Bausch & Lomb Corp (BLCO) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning, and welcome to Bausch & Lomb's 3rd Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to George Gatkowski, Vice President of Investor Relations and Business Insights. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our third quarter, 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. Participating on today's call are Chairman of the Board and Interim Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Tom Appio, and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Sam Aldosuki. In addition to this live webcast, a copy of today's live presentation and a replay of this conference call will be available on our website under the Investor Relations section. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that our presentation today contains forward-looking information. We would ask that you take a moment to read the forward-looking legend at the beginning of our presentation as it contains important information. This presentation contains non-GAAP financial measures and ratios. For more information about these measures and ratios, please refer to slide 1 of the presentation. Non-GAAP reconciliations can be found in the appendix to the presentation posted on our website. The financial guidance in this presentation is effective as of today only. It is our policy to generally not update guidance until the following quarter, unless required by law, and not to update or affirm guidance other than through broadly disseminated public disclosure. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Tom.

Thank you, George, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. Before we begin, I want to say how honored and energized I am to serve as interim CEO of Bausch & Long. Having spent a good part of my career with the company, I have developed a deep understanding of our business, our markets, our products, and most importantly, the exceptional global team who drive our success. That experience gives me confidence in the strength of our organization, the trust our customers and patients place in us, and our ability to execute against our priorities. I am excited to lead Bausch along through its next phase of growth and value creation. Today's presentation will follow a familiar format. I will start with a few thoughts on my history with the company and my priorities as interim CEO, then share some perspective on our third quarter performance. Sam will review the quarter in greater detail before we turn to the performance of our businesses and the opportunities ahead. I have spent enough time at Bausch Elam to understand both what makes this company successful and where we can improve. I have seen the strength of our portfolio, the resilience of our business model, and the power of our customer relationships. I have also seen opportunities to operate more effectively and unlock additional value. As interim CEO, my priorities are straightforward. First, we are focused on identifying opportunities to improve profitability and operate more effectively across the organization. Vision 27 established a clear path for improving the financial profile of this business, and we will continue to build on the progress we have already made. I believe there is still room to enhance how we execute, allocate resources, and drive returns from the investments we have made. Second, we remain committed to meeting or exceeding the targets we laid out in our three-year plan. The progress we have demonstrated this year reinforces our confidence in the strategy, and we will continue to balance growth, margin expansion, and cash generation as we work towards those objectives. Third, we will continue advancing our pipeline and investing in innovation, from dry eye solutions and surgical technologies to the next generation of contact lenses. Our future growth depends on bringing meaningful innovation to patients and eye care professions. This commitment remains unchanged. Taken together, the goal is simple. Build a stronger, more profitable company while continuing to invest in the innovations that will strengthen our competitive position and improve outcomes for the customers and patients we serve. This quarter represents another milestone for the company. It marks the fourth consecutive quarter we have delivered against the commitments we outlined at Investor Day, demonstrating our ability to drive growth, expand margins, and strengthen the financial profile of the business. In the third quarter, we grew constant currency revenue by 8%, increased adjusted EBITDA by 34%, and expanded adjusted EBITDA margin to 23.6%. That is a result of disciplined execution, strong commercial performance, and the actions we have taken over the last several years to strengthen the business. What gives me confidence is not just the quarter itself, but the consistency of the performance we have delivered over the past year. We are building momentum across the business, and the trajectory is encouraging. One of the things I find most encouraging about the quarter is the breadth of the performance. We are seeing growth across all three of our business segments. Pharmaceuticals grew 11 percent, surgical grew 9 percent, and vision care grew 6 percent on a constant currency basis. Just as importantly, that growth is being driven by strong performances across multiple franchises rather than any single product or market. MyBow continued its strong trajectory. Lumify delivered another quarter of impressive growth, and our contact lens portfolio remained a key contributor to growth led by Infuse and Ultra. In surgical, we are also seeing continued momentum from premium IOLs. Reported growth in the quarter approached 70%, with our premium offerings continuing to gain traction. We believe there is significant runway ahead, both in terms of adoption and what these products can contribute to the business over time. Earlier, I mentioned that we have now delivered four consecutive quarters against the commitments we outlined at Investor Day. This slide helps explain why we are confident in our ability to meet or exceed the targets we have established. Over the last four quarters, we have consistently achieved strong revenue growth while expanding profitability at an even faster rate. That is exactly the type of operating leverage we said we expected to generate as the business scale and our strategic initiatives gain traction. Importantly, this is not the result of a single quarter or a single action. It is driven by the breadth of our portfolio and the work we have done to scale the business more efficiently. The progress we have made over the past year gives me confidence in the path we are on. It also reinforces my belief that there are additional opportunities to improve execution, enhance profitability, and create even more value over time. With that, I'll hand the call over to Sam. Sam?

