Steven Cutler: Well, I think Patrick, we’ve said pretty clearly that RFPs have been up in the last couple of quarters, so we’re seeing plenty of opportunities. We’ve got the 1-2-5, 1-2-6 this quarter. My expectations would be at a similar number for Q4. There may or may not be other BARDA or COVID type work in there. But if there is great, if there isn’t, I think we’ll still be around that number. You should stop thinking about this as a one-off. We have a number of large pending proposals or projects in the hopper, I suppose, and some of them come through, some of them don’t, some of them get delayed, some of them get pushed up. As I said, we’ve got more of this BARDA work in the hopper as well. I think in the next, but maybe not fourth quarter, but in Q1, Q2 next year, we will get decisions on that.
We feel like we’re in a good position to win that sort of work, whereas I think the premier vaccine developer in the industry, I think that’s well known. I think you can expect a similar sort of number, that’s certainly our aspiration, our expectation for Q3 based on those increased opportunities that we’re seeing, as I said, broad-based across the industry.
Patrick Donnelly: That’s really helpful. And I guess another ’24 before ’24 question, just given, again, the book to bill this quarter, the fact that you’re talking about COVID as a percentage being flat next year, if you can do another one-two-five in 4Q, that seems over the historical period, that type of book to bill would typically imply something a little more in the high single digit growth, particularly given COVID not stepping down. Any change to that framework, just when you think high level about what the book to bill implies for next year? I appreciate it.
Steven Cutler: Sure. It really will come down to the composition of the work and what sort of work we get to win. If there are some vaccine studies in there, then you’re right. We would be pushing up more towards the high single digits. If it’s more oncology work or slower burn work, then we may be a little different. It really depends upon what happens in the next couple of months, as we get towards the end of the year. And as I said to, I think it was Patrick’s question, was we’ll sit down, we’ll sit down and work out, okay, what’s the composition of backlog? What are the expectations? Is there any rescue work in there? Is there any vaccine work in there? And how do we think about prosecuting it and then executing it? And that will essentially determine what we come back to you in January with from a guidance point of view.
Patrick Donnelly: Very helpful. Thanks Steve.
Steven Cutler: Okay.
Operator: Thank you. We will take our next question. Your next question comes from the line of Casey Woodring from JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Casey Woodring: Great. Thanks for taking my questions. So you mentioned high single digit RFP growth on a trailing 12 month basis. Curious, what was that growth rate in the quarter? And then if you could break that up by customer in the quarter. Curious if SMID RFPs continue to grow month over month as they had over the first six months of the year. And then just curious, if some of that deliberate decision making you’d seen in SMID has even improved quarter-over-quarter, I think underlying funding trends had at least stabilized in the SMID market. So I just wanted to get your updated thoughts on that customer segment.
Brendan Brennan: Okay. Just to clarify, I think we’ve talked about RFP growth being graded in the last two quarters. So Q3 and Q2. I think that’s where we’ve talked about some nice uptick on the RFP. So it’s not on a trailing 12 month basis. It’s more on a more recent basis than that Casey. In terms of, the opportunities across the sort of large or SMID, I mean, it’s been, I keep saying it’s been pretty broad based. SMID, biotech, large pharma, again in the last two quarters in that sort of high single digit range. And those opportunities have been solid. And we’ve seen decisions being made within a reasonable time frame, etc. So it is what it is. The market seems pretty constructive to us across the different segments, large, SMID, and the biotech. And so I’m not sure I can say any more than that.
Casey Woodring: Got it. And then just a follow up on the pharma budget piece. Given where we are in the year, how those conversations trended in terms of large customer cost cuts, that was mentioned earlier, but doesn’t sound like those cost cuts will necessarily hit R&D spending at the moment. But just, is there any indication that if macro doesn’t improve here soon that R&D spend could be, the next kind of cost cutting measure from those customers or are those kind of more insulated? Thank you.
Brendan Brennan: Yes, I mean, we see the same information that you do in terms of, R&D budgets and, where they are going forward and what the likely growth is there. we’re seeing four, five, 6% sort of as a market growth number. Our experience with specific customers is similar, one or two, of course, as you well know, we’ve got some specific challenges in the very short term, but where they’re partners, as I said, we believe we can provide some solutions for them. We can help them to reduce some of their cost, but also not necessarily reduce our revenues, because they can help us by consolidating some of their spend. And so, I just say, when these sort of things come out, it’s not always bad news. In fact, it’s often, we come out of it fairly positively.
So, I’m optimistic that as we go into the budgeting season that we’ll be able to maintain or even improve our share of wallet within some of our larger customers and be an even better partner to them in terms of helping them to be more efficient, irrespective of the model that they’re prosecuting or the spend that they have to provide.
Casey Woodring: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. We will take our next question. Your next question comes from the line of David Windley from Jefferies. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
David Windley: Hi, thank you. Thanks for taking my questions. A few probably cleanups. Brendan, on the answer on the debt cost that you gave the 100 million potential reduction in interest expense, is that purely cost of debt change, or is that assuming some reduction in cost of debt and then applying cash flow to reduce debt balances as well?
Steven Cutler: Yes, we’ll have a look. I do think obviously it assumes continued debt pay down in the back end of this year. Dave, as we get into the first quarter, yes, probably in that quarter as well, then we’ll have a look at where the overall market is sitting, both from an interest perspective and also what we can get away from if we get the investment grade pieces. Obviously, we’ll be looking to move to investment grade bonds type structures. So, it will be a combination of those things. But in the short term of the next six months, yes, absolutely, we’ll be continuing the debt pay down.
