Alcon Inc Q2 FY2023 Earnings Call

Welcome to Alcon's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Yesterday, we issued a press release and interim financial report and posted a supplemental slide presentation on our website to enhance today's call. You can find all these documents in the Investor Relations section of our website at investor.alcon.com. Joining me on today's call are David Endicott, our Chief Executive Officer; and Tim Stonesifer, our Chief Financial Officer. Our press release, presentation, and discussion will include forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future developments except as required by law. Our actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements are included in Alcon's Form 20-F and our earnings press release and interim financial report on file with the Securities Exchange Commission and available on the SEC's website at sec.gov. Non-IFRS measures used by the company may be calculated differently from and therefore may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used in other companies. These non-IFRS measures should be considered along with but not as alternatives to the operating performance measures as prescribed per IFRS. Please see a reconciliation between our non-IFRS measures with directly comparable measures presented in accordance with IFRS in our public filings. For discussion purposes, our comments on growth are expressed in constant currency. In a moment, David will begin by recapping highlights from the second quarter. After his remarks, Tim will discuss our performance and outlook for the remainder of the year. Then David will wrap up and we will open the call for Q&A. With that, I will now turn the call over to our CEO, David Endicott.

Thanks, Dan. Welcome to Alcon's second quarter 2023 earnings call. I'm pleased to report that we had another strong quarter with double-digit sales growth of 12%, core operating margin of 19.9% and core diluted earnings of $0.69 per share. These outstanding results were driven by our competitive product portfolio, favorable market conditions, strong commercial execution and select price increases. We also saw strong performance in Asian markets particularly in China. In Surgical, our diverse portfolio and incremental innovation continued to deliver strong growth in a healthy market. In Implantables, similar to last quarter, we saw the tail end of the Korea PCIOL reimbursement change which increased out-of-pocket expenses for many Korean patients. If we exclude this impact, total implantable sales were up 5%. We have now fully lapped the reimbursement change and expect more normalized comparisons going forward. During the quarter, we introduced Vivity to select international markets including Japan and Canada. Feedback from surgeons has been extremely positive and we're excited to bring our patented Non-Diffractive technology into these important markets. As a reminder, Vivity is the first of its kind presbyopia-correcting IOL that provides patients with monofocal quality distance, but excellent intermediate and functional near vision, all with low levels of visual disturbances. With Vivity and PanOptix, we continue to lead the ATIOL category in the US and international. Importantly, we remain encouraged by the resilience of global ATIOL penetration, which was up 80 basis points versus prior year and up 60 basis points sequentially. This growth was primarily driven by strength in international markets. As anticipated, we're starting to see more entrants in the US IOL market, which will naturally have some impact on us given our significant share position. However, in China where IOL business is under-indexed, we're preparing to launch Vivity later this year, which we believe will help accelerate our share in this important market as it returns to significant growth. In the monofocal space, our Clareon material is helping us to defend our market-leading position. Clareon is the latest material advancement in our 20 plus year history of continuous innovation in IOLs. As the name suggests, Clareon provides exceptional clarity allowing surgeons to deliver long-lasting refractive outcomes. Clareon is glistening-free biomaterial that has among the lowest level of haze and subsurface nano-glistening compared to leading competitive IOLs. Additionally, the Clareon monofocal is available with autonomy preloaded IOL delivery system. Autonomy is designed with advancements intended to benefit both surgeons and patients, its automated delivery mechanism and ergonomic design allow precise and simplified single-handed control of IOL placement. Now turning to equipment. We are continuing to place CENTURION and LEGION devices in international markets as we work through the upgrade cycle of Legacy, Infiniti and other machines. CENTURION with ACTIVE SENTRY is designed with advanced technology to help enhance surgeon confidence with lower intraocular pressure and enhanced chamber stability. Importantly, ACTIVE SENTRY helps maintain stability in the eye by adjusting for fluctuations in intraocular pressure. Our success in equipment also drives growth for consumables in three important ways. First, our growing share of the active equipment install base naturally drives higher consumables demand. Second, as surgeon productivity increases so does the consumption of consumables. And third, as we install higher value machines, there is a natural ASP uplift that drives consumables value. So all these factors, along with select price increases have contributed nicely to our consumables growth. Now closely linked with equipment is our world-class service offering, which we believe is one of the core strengths. Service is a critical component of our portfolio and is often a key factor for healthcare professionals when selecting technology for their practices. Our ability to offer market-leading technologies supported by best-in-class services allows customers to fully realize the potential of Alcon's products, helping them deliver the best outcomes for their