Thank you, Tom, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, please note that all of my comments today will be focused on growth expressed on a constant currency basis, unless specifically indicated otherwise. In addition, all references to adjusted EBITDA will exclude acquired in-process R&D. Today marks our fourth quarterly report since our 2025 Investor Day, and the results provide clear evidence of the momentum we have built across the business. Revenue grew 8% in the quarter, while adjusted EBITDA increased 34% on a reported basis, bringing our adjusted EBITDA margin to 23.6%. That combination of growth and margin expansion translated into a strong cash generation, with $233 million of operating cash flow and $178 million of free cash flow in the third quarter. As a result, we reduced net leverage to 4.1 times. This is the progression we laid out on Investor Day. Grow revenue, expand margins, convert the performance into cash, and reduce leverage. One year in, we are delivering on our Investor Day targets, and our results give us even greater confidence in the path ahead. Turning now to our financial results on slide 8. Total company revenue for Q3 was $1.375 billion, up 8%, with broad-based growth across all three segments. Foreign exchange was a headwind to revenue of approximately $6 million in the third quarter. Now, let's turn to detailed results across the segments. VisionCare third quarter revenue of $774 million increased by 6% with growth in both consumer and contact lenses. The consumer business grew 6% in the quarter. Lumify generated $66 million of revenue, up 38%. The consumer dry eye portfolio delivered $115 million of revenue in the third quarter, up 3%. Eye vitamins, Preservision, and Occuvite delivered $95 million of revenue in the quarter. We saw continued strength in consumer demand, with the positive trends exiting Q2 carrying through the third quarter and consumption growing at 6% in Q3. Contact Lens delivered another strong quarter, with revenue up 6%. Daily Psi High continued to lead the way, growing at 25%, while Ultra was up 17%. Both the U.S. and international markets contributed to the strong performance. The U.S. was up 9%, and international was up 4%. Moving now to the surgical segment. Third quarter revenue was $234 million, up 9% versus the prior year. Implantables grew 40%, with premium IOLs up 75%. This is another clear indication of the progress we're making in transitioning the portfolio to higher-margin premium categories. In the third quarter, equipment was down 11%, which reflects our continued focus on strategic system placements to position us for future pull-through sales. Consumables, the largest part of the surgical portfolio, were up 5% in the third quarter. Pharma delivered another strong quarter, with revenue of $367 million and growth of 11%. U.S. Pharma grew 14%, led by continued momentum in DryEye. The DryEye Pharma portfolio was up 22%, with both Miibo and Zydra contributing to the performance. Miibo remained a standout performer, with revenue increasing 42% to $119 million. Zydra generated $89 million of revenue, up 2%. International Pharma added to the performance with growth of 3% in the quarter. Now, let me walk through some of the key non-gap line items on slide 9. Adjusted gross margin in the third quarter was 64.7%, up 300 basis points year over year. This includes a one-time tariff refund of approximately $14 million. Excluding this benefit, adjusted gross margin was a strong 63.6%. We are executing on the gross margin plan we outlined at Investor Day, driven by favorable mix from higher margin brands and the results of our productivity initiatives. This is a credit to the strong execution of our manufacturing and supply chain teams. In Q3, we invested $91 million in adjusted R&D as we continue to advance our pipeline. In the third quarter, adjusted SG&A margin continued to trend lower, building on the significant progress we made in 2025 and through the first three quarters in 2026. Our lower fixed cost structure has driven 150 basis points of year-to-date improvement and positions us to continue expanding operating leverage through the remainder of 2026. Third quarter adjusted EBITDA was $325 million, up 34% year-over-year on a reported basis, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 23.6%, up 460 basis points year-over-year. In Q3, we generated $233 million of operating cash flow and $178 million of free cash flow, with CapEx moderating as expected to $55 million. This was our strongest quarter of cash generation since the IPO in 2022. Our strong performance drove net leverage down from 5.7 times a year ago to 4.1 times at the end of the third quarter. With substantial progress already achieved, we are increasingly confident in our ability to achieve our 3.5 times target that we outlined on Invested Day. Net interest expense was $93 million for the quarter. Adjusted EPS, excluding acquired in-process R&D, was $0.34 in Q3, a substantial increase versus $0.18 in the prior year quarter. Now, turning to our 2026 guidance on slide 12. Our momentum continues in Q3, driven by strong execution and a healthy eye care market, and we are now raising guidance for the third time this year. With one quarter remaining, we are raising full-year revenue guidance by $10 million to a range of $5.450 to $5.550 billion. This reflects $15 million increase in the underlying business outlook, partially offset by $5 million of lower-currency tailwinds. The updated revenue guidance reflects full-year constant currency growth of approximately 6.1% to 8%, which is 30 basis points above our July guidance. We're also raising full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance by $65 million, so a range of $1.090 to $1.140 billion. At the midpoint, our guidance implies an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 20.3%, which is about 130 basis points above our full-year 2026 outlook provided at Investor Day. In terms of the other key assumptions underlying our guidance, for the full year 2026, we now estimate a 40 million revenue tailwind from currency, down from approximately 45 million previously, as exchange rates have moderated. We now expect adjusted gross margin to be in the range of 62.5% to 63%, up from approximately 62% previously. R&D investment is expected to remain in the range of 7.5% to 8% of revenue. Below the line, our expectations for interest expense and CAPEX remain unchanged. We continue We continue to expect interest expense of approximately $365 million and full-year CAPEX of approximately $285 million. We now expect the adjusted tax rate to be approximately 18%, slightly below our previous outlook of 19%. Our strategy and disciplined execution continue to demonstrate significant and sustained margin expansion. As we close out the year, we remain focused on advancing toward our three-year investor day targets. Slide 13 highlights the meaningful margin expansion progress we've made since investor day, reflecting the strong execution and commitment of our team. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 17.5% in 2025, and at Investor Day, we set a 2026 target of approximately 19%. Our updated full-year guidance now implies an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 20.3%, about 280 basis points of expansion versus 2025. And importantly, 130 basis points above our investor day target. One year into our three-year plan, the business is delivering results with increasing momentum, and we are clearly tracking ahead. We are proud of our progress and confident in the path ahead. None of these results would have been possible without the dedication and commitment of our colleagues across the organization. And I want to sincerely thank them for everything they do. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Tom.

