonality, so that will result in a second half loss for the Seqirus business. For FY 2022, guidance is reaffirmed with net profit after tax expected to be in approximately AUD 2.15 billion-AUD 2.25 billion at constant currency. Included within the guidance is approximately AUD 90 million-AUD 110 million of Vifor transaction costs. Of course, our forward-looking statements, as outlined in the front of the presentation, are subject to the usual disclaimers, as mentioned at the start of the presentation. I would like to finish today with a couple of thoughts. First of all, I'd say the first half business performance is in line with expectations and a real credit to the people at CSL for continuing to be resilient, adaptable, focused to get us to where we are today. Secondly, I'd just reiterate that CSL is a growth company. Despite the challenges we face during the pandemic, our strategy through 2030 and beyond remains intact. Nothing has changed in terms of our focus and where we see the company heading. Our purpose on serving our patients and delivering innovative products still holds true. That's why we exist, and we're here to make sure that these non-discretionary products and the protection of human health across all the countries we serve is maintained. The fundamentals of the business are strong. The demand has not gone away. Demand for our products remains. Supply has been the issue. You all know the issue with plasma collection for IG and albumin, but you could see the growth even in our specialty products with IDELVION and Hizentra or Kcentra. You know, as we look out to these HAEGARDA, these products, you can see that the demand is still there because those products were not constrained by plasma. The growth is there, the demand is there. As COVID continues to improve and people are out more and getting more diagnoses, we will see continued increased diagnoses for patients served by our product portfolio. I can tell you that the demand for IG is still there. People are waiting for IG. We're really looking forward to the continued growth of CSL and the continuation of our strategy, which is only enhanced by the Vifor acquisition that we finished up at the end of the calendar year. The fundamentals of the business are really strong, and I think you know the support that we receive from the investment community on the raising initially with Vifor as well as the SPP has just been fantastic. We were oversubscribed on both, and it just shows, I think, the confidence that you all have and the investors have in our company. Certainly, it really enhances my confidence that we're going to continue to grow. We're gonna continue to invest, as we have in our facilities and our R&D in our manufacturing and our plasma collection. We wouldn't be doing all this if we thought we were going ex-growth. Just to reassure all of you, the plan is solid. We have great demand, we have great support, and we're looking forward to the future. Happy now to take your questions. Thank you, Paul. Operator, if you could open the lines up for questions, please. Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Thank you. We do have some questions on the line. Lyanne Harrison at Bank of America. You have a question? Go ahead, Lyanne. I might start with guidance. You've got guidance there at AUD 2.15-AUD 2.25 unchanged, but that includes the one-off Vifor costs. Is it safe to say that those transaction costs had not been factored in when you announced guidance last August? Can we imply an upgrade to underlying operations, and if so, which segments? They weren't included when we gave guidance, Lyanne, because we didn't know we were going to do the acquisition and of course, we sought to close it. You know, we announced that we intended to acquire and of course, we're raising the money, so we're fully confident it'll close. They were not included in the guidance at the beginning. I would just say that it underpins the strength of the business, but there are a lot of moving pieces in the second half, especially the seasonality of Seqirus, and our continued investment in the other areas. We're maintaining our guidance range. Okay. Thank you. If I could go to margins, obviously, and impact the operating cost controls and leverage. If I look at slide 21, you know, there's significant leverage at the EBIT level with Seqirus. How much of that Seqirus EBIT margin is sustainable, and how should we think about it going forward, particularly given the high flu vaccine demand we're seeing through this pandemic? I'll pick up that one. The gross margins in Seqirus, we think are very sustainable and it's really driven off the differentiated products that we have, and in particular, you know, Fluad has had an exceptionally strong period. As Paul has outlined, you know, we see continued growth. I think we've been saying all along that there was a bit more to go in gross margin. I'm not sure how much more there will be in gross margin growth, but certainly it's a sustainable level. Sorry, Joy. I was trying to clarify EBIT margin sustainability, because that expanded quite significantly for Seqirus in this half. Yeah, you know, reflect similar comments, right? Really, you know, driven by the improved efficiencies that we get off the additional volume. You know, we would call it a sustainable margin. We are reinvesting. We will need to continue to reinvest in Seqirus, particularly in R&D with self-amplifying mRNA and our aQIVc program. They're all in the R&D guidance of 10%-11% of revenue. Thank you very much. Thanks, Lyanne. Next question comes from David Low at J.P. Morgan. Go ahead, David. Thanks very much. Perhaps Joy, just on the gross margins. I