patients. Additionally, we're continuing to rollout SMARTCataract and new practices. SMARTCataract is the first of our digital health solutions that empower surgical practices to work more efficiently while delivering optimal outcomes for patients. We specifically designed SMARTCataract with ophthalmology in mind. It seamlessly connects data systems, diagnostic devices and surgical equipment from the clinic to the operating room. Later this year, we're rolling out a series of artificial intelligence-based features that enable SMARTCataract to automatically evaluate patient data and take into account surgeon preference, preferred formulas and lens types to efficiently guide the surgical planning process. This enables surgeons to make optimized recommendations that we believe will help lead to better patient outcomes. Real-world data has indicated substantial time savings and efficiencies for cataract surgery planned with SMARTCataract. We're excited to bring this technology to more practices. Now, I'll turn to Vision Care, where I continue to be pleased with our strong performance in contact lenses and ocular health. In contact lenses, our strategy of investing behind fast-growing market segments where we have significant share opportunities is working out well. As a result, we're outpacing market growth in every category where we have launched new products. I'll start with reusable lenses, where our latest products are TOTAL30 and TOTAL30 for astigmatism. Since launching TOTAL30 Toric earlier this year, we've seen an acceleration in the adoption of the TOTAL30 family, which is now available in the US and Europe. Later this year, we'll launch this innovative lens in Japan. Additionally, we'll further expand the TOTAL30 family in the US and Europe with the launch of our multifocal modality. The reusable water gradient design of TOTAL30 is made possible by the introduction of our proprietary Celligent technology. Celligent mimics the ocular surface to help resist bacteria and lipid deposits. This is what enables TOTAL30 to provide a premium wearer experience similar to DAILIES TOTAL1 but on a monthly platform. Now turning to Daily Lenses, where we saw another quarter of double-digit growth. In particular, I continue to be impressed by the performance of our Toric lenses, including Precision1 and DAILIES TOTAL1 Toric. The DAILIES Toric segment is the fastest-growing segment of the market as it's estimated that approximately one-third of contact lens wearers have astigmatism but only 10% wear Toric lenses. Together, Precision1 and DAILIES TOTAL1 Toric address the mainstream and premium market segments. A recent clinical study evaluating the performance of DAILIES TOTAL1's Sphere with wearers of previously dropped out of contact lenses due to issues of comfort or dryness. This study found that approximately 90% of participants were likely to continue to wear DAILIES TOTAL1 on a daily basis. This is important because preventing wearer drop out by improving the wearer experience represents an important patient feature as well as a sizable opportunity for contact lens value capture for our customers. Now turning to ocular health, we continue to see strong retail, consumer and physician interest in our portfolio of eye drops. I'll start with SYSTANE, our family in artificial tears. A recent study examined the quality of life of high digital device users who are treated with SYSTANE complete preservative-free. This study found a 40% reduction in dryness symptoms in treated patients, and now with these options available in the United States, we're bringing the benefits of preservative-free formulations to even more consumers at a more accessible price point. Moving to Pataday, our family of ocular allergy drops, encouragingly, we're seeing more consumers appropriately select ocular allergy drops to correctly treat their allergy symptoms as a result of our direct-to-consumer educational efforts in the US. In our pharmaceutical eye drops, we're continuing to build momentum behind Rocklatan and Rhopressa with ophthalmologists and optometrists. We're seeing positive uptake of these first-in-class therapies with low-teens total prescription volume growth in the second quarter. Finally, I'm pleased to report that we're making solid progress towards resolving the supply chain challenges in contact lens care. Recall that these pressures started in the second quarter of last year, so we're wrapping around on an easier comparison, and we expect the situation to continue to recover throughout the back half of the year. Now let me provide an update on our end markets. In Surgical, global cataract procedures were up mid-high single digits in the second quarter versus prior year. As I mentioned earlier, global ATIOL penetration was up 80 basis points versus prior year and 60 basis points versus prior quarter. Notably, we're starting to see surgeon productivity improve, which when combined with the patient backlog should be an important driver of procedural growth. We continue to monitor penetration trends closely and are leveraging programs that digitally and conveniently educate patients about their lens options early in their cataract journey. Moving to contact lenses, retail market value was up mid to high-single digits. Similar to last quarter, we saw a steady wearer trade up and meaningful contribution from price. Now before I pass it to Tim, I want to briefly comment on our market outlook for the remainder of the year. On our May earnings call, we indicated that we were planning for a potential slowdown in market growth in the back half of the year. Throughout the first half of the year, global ATIOL penetration was solid, and contact lens trade-ups and price capture were both robust. Now, given these results, we've updated our outlook for the remainder of the year and currently assume that markets grow at or above historical trends. Now with that, I'll turn it over to Tim, who'll take you through our financial results and provide more color on our updated outlook.