Thanks, Sam. Earlier, I talked about the breadth of our performance. Let's take a closer look at what is driving the growth across each business. My Bo and Zydra continue to serve as the cornerstones of our dry eye portfolio. My Bo revenue grew 42% to $119 million in the quarter, while Zydra grew 2% to $89 million, further strengthening our position in one of the largest categories in eye health. What stands out to me is the franchise we have built. Mybo continues to expand its presence in the market, while Zydra remains an important treatment option for eye care professionals and patients. Together, they give us two differentiated brands with the important roles in a large and growing category. We continue to see strong underlying consumption across our consumer business. U.S. consumption grew 6% in the third quarter, demonstrating continued momentum across our portfolio. Lumify remains one of the standout brands in the business. Reported revenue grew 35% in the quarter, adding to a remarkable track record of growth. What is particularly impressive is that we are more than eight years since launch, yet Lumify continues to deliver consistent growth. That kind of durability is rare, and it speaks to the strength of the brand and the demand we continue to see from consumers. And with the next generation of Lumify expected to launch in the first half of 27, we believe there is more opportunity ahead. What stands out to me about our contact lens business is the strong performance of the total portfolio led by Psi High daily and monthly lenses. Our daily Psi High portfolio grew 25% on a constant currency basis in the quarter, building on sustained growth across our contact lens offerings. That consistency speaks to the strength and durability of the business. At the same time, we are continuing to invest in the next generation of innovation, such as Project Halo. While we're still early in the development process, we believe this first-of-its-cons bioactive lens material has the potential to further differentiate our portfolio and create a meaningful new growth opportunity over time. When I look at this business, I see a category that is performing well today and one that has the potential to become even stronger in the years ahead. Earlier, I highlighted the strong growth we are seeing in premium IOLs. The slide provides a closer look at what is driving that performance. Our premium offerings are gaining traction, and we are seeing a clear shift toward these technologies. This is an important part of the opportunity we see in surgical, not only to grow the business, but to improve the mix and profitability of the portfolio over time. We believe there is significant runway ahead as we drive broader adoption and continue bringing differentiated technology to surgeons and their patients. One of the things that has impressed me since stepping into the role is the breadth of the pipeline we have built. Across each of our businesses, we are encouraged by the opportunities ahead and their potential to support sustained growth over time. Building that pipeline took significant investment, a lot of work across the organization. Our job now is to make sure we are advancing opportunities with the greatest potential to make a difference for eye care professionals and patients while being thoughtful and disciplined about where we invest. We will continue to prioritize innovation because it is fundamental to the long-term growth of the company. At the same time, we will be rigorous about how we allocate resources with a focus on the programs we believe can create the greatest value over time. Before we open it up for questions, let me come back to where I started. I am excited to be leading Bausch & Lomb at this point in the company's journey. We are performing well. We have clear opportunities to continue driving margin expansion and create additional value, and we have an impressive pipeline that can support growth well into the future. I want to thank the global team for everything they have done, and I look forward to working alongside them to build on what we have accomplished and take the company even further. With that, we are happy to take your questions. Operator, please open the line for Q&A.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Patrick Wood at UBS. Patrick, your line is live. Please go ahead.