mean, we've had some issues with gross margins in half by half in the past, but could you talk a little to the trajectory you see in gross margins in the Behring business? When do you expect that they'll bottom out given that there clearly are higher plasma costs coming through? Perhaps I could get you to comment on cost per liter and the dynamics there as well, please. Yeah, sure. Thanks, David. We think we see a little bit of softness still to come in the second half. If we were to guide you across the full year, you know, you should think about a 2%-3% reduction year-over-year. We're gonna bottom out in this next half, and then the margins will continue to recover from there. In terms of costs, I think we've been quite clear that donor fees were up 30%. If you think about the overall plasma cost per liter, we are starting to see the benefit of the manufacturing efficiencies as volume improves. We're more at around that 10% is what we would be guiding for the full year FY 2022. Thank you. Perhaps if I could touch on guidance as well. I mean, we really are seeing an unprecedented decline in the second half in the implied guidance. We've obviously seen lower second half, and we understand the seasonality of the Seqirus business. And Joy, you've talked about gross margin, you know, softening a little bit in the second half. Frankly, in the absence of a dramatic drop in sales, I can't quite see how the second half is only gonna be a quarter of the first half. Am I missing something on operating costs or some other driver? No, I think it's the full year again, David. You know, you saw last year it was the same question, you know, with Seqirus in the second half. There was a huge drop off in the second half, you know, in the profitability because everybody thought, you know, we can just double it and move ahead. There is the seasonality, which is huge. I mean, Seqirus was $1.7 billion in the first half. I mean, it's a lot, you know, just $1 billion in the U.S. alone, which is the first time ever, you know, we could hit that level. We have returns coming. We have operational efficiencies that we're still implementing. We have new programs we're still implementing. We're integrating Vifor. I mean, there's a lot to do in the second half. You know, I'd say, you know, it'd be a little bit premature just to say that, you know, we're going to, you know, improve guidance that significantly. All I would say is that, you know, we've guided to the number. We're absorbing a lot of those costs in terms of transaction costs with Vifor. There were some one-off, you know, non-recurring items, you know, from last year and so in the second half, which we're not gonna see this year. I just think overall, I'd say, you know, take what we say and look at the guidance. You know, we're gonna do as best as we can, but we feel comfortable where we sit at the moment, giving everything else we're taking on. You know, let's see how we go. If there's an update to give, you know we will. Great. Thanks, Paul. Very good of you. Thanks, David. Next question comes from Chris Cooper at Goldman Sachs. Go ahead, Chris. Thank you. Could I just start with donor fees and just thinking a little bit longer term? I mean, now we've kind of got some good light at the end of the tunnel. I know you and your competition's been experimenting with different fees at different centers. Are you finding much scope to taper? And should we be thinking about this as holding steady from here, or do we think about donor fees just continuing to grow off this elevation in base through the coming years? Look, I would not assume that donor fees will continue to grow. I think as the economy continues to, you know, improve in terms of mobility for people and getting out, as Omicron, you know, starts to wane a bit, and we see the movement of, you know, the population going around, I think the donor fees can stabilize. We are, as you say, experimenting. I'd say we're you know, we've got a strategy around it as opposed to, you know, experimenting sounds like, you know, we're not sure where to go, but I think we are. It's just a matter of trying to make sure that the number of new donors that come into the system support the growth in the base of the donor base. What we've seen is a lot of new donors, because a lot of the higher fees were in what we call applicant donors or new donors, and that's overwhelmed the system in terms of new donors that then were not being necessarily retained for future donations. They were coming in for the one-time hit. We're really focusing more now on retention because we're getting new donor flow, but it's about the retention and the sustainability, the adherence of plasma donations that we're working on. I think we're looking at how that happens and what are the right incentives to keep people coming back, because that's the main thing. We need a sustainable donor base that continues to return, not just a one-off for the, you know, the initial applicant donors that come in the door. We still need new donors, and you need a certain percentage to fuel growth in your donor base completely, so that's really where we're focused, is the retention and really the experience, because that's what it's all about, the retention. That has to do with employment in the U.S. as well, because if you're understaffed, people wait longer. We put a lot of effort into our employee base and making sure that we can even maintain our staff because the environment in the U.S. is quite dynamic for, you know, workers in the retail space and in this type of environment. There's a lot of incentives by other companies, not plasma companies necessarily, but other companies