Thanks, David. We're pleased to report second quarter sales of $2.4 billion, up 12% versus prior year. This growth was primarily driven by continued strength in demand for our products, including two points of contribution from acquired products as well as solid commercial execution. We also saw favorable pricing in the quarter, particularly in consumables, contact lenses and ocular health. Overall, we estimate that price increases drove approximately three points of our total top line growth. Our second quarter US dollar sales growth included approximately 300 basis points of pressure from foreign currency. In our Surgical franchise, revenue was up 10% year-over-year to $1.4 billion. Implantable sales were $437 million in the quarter, up 2% year-over-year. However, if you exclude the South Korean impact that David mentioned, implantable sales were up 5%. In consumables, our second quarter sales were up 13% to $714 million. This growth reflects favorable market conditions across geographies as well as pricing. We did see strong performance in China during the quarter as the country continues to recover. In equipment, sales of $231 million were up 15% year-over-year due to continued strong demand for cataract equipment, particularly in international markets as we upgrade and expand our installed base. In the quarter, we also saw higher revenues from equipment service. I continue to be extremely impressed by how well our manufacturing and procurement teams have navigated the ongoing supply chain challenges. Thanks to their hard work and expertise, we've been able to manufacture, sell and support surgical equipment worldwide. Given the remaining installed base of Legacy Phaco devices and our strong competitive performance, we expect solid equipment growth in the remainder of the year. Turning to Vision Care. Second quarter sales of $1 billion were up 15%. Contact lens sales were up 10% to $594 million in the quarter. Contact lens growth was driven by our new innovations with meaningful contributions from our recent SiHy launches, including PRECISION1 Sphere and Toric, TOTAL30 Sphere and Toric, and DAILIES TOTAL1 Toric. We also saw a strong contribution from price. In Ocular Health, second quarter sales of $426 million were up 22% year-over-year. Approximately 10 points of this growth were driven by Rocklatan and Rhopressa, which we acquired in 2022. We also saw significant growth in SYSTANE and Pataday, including price. Finally, as David mentioned, we continue to recover in contact lens care and we estimate that channel restocking was approximately three points of growth to Ocular Health in the quarter. Now moving down the income statement. Second quarter core gross margin was 63.8%, up 110 basis points. This growth was driven by higher sales and manufacturing efficiencies from higher volumes, partially offset by a shift in product mix in Surgical, including the impact from South Korea and inflationary pressures. We continue to expect gross margin to be pressured in the remainder of 2023 as we sell inventory that was manufactured at a higher cost base due to inflation. However, on a full-year basis, we continue to expect 2023 core gross margin to improve versus last year. Core operating margin was 19.9%, up 270 basis points. The constant currency growth was primarily driven by higher gross margin and improved underlying operating leverage from higher sales, partially