Beautiful. Thank you so much for taking the questions and everything this morning.

You know, from my perspective, taking a step back, I mean, the numbers, obviously, you guys crushed it. Margins, growth, pretty much across the piece. Clearly, you know, the strategy has been working well, and I'd love to hear more about that. But I guess the obvious question on my side is, therefore, what was it that made you feel like a change was the right thing to do in terms of leadership and the board composition, just any color around the thought process around that, given things are clearly going very well? Thanks.

Yeah, Patrick. Hi, good morning. Thank you for the congratulations. I can take that question. You know, I think that the way we need to look at it is, you know, Brent and the board mutually agreed, you know, on this leadership transition as the company, you know, enters, you know, its next phase of growth. So I'm not prepared to talk about anything that was more than what was in the press release and the 8K filing. What I would say is the company, you saw the performance and the product portfolio, you know, clearly four strong areas, you know, on the contact lens side, the consumer side, the surgical side, and the pharma side. I've, you know, I joined Bausch & Long back in 2010, so I have a really strong understanding of this business and the team. So, you know, as we move forward, you know, the focus is going to be to drive operational excellence, and in my prepared remarks, I talked about some of the things that we can work on to get better on as we move forward. What will be critical as we go forward is, you know, our R&D pipeline. I talked about that in my prepared remarks as well and how we're allocating those resources and getting those very interesting projects through to conclusion and get the data that we would need to file them. So, you know, overall, I'm really excited about the future, and as we look forward, you know, there's a lot of things that this team has been doing that we can continue to build on. Operator, next question?

Certainly. Your next question is coming from Young Lee from Jefferies. Young, your line is live. Please go ahead.

All right. Great. Thanks for taking the question. I guess maybe just to follow up on that. First off, welcome back to Belco. You've been there for a long time, since 2010. Definitely had a front row seat to all the changes in recent years. I guess I wanted to hear a little bit more about what you're going to be doing differently. It definitely sounded like there's more focus on profitability. But also, how will you be splitting time between BHC as well as Belco?

Yeah, thanks for the question. What I could say is this, is, you know, given the fact, if you look at this company, when you go back years ago, it was together, okay? So, you know, splitting time is, I don't think, is going to be an issue. So, of course, you know, we'll have to manage that accordingly. What I would say is as we look at the future, okay, and going forward, you know, Vision 27, as Sam said in his prepared remarks, we're, you know, a third of the way through. So it's to drive, you know, Vision 27, you know, to meet or exceed those targets that were presented approximately a year ago. The second is to focus on the customers and the patients we serve. That is critical as we move forward, and we'll continue to work on that. I mentioned during the last question is focusing on delivering the R&D pipeline. The pipeline has been built over the last few years. Investments have been made. You know, how we're going to allocate those resources into each of those projects and making sure that each of them, you know, has the resources and clearly can get to the end point because, you know, in some of what was discussed in Vision 27, Some of that is coming. And then, of course, that will drive future growth at the end of the decade. I want to focus on continuing to drive the top line. The top line is critical. And then we talked about this already, improving the margins and the operational efficiencies that need to be had there. As you know, in this space, especially with our portfolio of products, manufacturing, the changing of the regulations, continuing to have to invest behind all of those portfolios, so be able to invest behind our facilities and also at the same time driving efficiencies. I think that when we look at SG&A, there's opportunities to drive SG&A savings that will drive more to the bottom line. That will be helpful, so I'll be spending some time there with all the teams, both on the selling and advertising side, along with the G&A from the functional side, to see where we can gain further efficiencies to improve the bottom line. You know, clearly, as I've always said, it's, you know, profitable growth is critical. You have to be able to have a leveraged P&L. Sam and I have talked about this, you know, many times. And then the last two things is, you know, focusing on the capital allocation, you know, what that is and the balance sheet. And, you know, I think that Sam can point to that as well. You know, we have to, you know, reduce our debt. And therefore, there's decisions to be made of where you, you know, apply capital and where you reduce debt. And then lastly, M&A. Still, if we look at the portfolio, there's probably, you know, again, this is only two weeks in. There could be gaps in the portfolio that we will need to take a look at. There could be things out there that we want to bring in, but we also have to bring those in, you know, from an accretive basis, and that will be the focus as well. I don't know, Sam, you would just want to comment anything on, you know, the balance sheet or what we want to do?