in general trying to recruit people to work. We have to work across the ecosystem of plasma, its employees, its donors, its cost, its experience. It's all of that that we're working together to reduce. You know, the donor fees themselves, I think will moderate, and I don't think we're gonna see a huge increase in donor fees. Thank you. Just on inventories, I've noticed a reasonably large provision you've taken there in the half, AUD 181 billion. Could you just talk, Joy, to what's driven that? Perhaps just a clarification question. The raw material balance is up 20%. Is that all cost or is there a little bit of volume in there, too? Thank you. Thanks, Chris. To your second question, the raw materials will include both cost and volume, as both, you know, volume's coming back but at a higher cost. I don't think there's anything particularly to be concerned about in the provision. The flu season in the northern hemisphere was quite a bit later than previously, and there'll be some of it will reflect in that. Then of course, back on plasma, the cost per liter at the end of the year will reflect the higher cost, right? I think it's more of a revaluation of inventories that we do. Nothing to be particularly concerned about. Thanks a lot. The late flu season, as Joy alluded to, is really about, you know, the uncertainty around returns is what we're talking about for the second half as well. That's correct. Thanks, Chris. Next question comes from Gretel Janu at Credit Suisse. Go ahead, Gretel. Thanks, Mark, and good morning, all. I just wanted to touch on the new Terumo plasmapheresis device. We heard from Haemonetics that you have extended a contract with them. Can you provide any further detail here? How quickly do you anticipate to roll out the Terumo device once approved, and will you potentially be running at double costs during the rollout? No, I don't. There won't be double costs. You know, you're replacing equipment as you go, and really the extension is just to ensure. You know, we've had a very good relationship and still do with Haemonetics, and we're still using their machines in Europe and our European centers as well, and we're still using them in all of our centers today. It's really about the 510(k) and making sure we have the approval. Of course, the one thing you don't wanna do is to, you know, stop with the machines and go. There's nothing sinister about it. It's just planning to make sure that we have what we need when we need it. The machine itself is great. There's no problems there. You know, we have to think carefully about the rollout because you're basically changing the engines on the plane while you're flying, when you're implementing this type of a broad change in your plasma center. It's really a matter of caution and making sure that we've got everything lined up, but nothing sinister about it. Okay, understood. Just going back to the growth margins for Behring. I understand the comments you just made before there, Joy, that it will bottom out in this next half. When will we return back to pre-COVID levels? Will it stabilize at a much lower level going forward? Well, it's a good question, but I'm not sure we know the answer to it, Gretel. You know, it will be dependent on a whole range of variables, including how quickly plasma collections continue to return, what the overall donor fees stabilize at going forward. That'll be the biggest drivers. Yeah, time will tell. Do we expect gross margin improvement in FY 2023? We're not gonna provide too much guidance on FY 2023 today, Gretel. You know, I think what we would say is, we can see the bottom of the gross margin for Behring in the second half of this year. You know, compared with last year, it'll be between two and three percentage points lower than last year. Next year, when we get closer to it, we'll let you know. Understood. Thank you. Thanks, Gretel. Next question comes from Andrew Goodsall at MST. Go ahead, Andrew. Thanks very much for taking my question and welcome back to Australia. I'm just gonna try and understand in your IG business, just a sense of where volumes were versus price. Just understand that mix and what does Hizentra form as a percentage of the volume. Yeah. Most of the decline was in volume. Yeah. It's clearly because of the plasma collection. When you look at the volume, I think it was around 15%. 15. 15%-16%, somewhere in that range. When you look at the 9 down, a lot of it is the shift and mix shift. Obviously we've continued to highlight our benefit on Hizentra, because there's benefit there. Then really the shift in terms of pricing in some of the markets. As we've looked at Europe and moved there, we've seen better price in Europe and Asia Pac. Australia was a big contributor compared to last year because we've renegotiated contracts here and you know, it's a developed market here in Australia and you know, they understand the value of the medicine that they're purchasing. That was a big lift for us as well, which helped a lot. The intercontinental region, you know, there was also good price appreciation. You know, some of the other markets that have been short of IG, knowing that the U.S. is not tremendously short of IG at the moment. We're making sure that all of our markets are taken care of. Price overall, you know, when you take a look at price, you know, you can figure globally, you know, we had an increase in kind of the mid-single digits, you know, but that varied country to country. Sorry, I just missed the 15% reference there. I'm not sure what. That was in volume. Volume. Okay. Yep. Yes. The total between that and the sales gives us a sense of where price was. Yep. The follow-up