offset by higher investment in R&D following the acquisition of Aerie. Second quarter interest expense was $48 million compared to $31 million last year, driven by higher debt following the funding of the Aerie acquisition and less favorable interest rates. The second quarter core effective tax rate was 19.2% compared to 11.1% last year. This increase was primarily due to the geographic mix of pre-tax income and a lower tax benefit from the build of inventory in certain markets. This was partially offset by favorable discrete tax items in the second quarter of 2023. Core diluted earnings per share were $0.69 in the quarter, up 19% from last year. And before I touch on our outlook for the remainder of the year, I'll discuss a few cash flow and other related items. Free cash flow for the first half of the year was $189 million compared to $233 million last year. This reflects the change in cash from operations as we paid a legal settlement in April, partially offset by lower capital expenditures. Similar to past years, we expect free cash flow to be stronger in the back half of the year. On a full-year basis, we continue to expect an improvement in free cash flow versus last year despite the higher outflows in the first half. Transformation costs were $26 million in the quarter and $340 million life-to-date. We continue to expect to wrap up the entire transformation program on budget and on schedule by the end of the year. Now moving to the 2023 guidance. Our current outlook assumes that markets grow at or above historical averages in the back half of the year, exchange rates as of the end of July hold through year-end, and inflation and supply chain challenges continue through 2023. Based on the strong momentum in the business, we are increasing our year-over-year constant currency sales growth guidance to 9% to 11%. This growth was partially offset by the continuing appreciation of the US dollar against our basket of currencies, which we expect to pressure sales growth by approximately 120 basis points versus prior year. Despite this pressure, we're increasing our US dollar net sales guidance for 2023 to $9.3 billion to $9.5 billion and we're currently trending toward the high end of this range. Moving to core operating margin, we are maintaining the range of our full-year outlook of 19.5% to 20.5%, despite approximately 90 basis points of foreign exchange headwind versus prior year. We now expect interest and other financial expense to be between $230 million and $240 million. For the full year, we expect lower financial expense primarily due to higher interest income. We are maintaining our core effective tax rate guidance of 17% to 19%. Finally, we're raising our core diluted EPS constant currency growth outlook to 28% to 32% due to the strong performance in the first half of the year. This growth is offset by approximately $0.17 of foreign exchange headwind versus prior year. And despite this pressure, we're raising our core diluted EPS guidance to $2.70 per share to $2.80 per share. So to summarize, I'm very pleased with our momentum in the second quarter. We continue to execute well in robust markets, and going forward, we remain focused on accelerating innovation, delivering above market sales growth and driving operating leverage. Finally, I'd like to thank the entire Alcon team for another great quarter. With that, I'll turn it back to David.