Yeah, no, thank you, Tommy. It's been a really important part for us and Young, as you know, when we set our targets, three-year-old targets, we set three-and-a-half times leverage for the balance sheet. It's really been focused, and you see the evidence of the work. When we announced that on Investor Day last year, we were saying roughly about 5.7 times. We've seen right now the improvement we're seeing today at 4.1 times, which is really remarkable in that period of time in just a year to be able to drop down to that level. There's more room for us to go. I think our focus is still at the three and a half times, I think really makes that three and a half times very achievable as we plan forward, and that's going to be a number one priority. But investing in the business comes in second after that from a capital allocation, as well as Tom mentioned, and either investing organically or inorganically. But the key is going to be really how you can actually drive the right ROI behind those investments in both ways and make sure that we keep driving the business from the top-line growth.

Okay. Operator, next question.

Your next question is coming from Lawrence Beigelson from Wells Fargo. Lawrence, your line is live. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning. It's late calling in for Larry, and thanks for taking my questions. Really strong quarter. My question's really on EBITDA. It's two-part. I mean, you beat in Q3 very strong, even excluding the tariff refund. You raised the guidance for 26 on EBITDA. Talk about what were the key drivers of the Q3B and the raise, and perhaps importantly, you set a target, EBITDA margin target, of 23% in 2028, and that's up roughly 600 basis points or so from 25. A year in, you're nearly halfway there. So how do we think about the remaining path to 23% and maybe there's potential to kind of exceed that target? Thank you.

All right. Good morning. So it's a very good question, and it's many parts. So let me try to unpack it here as we go through. And if I miss any of the parts, just tap me on the shoulder and let me know. So let me start with just focusing on the quarter first. And I want to just reflect on what we were able to achieve in the quarter because it's been remarkable, and it's been a journey, and the team have done a really fantastic work across the board. It really all starts from the top line, right? We set a really ambitious and sort of goal for us, a high bar on the top line, and the commercial team has been doing a really good job delivering, and we saw that with the 8% constant currency growth. But then as you go work your way down the P&L, gross margin has been just remarkable for us. And I call that the tariff. It's a one-time. It was about $14 million. You see the impact is roughly about 100 basis points or so on the gross margin. But when you look, excluding the tariff, we're saying roughly about 62.6% gross margin. That's up from 61% last year. Great improvement. A couple of parts here, I'll say, in gross margin. And the product mix played a really important role for us. The growth that we've seen around the strategy around execution, the growth around MIBO, you've seen the numbers around MIBO with 42% growth in the quarter. You've seen the IOLs around the premium IOLs with the really great growth that we're seeing there with 70 plus in the quarter. And you're seeing Lumify was hitting at 38%, with DeFi High hitting at 25%. So all the key elements of the portfolio that drives high margin has been growing really in a nice trajectory, and that's really driving product mix. That being said, the supply and manufacturing team have been doing a really nice job with what we refer to as the execution of the Vision 27, Which is what we talked about at Invest today, where the network optimization work have launched, as well as the work around our sourcing and network optimization, as well as vertical integration. And you're still early days on the work, because we still have three years to go as far as the execution of that work to go. But the early signs is really encouraging with the results that you're seeing and the gross margin. Now, as you shift from the gross margin and you look at the OPEX, in 2025, we talked about resizing our fixed cost structure around the OPEX, especially around G&A, as well as taking, I'll call it, the step from a launch phase to a growth mode around our selling and AMP and the commercial spend around that part of it. And we've seen that really drive roughly about 150 basis points this year on the SG&A side. And that's really, again, great progress. Those were the initial steps Tom talked about. There's going to be that part of our focus, and we're continuing to drive more efficiency out of that as we launch new initiatives to be able to still get our 200 basis improvement for the next couple of years. But that's your C, that sort of part of it is driving all into where we got us to the EBITDA numbers that we saw this quarter, which is really great work by the entire team and focused on execution. In terms of the long-term plan, which the way I would say is we're very pleased with the guidance, 20.3% EBITDA margin. That's a really good thing for us, 2026. It probably would be one of the things we will look at as we give 2027 guidance. We'll be able to be, that probably would be the appropriate time for us to be able to talk more about the long-term plan.

