You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: So before we begin, let me briefly cover our safe harbor statement.
Various remarks that we may make about the company's future expectations, plans, and prospects constitute premium statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Security Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
We delivered another quarter of very strong results, and as I reflect on the year, three things stand out to me.
Our proven growth strategy, powered by our PPI business system, continues to drive outstanding financial performance.
Customer demand is strong.
Our core business is performing very well.
We're gaining market share and we continue to play a leading role in the societal response to COVID 19.
And finally, we continue to build on our trusted partner status with our customers.
All of this gives me great confidence in a very bright future as we continue to create sustainable value for all of our stakeholders.
I'll get into more detail in my remarks later.
But first, let me recap the financials.
Starting with the quarter, our revenue was $10.7 billion.
Adjusted operating income was $3.16 billion and our adjusted operating margin was 29.5%.
Adjusted earnings per share was $6.54 per share.
Turning to our results for the full year, we grew revenue by 22% to $39.21 billion in 2021.
Adjusted operating income increased 27% to $12.14 billion.
We expanded our adjusted operating margin by 130 basis points to 31%, and we delivered a 28% increase in adjusted earnings per share to $25.13 per share.
Building on the tremendous success that we had in 2020.
I'm incredibly proud of our team's stellar performance in 2021.
It's really a testament to the strength of our global team and our proven growth strategy, resulting in another year of exceptional financial results and share gains.
Let me now give you color on the results for the quarter and the year, starting with pharma and biotech, with the outstanding performance delivered growth over 20% in the fourth quarter and over 25% for the full year.
In addition to strong market dynamics, these results were driven by a unique customer value proposition and our leading role in supporting our customers across a wide range of exciting therapeutic areas, including our role in supporting COVID 19 vaccines and therapies.
During the year, we saw broad-based strength across our businesses in this end market, including our bioproduction, pharma services, bioscience, chromatography, and mass spectrometry businesses as well as in the research and safety market channel.
In academic and government, we declined in the low single digits during in the quarter against strong demand in the year-ago period and grew in the low double digits for the full year.
During the year, we saw very good growth across a range of our businesses, particularly biosciences, electron microscopy, and our research and safety market channel.
Turning to industrial and applied, we grew in the low teens during the quarter and we grew in the high teens for the full year.
During the year, we saw strong growth in our electron microscopy and chromatography, and mass spectrometry businesses, as well as in the research and safety market channel.
Finally, in diagnostics and healthcare, Q4 revenue was 30% lower than the prior-year quarter, and revenue grew in the high single digits for the full year.
Throughout the year, the team executed really well to support customers testing needs, and in the base business, we had strong growth in our immunodiagnostics and transplant diagnostic businesses.
Before we move to our growth strategy, let me provide a few comments on a role in the pandemic response.
In the quarter, we generated $2.45 billion in COVID 19 response-related revenue.
This was driven by the emergence of the Omicron variant, which led to strong testing demand as well as our significant role in enabling vaccine and therapy production.
Throughout 2021, we continue to operate with speed at scale to meet our customers' needs related to COVID-19 and generated total response revenue of over $9 billion, of which $2 billion were from vaccines and therapies.
I'm very proud of the role that we continue to play around the world to enable our customers and governments to fight the pandemic.
At the same time, we're executing our core business strategy incredibly well.
Let me provide an update on the progress we made in 2021 executing our proven growth strategy, which consists of three elements, as you know.
Developing high-impact, innovative new products, leveraging our scale and the high growth in emerging markets, and delivering a unique value proposition to our customers.
We made outstanding progress in 2021.
Let me share a few of the highlights, starting with the first pillar.
It was a fantastic year of high-impact innovation.
In 2021, we launched a number of new products across our businesses, strengthening our industry leadership and enabling our customers to advance their important work.
In our bioproduction business, we launched a high-performer DynaDrive Single-Use Bioreactor.
Available in sizes up to 5,000 liters, this latest advancement in our DynaDrive single-use bioreactor technology brings the benefits of single-use technologies to unprecedented volumes and performance and ensures consistent scalability from pilot-scale studies through commercial production.
In chromatography and mass spectrometry, we continue to innovate across life sciences research and biopharmaceutical development.
During the year, we extended the impact of our industry-leading Orbitrap platform to bring high-resolution analysis to a range of applications, including toxicology and metabolomics.
And during the fourth quarter, we launched the Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Exploris MX, a mass detector, providing high-throughput analysis to improve the development and production of biopharmaceuticals.
In electron microscopy, we introduced the Thermo Scientific Helios 5EXL wafer dual-beam scanning electron microscope to support the development of increasingly smaller and more complex semiconductors.