Thanks, Tim. To wrap up, we are extremely pleased with the robust results for the second quarter and the first half of the year. They reflect the determination of our associates to deliver market-leading innovation, above-market sales growth and increased operational efficiency. As we look to the future, Alcon is well positioned to capitalize on our strengths. Our broad and balanced product portfolio combined with our leading go-to-market capabilities allow us to better serve the eye care community. By successfully executing our strategy across both franchises, we are further strengthening our ability to advance patient care and deliver long-term shareholder value. With that, operator, let's open the call for Q&A.

Thank you. Our first question is from Veronika Dubajova with Citi. Please proceed.

Hi, guys. Good morning and thank you for taking my questions. I want to start with the US PCIOL comment David that you made about new entrants and some incremental share pressure. Maybe just give us an update on where you see your market share at the moment exiting the quarter and what are the risks that you see that this declines meaningfully from here, if you could just give us some insights into that? And then I'll have a follow-up after that.

Thank you, Veronika. In the US, we hold about two-thirds of the ATIOL market, maintaining that share through the second quarter. In the PCIOL segment, our numbers were up over 80. Over the past couple of years, several new products have entered the market, with two PCIOLs launching last year. While we initially saw a slight dip in PCIOL, we regained momentum after people tested the new options, and they will also try the new offerings in the Toric segment this year. People will experiment with these lenses, and I believe they will eventually find that our lenses perform very well. Overall, we are optimistic about our current performance, which is exceeding our expectations. While there will be some testing of new products, we anticipate steady growth in our business going forward. It's important to focus on penetration rates rather than just market share, as maintaining strong penetration is crucial for us. We saw an increase in the global penetration rate of 80 basis points year-over-year and 60 sequentially, primarily driven by international markets. The volume of procedures in the US also looked strong in the second quarter, which gives us confidence in our future prospects.

Excellent. And just to confirm then David, the way we should be thinking about bit of the softness in Q2 is really you think there's some trialing going on, but you don't see the fundamental competitive pressure in the US PCIOL. Is that fair?

Yeah, that's fair. I think it's exactly as we would have expected it. I think people are going to try new lenses when they come out. There's always a place for price in the market. There's always something new that somebody is claiming. And surgeons want to try things. So they will. And then I think what happens is they figure them out and they kind of, generally speaking, I think, they've come back to where we have I think very, very good offerings that compete well.

Clear. Great. And then if I can just a follow-up. Obviously, we've now had two really impressive quarters in contact lenses. I think you're the fastest growing CL company in the market. I know it's not apples-to-apples but it's the data that we have. Just curious how you're thinking about the sustainability of that momentum. And I'm not really asking about the second half, but as we transition into 2024 and 2025, how far along are you, you think in that journey of winning market share and how much more is left? Thank you.

The market share in contact lenses tends to grow steadily over time. It doesn't shift quickly. Each new patient typically brings us an average of four to five years of value, which is why we are happy with our contact lens performance. We've made strategic decisions regarding product launches and their timing, and we are confident in our manufacturing capabilities for delivering lenses consistently. We believe that we have two or three unique ideas in this space. We now have more Torics than before, which are positively influencing our product range. Specifically, TOTAL30 Toric is helping the Sphere of TOTAL30, and DAILIES TOTAL1 is also seeing growth, with the Sphere growing in its 10th year due to the demand for Torics. P1 has also been successful and continues to perform well. Additionally, we have more new products coming out in this area in the next couple of years, as discussed at Capital Markets Day. Overall, we are optimistic about maintaining our momentum over the long term.

Our next question is from Graham Doyle with UBS. Please proceed.

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Just firstly on equipment, it obviously continues to grow really, really strongly. And at the Capital Markets Day, you gave us a nice sort of showcase of what's coming up in terms of new products. So if you could to give a sense of what you see is whitespace and where you still have left or attack with that new equipment and are we seeing any sort of pull forward of stuff? And then there's a quick follow-up after that please. Thank you.

Thank you for the question, Graham. We're quite enthusiastic about our equipment business at the moment, as it's performing exceptionally well. Internationally, we've surpassed our expectations in terms of competition. While we still have some upgrades to complete, we're also looking forward to next-generation equipment that will introduce a new era of products, likely enhancing our average selling price and offering exciting efficiency opportunities for surgeons. This development should create significant value for both them and us. I see significant potential in areas like microscopes and biometry, and importantly, in what we refer to as the digital movement or ecosystem, which involves transferring data to help surgeons plan more effectively. This process begins in the office where various diagnostic tests are collected, then that information is taken into the operating room, and afterwards, adjustments are made to improve patient outcomes. Our goal is to integrate all these elements uniquely with our lenses and equipment, utilizing artificial intelligence to achieve better results. I believe this will represent the largest opportunity over the next four to five years. Overall, we are very excited about our future in equipment, and we've had a strong quarter as well as a couple of good years in that segment, which bodes well for consumables moving forward.