Operator, next question.

Certainly. Your next question is coming from Joanne Wunsch from Citi. Joanne, your line is live. Please go ahead.

Go ahead. Thanks for taking our question. Could you maybe characterize a bit more what you're seeing in the market and contact lenses in the U.S. and outside the U.S., and then maybe talk a little bit, you know, about competition? U.S. was up 9 percent. OUS was a little bit slower, 4 percent. Just anything more on that would be helpful.

Yeah, Anthony, thank you for the question. I'll take that, and then maybe Sam can add anything onto it. You know, when I look at the contact lens business, I always thought, you know, this was an underappreciated business by, you know, when you look at it. It's a strong, durable business. If you If you look at the growth that the Contact Lens franchise has had over the previous years, it's a durable performer that continues to outgrow the market. I think when you look at the portfolio in Contact Lens, and I said this back many years ago, if you look at the base business, the FRP business, that is a nice base. And then building off of it, you have the daily sci-hi portfolio. And I think our R&D colleagues in Rochester did a wonderful job when they designed Ultra One Day and Infuse. And if you see that, of course, you look at the growth that that portfolio has been driving. And if you, you know, you look also at the, you know, you have the spherical, you've got the, you have the toric, you've got the multifocal, you've got the multifocal toric. So there's, you know, a lot of runway there to continue to grow as it rolls out across the globe. You know, when you look at the U.S. business, you know, some of our competitors, you know, have challenges, but we don't see that for us. If you take a look at 9% growth well above the market in the U.S., and then from the international side, growing at 4%, but as we look at some of the portfolio, probably more of the legacy portfolio, that has an impact there from an international side. But overall, the contact lens business for us is performing really strong and, as I said, underappreciated in the durableness of this business and the breadth of the portfolio that we have from a daily to the FRP lenses. I think that the other thing, and maybe Yahia can talk about this as well, is Project Halo. This is a very interesting project. I think it's going to be a game changer from a contact lens perspective, and Sam can talk about this as well, and Yahia, in terms of being able to run this platform on existing equipment, which is critical to continuing to drive margin expansion. So with that, let me just turn it over to Sam and Yahia. Maybe they could add to that.

Yeah, thanks, Tom. And let me maybe just focus on the opposite side and the lens side, because I think Tom covered it really nice with sort of the broader view and big picture in terms of what we're seeing. The one thing I maybe take a step back and just remind you, like we're seeing, for example, a daily side high growing at 25% this quarter. And that's coming off double-digit growth in the last two quarters, and that's based on also 28% growth last year. So you're seeing the momentum here around daily side high is just continuing, and I agree with Tom. We're under-indexed in that category, and there's a lot of room for us to still continue to grow, and we're seeing that growth, and the team is doing a great job in terms of the execution and expanding the portfolio across the board. What's also important is the FRP, which I don't want to lose sight of it, because I think we're seeing not only the daily is growing, but you're seeing also FRP is growing, and we saw that it's growing roughly about 17%. This quarter, just keep in mind, that's coming off roughly about 10% growth of last year as well. So, again, it's not a one-quarter type of momentum. You're seeing that momentum continues very nicely. Before I turn to you here to talk about Halo, the one just aspect I will comment on on Project Halo is the fact that we talked about the importance of the cost around the lenses as well as the capital need around a build-out of any type of new lenses. And one of the opportunities that we have here with this new project is you don't need to build out capital intensity that is required because it's going to be on existing lines. And that's a really plus for us, especially from a cash flow perspective. The second part is the starting point of the cost per unit is very attractive, and it puts us in a position that you're not starting with the higher cost and having to work your way down with the yield. You're starting at a lower cost point, which really gives us a very good opportunity from a margin perspective on that product. I don't know if you want to add on anything.