question, just China albumin, I know you were constrained, you said, in I think it was the U.S. on albumin. Was that constrained in this period? Or were you able to redirect supply to China and take advantage of the price there? Yeah, look, we're always looking at the various markets, Andrew, and I would say that we were able to get the product over to China. We're in good shape there. The demand is clearly still there. Probably just to clarify, was that, you know, I guess would there have been a point where you could have supplied more if supply comes back on? Well, sure. I think both albumin and IG, you know, there's high demand for both these products. Now, you know, trying to reconcile the numbers between albumin and IG, you know, they never are in lockstep. You know, we always talk about balance leader, but they're never percentage-wise because of the volume you're extracting of each. It's not never one to one. I can tell you the markets are looking for more product for sure. Great. Thank you very much. Mm-hmm. Thanks, Andrew. Next question comes from Saul Hadassin at Barrenjoey. Go ahead, Saul. Thanks. Good morning to you all. If I start, Joy, just to pursue the guidance question again. Fully appreciate your comments about seasonality with Seqirus and also the Vifor transaction costs, a larger component second half. Just working backwards from the full year guidance, it still suggests that Behring will have a particularly weak second half as well. I just wanted to get a sense of how much is that OpEx phasing, particularly around sales and marketing costs falling in the second half versus, say, you know, further decline of revenue for Behring into second half versus first half. Because liters are still, you know, below where they might have been in first half if you go back six to nine months. Can you just clarify if that's a cost pressure issue or if there's actually still revenues are yet to bottom out in Behring? Thanks. Yeah, thanks. The answer is a bit of both actually. I mean, I think on revenue, you know, broadly flattish is what we would say for Behring. On costs, you've got to remember, we're investing in Vifor in sales and marketing. You know, we're continuing to invest quite heavily across the R&D portfolio. You know, more broadly, the cost structure is heavier in the second half than the first half, which I think is pretty consistent with the prior year. I mean, I would've thought the prior year split is not a bad way to think about it. Okay. Thanks for clarifying that, Joy. Just one other follow-up for you. Some very big movements in some of the working capital accounts, which, you know, leads a big working capital headwind. I know we see this in first half historically because of Seqirus. Is that all it was, a very strong Seqirus result and that should wash through in second half? I think it will wash through. It is more than Seqirus. Seqirus is a big chunk of it, particularly in the receivables line. Are we still on? Yep. Okay. On inventory, that is, you know, that's as we've been talking about, that's higher cost of plasma and also returning volumes. We just had some one-off things last year that haven't repeated this year. A little bit of a triple whammy there. I think what you'll find is, the full year working capital number will make some more sense for you. Great. Thanks very much. Thanks, Paul. Next question comes from David Stanton at Jefferies. Go ahead, David. Thanks very much and good afternoon, everyone. If we could talk to collections in January, February 2022, I noticed that you said growth in the new year has been encouraging. Wonder if you could give us a bit more color as to how exactly encouraging compared to pre-COVID levels, please? Thanks, David. Look, clearly, a bit better than pre-COVID, but I would say that, I mean, than last year, but not back to pre-COVID yet. Exactly when those lines will cross, it's hard to say. We did see a little dip, not only seasonality in December, but Omicron, not only from donors but our employee base of people being out. Of course, that impacts the ability to move people through the centers faster. We also had some big weather issues in January. You know, as we started through the first part of January and the end of December, there was a bit of a downturn, but that's all recovered. We've seen in the last, you know, number of weeks, more and more collections coming back and gaining on where we were prior. We're very optimistic. All of the measures we've taken, I mean, you always have these things, especially in December, January, and February. We also have the tax refund checks coming back in February, which, you know, is always a bit of a headwind for plasma collections because people have additional cash that's come in. But all in all, everything that we see in the centers in terms of the improvement in donor flow, getting our employee base back stabilized, Omicron starting to wane, all of that has been encouraging to us. The new marketing and the digital work that we're doing with the donor app and really getting donors prepared to donate prior to coming into the center, so that they can fill out their information and their donation pre-application getting them into the beds and out has been going very well. We're very encouraged by it all. Again, the plasma team has just been, you know, working night and day to make sure that this happens. We all understand the importance of it. Understood. Thank you. If I could talk about the recalls that you may be assuming for Seqirus into the second half. Usually, we hear of sort of mid-teens recalls in volume. Sorry, I'm getting a bit of feedback here, but mid-teens recalls in terms of volume. What