And in genetic sciences, our new Applied Biosystems' QuantStudio 7 Pro Dx real-time PCR system, launched in Q4, enables clinical testing laboratories to accelerate molecular diagnostics.
The second pillar of our growth strategy is leveraging our scale and the high growth in emerging markets to create a differentiated experience for our customers.
We continue to strengthen our capabilities serving these markets that will highlight a few examples.
To increase our capacity for single-use technology, we open new manufacturing sites in China and Singapore to serve both local and global demand from biopharma customers.
In South Korea, we continue to enhance our local capabilities with customer-focused innovation centers for both the semiconductor industry and our biopharma customers.
These additional capabilities position us really well to support our customers' needs.
The third pillar of our growth strategy is our unique customer value proposition.
We've continued to significantly accelerate organic investments in our capabilities and added capacity to be an even better partner for our customers.
In 2021, we invested $2.5 billion in capital to meet short and long-term customer demand.
Highlights included expansion of our sterile fill/finish network, bioproduction, enzymes, nucleotide, plasmids, and lab products capacity As always, our PPI Business System and our mission-driven culture were major factors in our success during the year.
They enable the rapid execution of our capital investments and help us find a better way every day so we can continue to bring innovative new solutions to our customers, work more efficiently and effectively, and operate with speed at scale to create even greater value for all of our stakeholders.
Turning to capital deployment, we were very active again this year, which further strengthened our customer value proposition.
We continue to successfully execute our disciplined capital deployment strategy, which is a combination of strategic M&A and returning capital to our shareholders.
In 2021, we were very active, investing $24 billion in M&A and completing 10 transactions to further strengthen our customer value proposition.
This was highlighted by the addition of PPD, which we closed in December.
We're super excited to have our PPD colleagues as part of the company and share their expertise as we work together to enhance innovation and productivity for our pharma and biotech customers.
PPD is performing at a very high level.
The business delivered great results in 2021 and is entering 2022, with outstanding momentum significantly ahead of our original expectations at the time of the deal announcement.
The customer feedback has been extremely positive and we're excited by the pipeline of opportunities that we're building.
We're executing our proven integration methodology, which is a key element of our PPI business system to create value for all of our stakeholders.
We're well-positioned to deliver year three cost synergies of $75 million and $50 million in operating income from revenue synergies, and we're on track to deliver $40 million in cost synergies in 2022.
At the end of the year, we completed the acquisition of PeproTech, a leading provider of recombinant proteins, which is an excellent complement to our industry-leading bioscience business.
In 2021, we also returned $2.4 billion of capital to our shareholders through stock buybacks and dividends.
Turning to a brief update on the progress of our ESG priorities.
I'm very proud that over the past year, we have significantly advanced our environmental, social, and governance initiatives.
Our mission to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer has never been more relevant.
Highlights this year include our commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
This builds on our earlier goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% across our operations by 2030.
Enhancing the reporting and transparency to our expanded corporate social responsibility report and alignment of multiple ESG reporting frameworks.
And we're actively engaging in our community.
Our foundation for science, which more than 100,000 students globally to our STEM education programs.
Our goal is to make a very positive impact in the communities in which we live and work.
With that, I'd like to now review our 2022 guidance at a high level.
And then, Stephen will take you through the details.
We're significantly raising both our revenue and earnings guidance.
This increase is a result of both the strong performance of our core business and an increase in the assumption for COVID 19 testing-related revenue.
We're raising our 2022 full-year revenue guidance by $1.5 billion to $42 billion, which would result in 7% revenue growth over 2021.
And we're increasing our 2022 adjusted earnings per share guidance by $1.07 to $22.43 per share.
So to summarize our key takeaways from 2021, we executed very well to continue our growth momentum and deliver outstanding financial performance.
Our business is performing very well and we're gaining market share.
Our exceptional performance in 2021 and momentum entering 2022 enables us to raise our outlook for 2022, and we're incredibly well-positioned for the future.
Our proven growth strategy positions us to deliver long-term core organic revenue growth of 7% to 9%.
With that, I now hand the call over to our CFO, Stephen Williamson.
For the full year 2021, we delivered 17% organic growth that included 14% organic base business growth and $9.2 billion in COVID 19 response revenue.
We delivered 28% growth in adjusted earnings per share in 2021 and over $7 billion of free cash flow.
All while significantly investing in our company to enable a really bright future.
I'm very proud of what the team accomplished this year.
These results are significantly ahead of our prior guidance.
So let me walk you through the key elements of the beat.
We delivered $2.1 billion more revenue than included in our prior guide.
This included $1.5 billion higher COVID 19 response revenue, $375 million of revenue from the PPD acquisition, and $200 million higher based business revenue.