Yeah, absolutely. I can give just an update on the project Halo, which the team have been making great progress on that project as well. Since we reported the results earlier in the year about the first external study, the team actually have done several internal insertion studies in order to optimize the lens design. We're also conducting a lot of tear dynamics studies in order to find this is a completely innovative new material, so to understand exactly how they work in the eye and with the tear homeostasis. So this is work being in progress now. In addition to this, also, we're doing a lot of studies related to the packaging solution, because at the end of the day, we are targeting the end-of-day dryness that affects the majority of the contact lenses that can happen with it. So, this is where the majority of the work is being done now, and we actually don't want to start the next EXPECT study until we are very confident about the design, the tier dynamics, as well as the packaging solution. So, great work being done, and the progress is on track to deliver it as planned before.

So, Anthony, that's just an overall view of the business, but I believe that this is a really nice growth driver for us going forward, and as I said, durable and really need to appreciate what we have. Operator, next question.

Certainly. Your next question is coming from Robbie Marcus from J.P. Morgan. Robbie, your line is live. Please go ahead.

Hey, this is Henry on for Robbie. Thank you for taking the questions, and congratulations on the strong quarter. Maybe looking a bit at surgical, we did see some softness there in the quarter relative to expectations, looking like maybe mostly on the capital, you know, equipment side. Can you talk a bit about what you're seeing in the market there during the quarter, and then I just have a quick follow-up. Thank you.

Yeah, Henry, thanks for the question. Overall, when we look at the surgical business, as we talked about in the prepared remarks and also Sam mentioned it as well, driving the premium IOL business, we think we have a really nice product here in the premium sector that is very competitive. Overall, in the quarter, you looked at just our consumable growth, which again, driving procedures through the providers. What I would say is on the equipment, really, when you look at the equipment, it's a strategy there of placing equipment versus recording revenue. So I think that, you know, that is what has changed the dynamic there as we really are focusing on the premium IOL business and, of course, the consumables. I don't know, Sam, do you want to add anything more to that?

Not much, Tom. I think you said it well. I think when you think about for the last couple of quarters, we've been calling out the placement of the equipment. And it's really part of our own strategy in terms of how we position our equipment in the marketplace. And we're seeing the benefit of that already, and you start to see that the number of placements is high, but that's also the importance of that is also with the expansion of that placement, it also expands our install base, which drives more recurring revenue for us around the consumables. And you saw that really play in the core with 5%, and consumables is the largest part of our surgical business, and it's the highest margin part of our surgical business. So it's really driving down. You see, I know we didn't file the 10Q yet, but when you see the 10Q later in the day when it gets filed, you'll see, for example, the gross margin around surgical was up about 800 basis points in the quarter. So you're seeing that play out from a margin perspective, which is really the strategy that we outlined.

Yeah, I think, Henry, also could add to that, you know, on the premium IOLs. You look at the premium momentum that we've had in the U.S., you know, now, you know, extending into Europe and, you know, with Invista Envy launches. So, you know, you know, the strategy, you know, delivering the top line growth and margin expansion there is the focus. And then, you know, in the quarter was, you know, solid growth in consumables, you know, which is our largest business. So, as we move forward, and as I spend some time with the surgical team, you know, it's only been two weeks since I've been in the role. I'll spend some time with the surgical team. I have a really good understanding of the surgical business globally, and, you know, hopefully really do a deep dive into, you know, what else we can do to further growth.

Operator, next question. Yeah. Certainly. Your next question is coming from Pito Chickering from Deutsche Bank. Pito, your line is live. Please go ahead.

Hi there. Yeah, you've got Kieran Ryan on here for Pito. Thanks for taking our question. I wanted to ask about the pipeline. I guess, Tom, if there's anything you'd want to talk about there that you'd want to highlight or are most excited about.

But more specifically, I wanted to ask if you could provide any updates on the Dry Eye AMD program. I think you have some interesting stuff going on there with an earlier intervention oral. Thanks.

Yeah, Karen, thank you for the question. You know, clearly, you know, innovation is critical, investing behind innovation. There's some very interesting projects that are, you know, in our R&D pipeline. I'm going to spend some time next week with the R&D team, you know, going through each of these projects. But, you know, clearly the breadth of a healthcare company is to have innovation and provide innovation and the relentless drive to create, you know, better health outcomes. And so when I look at, you know, what's in the pipeline, there's various things in each of the areas where we compete that I think are very interesting. And I think the team is working on some projects that, you know, can, of course, are part of Vision 27, but also can help us in the end of the decade and the beginning of the next decade. Of course, you always need to have the data, and you need, you know, of course, you have to prove it, but, you know, that's, you know, that's the business that we're in. I'll hand it over to Ahia. He can talk more specifically about some of the programs. Yeah.