should we be thinking really for the second half of FY 2022? Should it be above that, below that or in line with that sort of mid-teens number going forward, please? I wish I knew David. The returns, you know, not recalls. We don't, you know, we haven't had recall problems, but returns. I would say, you know, we always are looking at that, you know, 11%-14%. You know, it could some years it's been more, but it was a late season, right? In terms of delivery and in fact, some of our competitors were late in delivery or down in delivery in the U.S. as well. We saw, you know, Sanofi and really have some problems delivering in the northern hemisphere, in the U.S. particularly. That was interesting. We're just trying to understand how much actually got into arms, which we don't know the answer to yet. People were still buying late in the season, which told us that there was a good demand. You know, we always kinda hedge a little bit because it's never an exact science. I would say that, you know, low double digits, you know, in terms of is kind of where we're thinking. Thanks, David. Thanks for that answer. Next question comes from Steve Wheen at Jarden. Go ahead, Steve. Yeah, thanks very much. I just had a follow-on on that flu provisioning. Paul, you've mentioned in the past that you've been making some efforts to recontract or at least change the terms of contracting with your customers with flu shots, as to the amount that they can return. Just wondering if you've had any success with that, particularly given how successful you've been with FluLaval and Fluad? Yeah. Thanks, Steve. We have made some inroads there. You know, it's not transformative yet because, you know, these contracts take time to negotiate through. And it's hard to do in, you know, six months prior to the season. We have made some strides with some customers that, you know, have been very helpful at least at lowering the amounts, but not necessarily all of it. You know, we're continuing to look. A lot of it is really the channel. If you're more in physician offices, there's very little returns versus the large scale big box pharmacies. When you're dependent on Walgreens, CVS, you know, Rite Aid, these types of groups, it's a bit more difficult. However, if you're in more of the private market or if you're in DoD or CDC, you know, there's no returns. It depends on where you are in the market. Those prices are also lower. We also wanna be in the higher price markets because of the differentiation of the product. We're making progress, but it won't be transformational this year. Got it. I think I'm allowed a second question. Just on the Terumo device that's the 510(k) case being submitted. I'd assume you've had a look at that. In sort of comparison to what Haemonetics is offering with its Persona platform, where they talk to 9%-12% type yield enhancements. Is this your time for catching up on the yield front, given you've stayed on the PCS2 platform, with this Terumo device? Is that what you're looking forward to once that's approved? I'd say there's more to be put out on what exactly we're gaining with Terumo. I would say that, you know, again, we've worked very closely with Haemonetics, and even though we've been on PCS2, we've seen yield improvements on PCS2 because we worked with Haemonetics on some of the initial work on some of their chips and devices themselves. I wouldn't say we're behind. You know, you can read all the data and you can read all of the things in the news, but I can tell you, I don't think we're behind on yield. Right. Thank you. I think there are other things we need to focus on besides just that piece of the yield out of the machine per se. There are things we've done in our process as well with sampling and other things that, you know, we've been able to get good recoveries, not just the plasmapheresis machine itself. Thanks, Steve. Thank you. Next question comes from Sean Laaman at Morgan Stanley. Go ahead, Sean. Thank you, Mark, and good afternoon, Paul, and good afternoon, Joy. Hope you're all well. First question, Paul. If you could just help me square this up. I was just wondering what might be happening on patient numbers with respect to immunoglobulin. I mean, ultimately, if demand can't grow faster than supply, but volumes are quite negative, is that having an impact on patient numbers? Unless there's, I guess, sort of a big bunch of inventory sitting around in industry which I don't understand is the case. So if you could help us understand what's happening or how are patients managing in a diminished supply environment is the question. Thanks for the welcome back, Sean, and I hope you're well, too. I would say that in the U.S., so if you take it market by market, in the U.S., there's really not a shortage of product in the U.S. today of IG from what we've seen in the channels, from what we've seen in terms of, you know, the supply from all of the manufacturers of IG, right? When you look at that and you say, "Okay," because that would be the biggest noise, right, coming out of the U.S. are the largest user. They have the largest volume. That's because, as you know, over the last two years, people have moved a lot of product to the U.S., right? From that perspective, I'd say the demand is still there and the patients are being fairly well taken care of. There's also supply in the channel, right? When you look at the distributors and the home care companies, it's not like they don't have any inventory. They do have inventory. It's not a massive supply, but it's enough to cover the patients and actually add new patients as well. Part of what's going on in the U.S. is there has been less diagnosis of