Great, thanks. And hopefully just a quick follow-up. On dry eye on COMET-2, it looks like that primary completion is sort of mid-July, and typically these types of trials could be a couple of months of data cleaning before you would have that in house. Do you guys have to show that tools once you get it typically with other companies in similar Phase III trials if that has been the case? I know you kind of insinuated it would be more like a Q1 '24 data sharing with the markets? Can you just give us an update on that please?

Yeah, we have actually three studies going on right now and they're all kind of sequentially finishing over the next, I would say, six months or five months, let's just say. Most of that data, I think finishes late this year, maybe early next year. And once we have it in-hand and can look at we'll obviously report out what we've got.

Our next question is from Ryan Zimmerman with BTIG. Please proceed.

Good morning and thank you for taking the questions, David and Tim, and congratulations on your results. I have a couple of follow-up questions regarding the ATIOL space. You've shared what you're working on with adjustable and accommodative lenses in the market. David, considering the current market trends in the US, are you able to provide any timelines for your adjustable and accommodative efforts and when we might see those in the market to help counter some of the competition?

Yeah, we're not in a position right now where we want to lay out exactly when we're coming with adjustable and accommodate. As we said at Capital Markets day, it's late in the plan, it's just slightly outside the plan. So it's going to be a while for us to get what we think is a market-ready product, and I would say the view we have of course is that we've got some terrific lenses with PanOptix and with Vivity. They're kind of unsurpassed in their ability to create a reading for patients. I understand there are other lenses out there that are kind of working through some of these similar kind of adjustability ideas. But as you know, we haven't really figured out whether those are really kind of just niche ideas or whether they're really durable. My sense of it is that we'll find that out over the next coming years, but directionally, nobody is really working on the combination of accommodative and adjustable like we are. And I think we've probably got the right idea, but it's going to take some time. I think over the next, I would say, three or four years, the real magic is going to be in getting the diagnostics and getting the procedure tuned in a way that really performs, and I think that's very likely to happen with our equipment and our lenses. I think we've got a very good combination of things that will move the market along in the PCIOL area.

Okay, fair enough. And then on guidance for Tim, first half revenue and guidance implies essentially no growth in second half '23 despite seasonality. And then at the midpoint, it would be a little bit of a decline I believe on revenue. And so, Tim, just wondering kind of what your thoughts are there given what your underlying assumptions are for the market dynamics in the back half of the year?

Yeah, great question. As we said on the prepared remarks, we expect we're trending right now towards the higher end of that range. If you look at sort of the first half, Asia ran a little bit up, particularly China. So we'll see how that plays out over the course of the year. But we're tracking pretty close to those historical trends. So I would plan on that, and as we gave the guidance, I think we're trending towards the higher end.

Our next question is from Daniel Buchta with ZKB. Please proceed.

Yes. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Maybe the first question on margin phasing. Tim, typically you would like to give a bit of an update what to expect if we say for the second half now, I mean if I understood you correctly, FX at the topline level then for the rest of the year should be relatively neutral finally after 1.5 painful years. Is this fair to assume also then for margins that FX is not a headwind anymore. And how is it with other cost items like R&D, like marketing spend and other topics like that? And then maybe the second question on the outlook for price increases, I mean, the 3% now in the second quarter also meaningful contribution still, have there been any new price hike announcements or can we expect this to fade off for the rest of the year and then 2024 only a minimal spillover effect on the pricing side? Thank you very much.