On our last earnings call, we de-risk testing response revenue in our guidance.
And we said that if any additional opportunities to support customers testing needs, we'll be ready to do so and follow the benefits through our P&L, and that's exactly what we did in Q4.
Then in terms of the base business, in Q4, we delivered 8% base business organic growth, which was 3% points higher than assumed in the prior guide.
This is very good performance, particularly given the four fewer selling days in the quarter.
So excellent momentum on the top line.
Our core business is on a great growth trajectory and we continue to step up and meet our customers' testing needs.
Our PPI business system enable us to generate a great pull through on the very strong revenue performance in Q4, leading to excellent adjusted earnings per share performance.
We delivered $6.54 of adjusted earnings per share in the quarter and $25.13 for the full year.
This is $1.76 ahead of our prior guide to a broad base beat to round out an outstanding year.
Let me now provide you with some more details on our performance.
Beginning with our earnings results.
And as I mentioned, we delivered $6.54 of adjusted earnings per share in the quarter.
And for the full-year adjusted earnings per share was $25.13, up 28% compared to last year.
GAAP earnings per share in the quarter was $4.17.
And for the full year, 2021 GAAP earnings per share was $19.46, up 22% versus the prior year.
On the top line, our Q4 reported revenue grew 1% year over year.
The components of our Q4 revenue increase included a 4% organic revenue decrease, a 6% contribution from acquisitions, and a headwind of 1% from foreign exchange.
And as I mentioned, the base business organic revenue growth in the quarter was 8%.
For the full year, 2021 reported revenue increased 22%.
This includes 17% organic growth, a 3% contribution from acquisitions, and a 2% tailwind from foreign exchange.
The full-year base business organic growth was 14%.
And in 2021, we delivered $9.23 billion of COVID-19 response revenue, which includes $2 billion of vaccines and therapy support revenue.
Turning to our performance by geography.
The organic growth rates by region are skewed by the response revenue in the current and prior year as well as four fewer selling days in Q4 '21 versus the prior-year quarter.
For Q4, North America declined in the low teens.
Europe grew high in the single digits.
Asia Pacific and China grew in the high single digits and the rest of the world grew mid-single digits.
For the full year, North America grew low double digits.
Europe grew over 25%.
Asia-Pacific grew over 20%, including just under 20% growth in China and the rest of the world grew mid-teens.
Tend to our operational performance, Q4 adjusted operating income decreased 10% and the adjusted operating margin was 29.5%, 380 basis points lower than Q4 last year.
For the full year, adjusted operating income increased 27% and adjusted operating margin was 31%, which is 130 basis points higher than 2020.
In the quarter, our PPI business system enables deliver strong volume leverage on the base business and strong productivity.
This is more than offset by the impact of lower testing response revenue and our ongoing strategic investments across our business to support our near and long-term growth.
For the full year, we drove positive volume leverage, and productivity.
We also have a favorable business mix.
This is partially offset by our strategic investments.
Moving on to the details of the P&L.
Total company adjusted gross margin in the quarter came in at 50.5%, 340 basis points lower than Q4 last year.
And for the full year, the adjusted gross margin was 51.6%, up 40 basis points versus the prior year.
For both the fourth quarter and full year, the change in gross margin was due to the same drivers as those for our adjusted operating margin.
Adjusted SG&A in Q4, with 17.3% of revenue for the full year adjusted SG&A was 17.1% of revenue.
An improvement of 80 basis points compared to 2020.
Total R&D expense was approximately $390 million in Q4 and for the full-year R&D expenses $1.4 billion, representing growth of 19% over the prior year, reflecting our ongoing investments in high impact innovation to fuel future growth.
Looking at results below the line for the quarter and net interest expense was $150 million, $16 million higher than Q4 last year, largely due to the PPD financing activities.
Net interest expense for the full year was $493 million, an increase of $5 million from 2020.
Adjusted other income and expense was a net income in the quarter of $7 million, $8 million higher than Q4 2020, mainly due to changes in non-operating FX.
For the full-year adjusted other income and expense was a net income of $38 million, which was $8 million lower than the prior year.
Our adjusted tax rate in the quarter was 13.8%.
This is 220 basis points lower than Q4 last year, mainly due to the different levels of pre-tax profitability year over year.
For the full year, the adjusted tax rate was 14.6%, or 30 basis points higher than 2020.
Average diluted shares were 398 million in Q4, approximately two million lower year over year, driven by share repurchases, net of option dilution and for the full year, the average Dillard's shares were 397 million.
Turning to cash flow in the balance sheet.
Cash flow was another great highlight for the year.