some aspects of PID particularly, so primary immune deficiency, because these patients have not been getting infections because they've been locked up or, you know, very afraid to go out as you know, infection is one of the main things that they worry about. I would say that we're starting to see more patients going back and being diagnosed, and so that'll continue the growth and the demand. Obviously SID, you know, as more patients are and we've seen kind of the movement in the cancer areas of again, patients not necessarily during COVID, you know, getting everything they needed from a treatment perspective. The hospital's overwhelmed with COVID patients, and so surgeries and diagnosis rates have dropped a bit in some of those areas for SID. So that's something to look at. CIDP, you know, the new guidelines and the actions there. Again, you need patients coming into the office to get diagnosed and to get movement. But we are seeing new patients getting treated. You know, we have seen that the supply that we're putting into the market in the U.S. is getting utilized. It's not like people are hoarding it or it's overwhelming the supply chain in terms of inventory. Now, having said that, when you go to other places in Europe and Asia and international, they're all asking for more IG. The patients probably there are not getting all of the amount that they want. The underlying demand, we think, is still very, very strong in that, you know, high single digits in terms of IG growth globally. A lot of that is obviously still in the U.S., but a lot of it is outside of the U.S. I feel very confident that IG and, you know, the demand is there. It's really a supply issue from a global perspective that we need to address. Of course, everybody wants to talk about the U.S. because there's more data, there's more interest. It's the largest market, and so that's where everybody focuses. I think we need to think more globally here. Great. Thanks, Paul. Very full answers. Second question, in relation to that. You know, you used to talk about, I guess, what people in the industry used to talk about, normal growth in a normal environment for volume, I think in the range of 6%-8%. Then I step back and look at the industry and everyone's rolled out a lot of collection centers. It doesn't seem that the pandemic has really slowed that down at all. I guess donor fees are elevated and some might be more attractive to people as economies open up. The industry is, you know, set up to collect a truckload of plasma. Therefore, potentially produce a truckload of immunoglobulin once all that washes through. What that leads me to question is what's the shape of the recovery? You've seen that volume demand has kind of led to, and we just mentioned not in the U.S., but has led to some depression in patient utilization. Would you be more thinking that we'd see a return to that 6%-8% growth off this lower level? Or do you think that because the industry is set up to collect so much more plasma, that it won't get back to a level, you know, in the next year or two years? Sean, look, my view, and this is, you know, you can talk to all the competitors and the other folks. In doing this a long time, prior to COVID, you know, people were not collecting enough plasma, right? We were opening up 40 new centers a year. We were, you know, trying to keep up with the demand that was out there. As I said, I don't believe that demand has fundamentally gone away. People are now behind in terms of plasma collection. To catch up and then continue to grow, it's gonna be a number of years before we reach any kind of, you know, issue in terms of supply. There's a lot of companies saying they're opening new centers. You know, I'd say if you go out and you take a look at what's actually being opened, they've improved, but they're not opening as many as we are, right? I would just say that if you see me stop opening centers, that's when you should start thinking that there could be a problem with that underlying growth rate. Remember, my comment has always been, if it's growing at 8%-9% and with the nine-11-month lag time, you better be collecting at about 12% if you wanna be a leader and grow in the industry, because just keeping up is hard enough. I hear what you say about the truckload of plasma, but then you have to look at their manufacturing capacity, their fill finish capacity, you know, the other things they're involved in. I mean, certainly Grifols and ourselves and Octapharma are, you know, very big on the plasma side. Takeda is a very good competitor, but they have a whole another business they're working on as well. We're still looking to innovate so that if there is, you know, something to look at in the future in terms of other ways of extracting IG and, you know, our yield programs and everything else, you know, there's more to do here, and there's more from a technology standpoint. It's not, you know, my father's plasma business anymore. We have to think, you know, from an innovation standpoint, we have to think of the demand that's underlying, and we have to think about what the future will bring. You could take what you said, Sean, and just say, "Okay, you're right. You know, everybody's lined up for plasma. Maybe we should start cutting back. That's, I don't think that's the answer. Patients are still waiting. Thanks, Sean. Next question comes from Craig Wong-Pan at RBC. Go ahead, Craig. Thanks. Just wanted to clarify the comment that was made about new donors not being retained. Did that occur in the first half 2022 period, or was that occurring before that? During first half 2022, you were focused on retaining those new donors. It occurred