Yeah. I'll handle the margin one and then pass over the pricing to David. As far as margins go in the second half, they will be a little bit depressed and that's primarily driven by gross margin. So as we said in the prepared remarks, our second half gross margin will be a little bit lower than first half, and that's primarily driven by the fact that we are going to be having higher cost inventory flow through the P&L. So, when you think about the cycle from when we buy the inventory versus when it runs through the P&L, it takes about six months. So we had inflationary pressures obviously towards the end of last year, beginning of this year, that inventory will start flowing through in the second half. We're going to continue to get SG&A leverage. We're going to continue to invest in R&D, you're going to see that heavier spend related to the Aerie acquisition that you saw in the first half. So, but overall, we would expect gross margins to be higher year-over-year and we feel very comfortable with the 19.5% to 20.5% margin rate that we guided at the beginning of the year.

And Daniel, just on price increases. Yeah, we had announced a price increase I think in May, June and that's where we are right now. I think going forward, we'll evaluate what price looks like and what inflation looks like and see what the consumers are doing to try and figure out what we can and can't do. We'll have to make that call as we get later in the year and into next year.

Our next question is from Anthony Petrone with Mizuho Group. Please proceed.

Thanks for taking the question and good morning. Maybe to start off with Dave just on the Surgical backlog, you mentioned in the prepared remarks. Just wondering how deep or how extensive that is as we sit here today and can it be a driver well into 2024? And a quick follow-up there would be just on, not necessarily competition, but the patient choice between monofocal and premium, are there any kind of changing characteristics just from a spend level from those patients? And I'll have one quick margin follow-up for Tim.

I find it interesting to observe the Surgical backlog. We have discussed this for several years, especially due to the impact of COVID, which caused millions of procedures to be delayed or avoided both outside and within the US. We believe this backlog will gradually return, likely experiencing a growth rate slightly above the historical average. We noticed some degree of this in the second quarter, which influenced our revised outlook moving forward. We believe there are many surgical patients eager to return to surgery. We track procedures based on active units, and we observed a significant increase in the number of procedures per active unit, indicating improved productivity, which we find encouraging. It suggests that, while historical growth rates were around 2% to 3% in the US, we might see a rate slightly higher than that for an extended period. The return will involve getting patients back into offices, resuming operations at surgery centers, equipping more operating rooms, and training staff. We anticipate this trend to be sustainable for several years. Regarding the classification of lenses, we remain confident that a significant percentage of patients, around 30% to 40%, are interested in advanced technology lenses, as they provide freedom from glasses and excellent visual quality. Our lenses remain the preferred choice in the US, and we are optimistic about this continuing. We have also noticed improvements in office staffing, and we hope to see long-term penetration progress in the latter half of the year. A 50 basis point increase in the US would be a positive outcome, which is what we are aiming for. Internationally, we expect to perform even better due to starting from a lower base of about 12%, and we are encouraged by the upward trend in penetration.

Yeah, nothing really different from what we talked about on Capital Markets Day. We've got some more lines going in next year, I'd say next year is sort of our next our last kind of big installation phase, if you will. And then as you get to the kind of the '25, '26 timeframe, it's more of just kind of keeping pace with what we think the expected demand would be, but no significant changes from what we talked about at Capital Markets Day.

Thank you.

Our next question is from Lawrence Biegelsen with Wells Fargo. Please proceed.

Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. This is a quick one for Tim, followed by a follow-up. Tim, the operating margins in Q3 were higher compared to Q4 in both 2021 and 2022. Should we anticipate a similar trend this year? I also have a follow-up.

Yeah, like I said, we're going to have a little different dynamic than what we've had historically because of that inflation. So it takes six months to work that inventory through. So I would just take your first half actuals and peg whatever you think you were going to be in that 19.5% to 20.5% range, and I sort of model it that way.

Got it. And then David on Aerie, it looks like it's not 100% clear but it looks like revenues were down quarter-over-quarter. I heard you talk about the teams, I think total prescription growth. Could you give us an update on how Aerie is doing kind of the revenues on a year-over-year basis and just an update on your kind of appetite for M&A and if you're still focused on pharma? Thank you.