So, first of all, thank you for the question on the pipeline. Let me start by the last part that you asked about specifically, and then I'll give you also a quick update on at least the critical projects that we have. So, obviously, you were speaking about the tonobersat that we issued a press release about meeting with the FDA in the dry AMD or the pre-geographic atrophy or pre-wet AMD stage. This is actually an orally administered once-daily small molecule that inhibits pathologically opening of the connexion 43. These are hemichannels existing, and once it opens pathologically, it creates a lot of inflammatory mediators, like primarily created by inflammasome. And what this product does, it inhibits this type of inflammation. So it works really upstream, and this is a high unmet medical need area because there is no available treatment now for these earlier stages or pre-atrophic stages of AMD. And being an orally administered is a great advantage. In fact, when we met with the FDA, they acknowledged a lot this approach, and they encouraged us that we actually try. I think the whole discussion with the FDA went into the clinical program and how we progress on the clinical program. We are trying several doses in the first study, and some of these doses were not tested before. So that's why they asked us for a PK safety study to start with, which we are planning to start at the beginning of next year. The meeting actually was actually very encouraging from the FDA side towards whether the unmet medical need or even the mechanism of action of this product to work with. The second thing I would like is just to begin to very quick. Well, I think Halo, I already gave an update on it. Some of the critical projects we have, Project Elius is still on track under the FDA review currently, and we are actually still planning to get approval by the end of the year if there is no other issues issued by the FDA. Second, I would like also to mention that we are primarily, from a surgical perspective, we have a pre-submission meeting for the EDOF. We already announced the results of our EDOF study earlier, and we have a meeting that's planned around mid-December for pre-submission on that side. On the vision care, we mentioned halo myopia. We are planning to start the myopia study in the U.S. in quarter four. And then on the other pharma studies, you mentioned also dry eye. We are actually in the phase of planning our phase three studies with the dual action products that we also announced the results. And we are expecting very soon the results of the ocular surface pain post-PRK or post-photorefractive carotectomy, a refractive surgery. So these are the quick highlights of the pipeline, but again, happy to receive any other questions.

Okay, thank you. Operator, next question.

Your next question is coming from Daniel Clark from Lyrinc. Daniel, your line is live. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you, and congrats on the quarter. Wanted to ask about Mybo. Very strong performance there. How should we think about that strength, whether from a volume side or if there are any changes in gross to net, both in the quarter itself and in the fourth quarter and in the next year? Thank you.

Yeah, so when you think about my boy, the performance is really all coming in from the bottom. You all can see the TRXs, and you saw the really impressive TRX growth. We're averaging roughly about 37,000 TRXs, so it's really impressive in terms of the work and the execution that the pharma team was able to do there. From a gross-to-nest perspective, really nothing has changed for 26. We always thought about the gross-to-nest roughly about the mid-70s for MIBO, and that continues to be the same part of our thinking as we think about Q4 as well and the full year for 26.

Okay, next question.

Your next question is coming from Doug Meem from RBC Capital. Doug, your line is live. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good morning. I think most questions have already been answered, but Tom, you're in a very unique position here as CEO of both companies and with a deep knowledge of both those companies, given your history. Is it the best thing for this company to remain public, or should Bosh and Lomb become part of the parent again at some point in the future?

Hi, Doug. Thanks for joining the call. I appreciate it. You know, what I would say is this is, you know, my focus right now as interim CEO is to drive performance, and I laid that out before in a previous question of what my focus is going to be. When we look at, you know, Vision 27, you know, what needs to be done there? It's only, you know, we're one year in to a three-year plan, and, you know, I'm going to stay real focused on driving performance there, you know, on the top line, you know, through the gross margin line, through the expense line, invest in innovation, get those R&D projects through the pipeline, and, you know, clearly we can do some, you know, M&A, That can really, you know, help us to fill gaps and help patients. I think that, you know, overall, if, you know, when we execute on that, it's good for, you know, being all shareholders. And, you know, that's all I can say as I'm in this job now for, you know, two weeks. And I really think that we have a great team around the world that can execute on Vision 27. Thank you. Okay, operator.

Thank you. We are now out of time, and this concludes our question and answer session, and our conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.