when you started raising applicant donor fees to the levels that you saw the industry go to. You know, when donors are coming in for the first eight donations, they're getting $1,100, they're kind of moving around a bit because they'll shop the price because after that, those first eight donations or the, you know, which could be in one month, some it was two months, but, you know, you could actually get to eight donations in a month if you donate twice a week. You know, they would then the donor fees came down. We had to really think long and hard about how quickly do we drop that donor fee for somebody to continue to donate. Part of that is the experience, as I mentioned, and some of it is the fees themselves. If they went to another center, they're a new donor in that new center, you know, the next month. There was some of that going on as well, and that was some of the retention issues. Some of it was because they didn't have the right experience. If your staffing was lower and the wait times were too long, and they went down the street and they were better staffed, then, you know, maybe they felt the experience was better. There were multiple things that were affecting it, but it really is about the retention. I mean, you have to get them in the door to start with, and you need that new donor base to build your base. You do have to think about the long-term retention. That's a thousand different things that you have to do right in the center to retain those donors. The donors that are donating throughout that first half 2022 period, do you think that is the sort of a good base now that you can rely on going forward? Or is there still that sort of trend occurring, I guess, was what I was trying to get at. Look, there's always a new donor rate where donors leave, and that happens no matter what. It's happened my whole career. You have a retention problem when you have what I would call naive donors coming in because they've never donated. A lot of the donors that we see now have donated in the past, but they've lapsed, so they come back as an applicant donor, and they know what the donation process is about. In the past, we had to worry about educating people about plasma donation. I think the donors are a little bit more in tune with what the plasma donation process is. Some were looking at the fees and saying, "Okay, you know, this is a good opportunity, you know, in the gig economy to donate plasma as opposed to, you know, other ways of generating revenue." I think it's a combination of things. I see this as a new start and a new base. I think we're doing a good job now at the retention of these donors coming through. Okay. Just the next topic, on the Mexican donor ban, just if that appeal fails, what are the avenues from there for further appeals? Like, are there further opportunities there, or what could be the potential implications if that appeal fails? Yeah, look, I don't want to put the cart before the horse. I think we have a very strong case. I think, you know, we're very optimistic about our ability to push on this. We've had discussions at higher levels in government and FDA about plasma, you know, collection and opportunity for patients and those sorts of things. I think we're looking at all avenues. We're looking at other avenues as well to see, you know, what ways we can attract donors in those local towns as opposed to, you know, just rely across the Mexican folks with their Border Crossing Cards coming in to donate. There's a number of things I can't really talk too much about at the moment, but you know, because of where we are right now with the litigation. Okay, sure. Thank you. Next question comes from David Bailey at Macquarie. Go ahead, David. Yeah, thanks, Mark. Afternoon, everyone. Just on, I want to follow up on the comments around the additional collection centers being added. If you look at slide 11, you know, you highlight some issues there around staffing collection centers, but we are approaching kind of pre-COVID levels. I was just hoping to understand in a bit of detail just of the 80% year-on-year improvement, how much of that was from new centers and what like for like trends might be doing? Yeah, I mean, some of it is new centers from last year. I mean, when you open a new center in the first half, you're not gonna have anything that's coming through the pipeline in terms of, you know, in terms of massive volumes, out of 18 centers, in the fleet, because you have to look at each individual center. We've had some centers that we staff that, you know, had a couple of hundred donors in the first month. They were able to get a couple of hundred donors come in. That's really good. Typically it's bits and pieces, and it takes, you know, about 2.5-three years to get it full up to speed in terms of where we're trying to get to from a donor population within a particular center. They all contribute, but as a whole, it's more of our established centers and getting them back to the donation levels that they were at before. Okay. Just further on the gross margin aspect, apologies, but you know, you've got donor fees being elevated, but higher throughput into you know, through the collection centers and through your fractionation facilities would imply better gross margins at 23. Just following up on Steve's question earlier, to the extent that the Terumo is approved and there are yield benefits to be had, were you thinking about that as a benefit for fiscal 2024? Look, I would say when you look at the gross margins, as we talked about, and you don't have to apologize for the question, David, but I would say that, you know, we expect that, you know, we will bottom out this