Yeah, Larry, actually, now Aerie is up year-over-year and TRx is up year-over-year and share is doing pretty much exactly what we thought so we feel very good about what's going on there. I think if you look to the TRx's in particular, that's probably your best indicator of how we're doing and that's audited data you could find. I think directionally we continue to be interested in it, but we're not anxious about it, we'll be very disciplined going forward about RX. But I do think eye drops is a business that we know well, we're good at and we'll continue to kind of over time add things into that portfolio either internally or externally through our own efforts with the Aerie R&D group, which we're excited about, for example, AR512, we'll see how that does. But I think directionally beyond that, we can come up with some other good ideas that I think add some real value both I guess organically and externally.

Our next question is from Matthew Mishan with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Hey, guys. This is Brett Fishman on today from Matt. Thanks very much for taking the questions. I know it's a little late in the call, but just wanted to ask at a high level, if you could walk through a couple of the factors that led to a change in your view of what the market looks like going into the second half? Like what really changed incrementally in the three-month period that gives you more confidence that recent trends can be sustained for the rest of the year?

I believe the key factors are the underlying fundamentals, particularly productivity per machine in the surgical area. We closely monitor the throughput in operating rooms since we have a substantial share of the cataract equipment. We’ve observed growth in our equipment share and an increase in the number of procedures performed per machine. This suggests that staffing is improving and operating rooms are becoming more active, which we anticipated. On the consumer side, we’ve noticed a consistent return to our product mix, and our demand remains strong, despite earlier concerns in the first half of the year. As we look ahead, we feel confident that any macro changes are manageable within our current guidance. We are trending toward the high end of our expectations, and assuming current conditions persist, we should be in a good position. At this moment, I don’t see any emerging issues that would negatively impact market demand.

Our next question is from Chris Gretler with Credit Suisse. Please proceed.

Thank you operator. Hi, David and Tim. Two questions, the first is on guidance, actually to what degree is your guidance upgrade on top line driven by the improved market assessment and to what degree, is it to Alcon specific factors? And then related to that, why was there no increase in margin guidance given the stronger top line one obviously would have expected some leverage innovative higher sales, could you maybe discuss that quickly? Thank you. And I have a follow-up question on China.

Sure, Chris. I will address the first part, and then Tim can cover the second half. This improvement is really due to strong performances in equipment consumables and contact lenses. Additionally, our eye drops business has exceeded expectations. Implantables are performing in line with our projections. Overall, we are doing better across the board than anticipated, and the market conditions have also improved. At the start of the year, there was uncertainty about consumer behavior, but consumer confidence has remained strong in most markets. Looking ahead for the rest of the year, we are fairly confident that there won't be significant timing issues that will impact us. The markets seem stable, and we are experiencing slightly better than expected performance.

Yeah, and as far as the margin rate, it's really driven by FX. I mean, if you look at the rates as of the end of July and compare them to when we last spoke, the dollar has continued to appreciate. So that's really what's driving the pressure on the margin rate which is why we didn't increase it. But again we're still comfortable with that 19.5% to 20.5% range.

Okay. And then on the follow-up, on China, you broke out about four percentage point contribution in consumables from China, is that kind of just COVID recovery effect or would you expect kind of a more of a structural kind of element to that as the year progresses? Thank you for taking the questions.

The four percentage points refer to the revenue percentage of our total revenue from China, which is included to illustrate our exposure in that market. Many companies are more exposed to China than we are, which is why I wanted to share that figure. We view China as an opportunity and are particularly focused on the market developments there. While we do sell implantables, our emphasis moving forward will be on equipment and consumables. The market has rebounded from a significant COVID impact, and we experienced notable growth in China this quarter following a weak year last year. The resurgence started in late February and continued strongly through March, April, and May, and we hope this trend will persist.

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Dan Cravens for closing remarks.

Great. Thanks everybody for joining us this morning. If you have any follow-up questions, certainly reach out to either Allen or myself and Investor Relations and enjoy the rest of your day. Thanks.

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.