Michael Watts
Management
Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of our Management team, I am pleased to welcome you to this conference call to discuss our Second Quarter 2008 Business Results. A press release announcing our results was issued today just after 4:00 PM Eastern Time and is posted on our website at www.genp-robe.com. In our call today, Hank will first provide an overview of our quarterly revenue performance. Carl will cover some strategic and operational items. Then Herm will review quarterly expenses in our revised 2008 guidance. We'll take your questions before warping up in an hour. Immediately after that we will post our prepared remarks on our website for your convenience. Before we begin, let me first review our Safe Harbor policy. Forward-looking guidance, financial or otherwise is only provided on conference calls or in our press releases. Any statements in this conference call about our expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not historical facts and are forward-looking statements. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words and phrases such as believe, will, expect, anticipate, estimate, intend, plan, perceive, could, should and would. For example, statements concerning 2008 financial guidance, financial condition, regulatory approvals and time lines, possible or assumed future results of operations, growth opportunities, industry ranking and plans and objectives of Management are all forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Factors that might cause such differences include but are not limited to those discussed in our SEC filings, including our report on Form 10-K for the ended December 31, 2007, and all subsequent periodic reports. Copies are available on our website, at www.sec.gov, and on request from our Investor Relations department. Gen-Probe assumes no obligation and expressly disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this call, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. With that administrative detail out of the way, I will turn the call over to Hank Nordhoff, Gen-Probe's CEO.