year and that things will start to improve next year. We can't tell you exactly how much because we're not gonna guide to 2023. I can tell you that, you know, we are looking at overhead recoveries, both through the plants, through the plasma collection centers, through our cost base. It won't be any worse. You know, we've got many initiatives across the organization, not just in plasma and manufacturing, to improve the margins, right? We have to be more efficient in a lot of areas. That includes our I&T work that we're doing in terms of our digital transformation. That includes really the looking at our G&A, making sure that we're staffed appropriately. The partnerships that we've established with other companies like Capgemini, you know, all of these things are gonna come into play, and there's costs right now that we have to, you know, absorb going through that. I also think that as Vifor comes on, you know, that'll be included in results as well. There's gonna be probably some mixed and additional questions that you'll have next year about what's driving what. Stay tuned. We'll get all those ready for you. Thank you. Thanks, David. Ladies and gents, we are coming up close to time, but we should have enough time for a couple more questions. John Deakin-Bell at Citi. Go ahead, John. Thanks, Mark. Paul, perhaps a slightly longer-term question. You talked about growth in the business going forward. You're still a growth company, and one of the big drivers of growth over the last 10 years has been the specialty business. I think averaging kind of 15% odd growth per annum for 10 years. The last three halves have been 2%, and you've got obviously the HAEGARDA and Behring kind of wash each other out, so that part's not growing. You've had some manufacturing problems, and Kcentra has been growing. Can you just give us a sense now longer term, whether we should expect the growth rates to get back to where they were, or is this now going to be a lower growth segment of the business? It's a good question, John, but I would take, you know, the segment and break it apart because, as you say, I think, you know, there are different pieces of specialty. It's kind of a catch-all in terms of some of these product portfolios. So when you take a look at, for instance, HAEGARDA and Behring, you're absolutely right. It kind of bottoms out. But we're going from on-demand to prophylaxis. So the value proposition for growth is still quite robust in terms of the trade-off between the patients there going from on-demand to prophylaxis. I think that the value proposition for HAEGARDA obviously is much higher. Kcentra continues to impress. I have to say. It continues to expand, continues to grow. We haven't had manufacturing issues with Kcentra. It's still growing in double digits. I can remember back in 2013 or 2014, people were worried that, you know, we'd go X growth on specialty within two years, and it just continues to deliver from Kcentra and HAEGARDA. Xembify's been an issue. You know, we had manufacturing problems. It was a good driver, a good contributor. It went off the rails when we had the manufacturing issues because we couldn't supply. That's been fixed. We're moving into the second half. Now it's really up to the commercial team to get back in and regain patients. I see that that will assist us in terms of growing because we'll be off of, you know, very small levels of Xembify where we were before. I think the specialty continues to grow. When you look at things like garadacimab, you know, you're gonna again see a change in the portfolio of products for HAE, for IPF, for other things, for a Factor XIIa inhibitor that can, you know, potentially be a game changer for us in that. We almost have to disrupt ourselves at times, and I think that's part of what you are not afraid of doing when you're an innovative company. Look, I think there is plenty of room for growth, John, going forward, and I'm really excited about what we're doing with the company from many standpoints. Thanks, Paul. Just to clarify on albumin. I'm slightly confused. You said kind of overall plasma volumes down 15%, and you've managed to grow your sales 1%. I'm just wondering, you know, obviously price could be an impact, but just explain the difference. Just this talk now you've had for a few halves about China volume growth mid- to high-single digits. You know, it used to be double-digit. Can you just give us a sense of whether that's changed? Sure. Well, it's off a bigger base, right? You know, it's still really good growth. I mean, it's kind of like when the China economy and people said, "Well, it's dropped to 6%." Well, it's still a pretty big place, and so there's still good growth. That's number one. I think that the movement in China has been severely impacted by COVID. People have not been able to get to the hospitals and get infusions and that. We think it's going to return back to that level, you know, quite readily as COVID subsides. The 15% was not in plasma. It was in IG, right? And so you don't get the same grams of IG as you get out of albumin from plasma. What I was saying is that, you know, you can't look at IG and say, "Well, you know, why is it different than albumin?" It's never been the same. The plasma was not the 15%. It was the IG was down 15% in volume, not plasma itself. Got it. Okay. Thanks very much. Yep. Thanks, John. Ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately we have run out of time. I recognize there are a few more questions online. Feel free to give me a call afterwards and we can have a chat. We'll need to draw to a close. Thank you for your interest in CSL, and I'll now close the meeting. Bye-bye.