Cash flow from operating activities in 2021 was $9.5 billion, up 15% over the prior year, and free cash flow for the year was $7 billion after investing %2.5 billion of net capital expenditure.
This reflects the strong returns we're generating in the short term and the investments that we're making for the long term.
During the year, we returned approximately $2.4 billion of capital to shareholders through stock buybacks and dividends, and we ended Q4 with $4.5 billion in cash.
Our total debt at the end of Q4 was $34.9 billion, up $13.2 billion sequentially from Q3, largely as a result of the financing activities related to the PPD acquisition.
Our leverage ratio at the end of the quarter with 2.7 times gross debt to adjusted EBITDA and 2.3 times on a net debt basis, and concluding my comments that total company performance adjusted ROIC was 19.8%, up 180 basis points from Q4 last year as we continue to generate exceptional returns.
So now provide some color on the performance of our four business segments.
And let me start with a few framing comments.
The scale and margin profile of our COVID 19 response revenue varies by segment, but it's been consistent throughout the year.
We continue to make strategic investments across all of our businesses.
The size of those investments does not necessarily align with the response revenue in each segment does skew some of the reporters' segment margins.
And during Q4, we had four fewer selling days than the year-ago quarter.
And finally, we recently renamed the Laboratory Products segment to reflect the inclusion of the PPD acquisition.
It's now Laboratory Products in the Biopharma Services segment.
And also going forward, we'll refer to PPD as our clinical research business within this segment.
Moving on to the segment details, starting with Life Sciences Solutions.
Q4 reported revenue in the segment decreased 5% and organic revenue was 8% lower than the prior-year quarter.
In the quarter, we delivered very strong growth in our bioproduction and biosciences businesses.
This was offset by lower revenue in the genetic sciences business driven by lower testing revenue versus the year-ago quarter.
For the full year, reported revenue in the segment increased 28% and organic revenue increased 23%.
Q4 adjusted operating income in Life Science Solutions decreased 14%.
And adjusted operating margin was 48.2%, down 490 basis points year-over-year.
In the quarter, we delivered strong productivity, which is more than offset by unfavorable business mix and strategic investments.
And for the full year, adjusted operating income increased 28%, and adjusted operating margin was 50%, a decrease of 20 basis points versus 2020.
In the analytical instrument segment, reported revenue increased 5% in Q4 and organic growth by 6%.
Growth in the segment this quarter was driven by electron microscopy and chromatography and mass spectrometry businesses.
For the full-year reported revenue in the segment increased 18% and organic revenue increased 17%.
Q4 adjusted operating income in the segment increased 15%, and adjusted operating margin was 22.1%, up 190 basis points year over year.
During the quarter, we saw a favorable business mix and delivered strong volume pull through and productivity enabled by our PPI business system.
That was partially offset by the strategic investments we're making across the segment.
For the full year, adjusted operating income increased 48%, and adjusted operating margin was 19.7%, an increase of 390 basis points versus 2020.
Turning to specialty diagnostics.
In Q4, reported revenue and organic revenue were both 26% lower than the year-ago quarter.
In the quarter, we saw a strong growth in our transplant diagnostics and immunodiagnostics businesses, which was offset by lower COVID-19 testing revenue versus the year-ago quarter.
For the full year, reported revenue in this segment increased 6% and organic revenue increased 5%.
Q4 adjusted operating income decreased 43% in the quarter and adjusted operating margin was 20.5%, down 590 basis points from the prior year.
In Q4, we drove positive productivity enabled by our PPI Business System.
This is more than offset by unfavorable volume mix and strategic investments in the segment.
For the full year, adjusted operating income decreased 6% and adjusted operating margin was 22.6%, a decrease of 300 basis points versus 2020.
Then finally, Laboratory Products and Biopharma Services segment.
In Q4, reported revenue in this segment increased 16% and organic revenue growth was 5%.
During Q4, we saw strong growth in the Pharma Services and Laboratory Products businesses.
And we recognized $375 million of revenue for PPG to clinical research business.
For the full year, reported revenue in this segment increased 21% and organic revenue increased 15%.
Q4 adjusted operating income in the segment increased 42% and adjusted operating margin was 11.5%, which is 210 basis points higher than the prior year.
In the quarter, we drove strong productivity by our PPI Business System and saw a favorable business mix, partially offset by strategic investments.
For the full year, adjusted operating income increased 45%, and adjusted operating margin was 12.4%, an increase of 200 basis points versus 2020.
Let me now turn to our updated 2022 guidance.
Before we get into the details, I'd like to begin with a quick reminder about our definition of the core business, which we introduced at our Investor Day last year and noted we transitioned to it in 2022.
The core includes our base business, the vaccines and therapies response revenue, and the PPD acquisition.
Given the scale of the PPD acquisition at the core, organic growth calculation will include PPD on a full-year basis.
If you think that gives you the best view of how to have a look at the total company business and how it's performing.
For full transparency will also continue to provide total company organic growth when reporting our actual performance in '22.
So moving on to our guidance, as Marc mentioned, we're significantly increasing our full-year 2022 revenue and adjusted earnings per share outlook.
We're raising our full-year '22 revenue guidance by $1.5 billion to $42 billion.
And we're raising our adjusted earnings per share guidance by $1.07 to $22.43.
This very strong raise reflects the excellent strength of the business, and we continue to expect 8% core organic revenue growth in 2022.
Let me now provide you with additional details on the updated guidance, starting with revenue whether four elements drive the $1.5 billion raise.
$1 billion increase in the COVID 19 testing assumption, a $900 million increase for the core business, a $500 million decrease due to the change in FX rates, and a $100 million increase to reflect the PeproTech acquisition, which closed just before the year-end.
In terms of our COVID 19 testing revenue assumption, we're continuing the same de-risked approach to guidance, as is a range of outcomes for the year.
Guidance now assumes $1.75 billion in testing revenue in 2022.
There are scenarios where testing demand could be higher than this level, and should that be the case, we're well-positioned to support customer needs.
And as we did in 2021, we'll follow the benefits of that through our P&L.
But for now, we thought it was prudent to continue to take a de-risk approach to the outlook.
In terms of the core revenue raise, $600 million relates to PPD and reflects the excellent strength of that business and to a lesser extent, the recent gap changes around deferred revenue measurement for acquisitions.
We now expect PPD, a new clinical research business, to deliver $6.5 billion in revenue for the full year of 2022.
This represents 8% organic growth on a full-year basis on top of the 30% growth it delivered in 2021.
And the remaining $300 million of the core revenue raise is to reflect the strong finish to 2021 by the rest of the core business.
Our core business is in great shape.
It ended 2021 with even more scale.
As I mentioned earlier, we continue to expect that it will grow 8% organically in 2022.
To a very strong raise overall for our revenue guidance, and we will use our PPI business system to generate a strong pull through on that revenue.
And we now expect the adjusted operating margin to be 25.4% in 2022 as 20 basis points higher than what we assumed in our prior guidance.
In terms of adjusted EPS, a stronger business outlook is enabling us to raise 2022 adjusted earnings per share guidance from $21.36 to $22.43, further building on an already very strong outlook for the year.
So let me now provide you with a couple of other details in 2022 to help you with your models.
As I mentioned PPD is expected to deliver $6.5 billion of revenue and $1 billion of adjusted operating income in 2022.
This acquisition is now expected to contribute $1.90 to adjusted earnings per share in the year.
PeproTech is expected to deliver revenue of just over $100 million in 2022 and $0.5 of adjusted EPS.
FX is now expected to be a year-over-year headwind of $500 million in revenue of 1.3% and $0.31 from adjusted EPS.
We continue to assume an adjusted income tax rate of 13% in 2022.
We now expect the full-year net interest cost to be approximately $490 million and other income to be $10 million.
We continue to assume net capital expenditures of approximately 2.5 to $2.7 billion and free cash flow of approximately $7 billion.
Our guidance still assumes $2.5 billion of capital deployment, which is $2 billion a share, buybacks that we already completed in January, and $475 million of capital return to shareholders through dividends.
We now estimate that the full-year average diluted share count will be between 395 million and 396 million shares.
And finally, a couple of comments on phasing to help you with the modeling.
In terms of revenue dollars, the assumption in the guide is the revenue dollars are fairly linear for the year, with Q1 and Q4 being slightly higher in Q2 and Q3.
The de-risk assumption for COVID 19 testing used in this guidance assumes that this revenue is very front end loaded in the first half of the year, and then it's an assumed pandemic run-rate level of $100 million of revenue per quarter in the second half of the year.
Organic growth of the core business is expected to be fairly consistent throughout the year.
And in terms of adjusted earnings per share phasing this guidance assumes slightly more weighting toward the first half of the year than the phasing we had last year, with Q1 being about the same percentage of the full year as we had in 2021.
To conclude, we delivered another outstanding year and went great position to achieve our 2022 goals.
We're ready to take questions.

user
compname posts q4 earnings per share of $4.17.
q4 adjusted earnings per share $6.54.
q4 gaap earnings per share $4.17.
q4 revenue rose 1 percent to $10.7 billion.
compname says q4 revenue rose 1% to $10.7 billion.

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