IQVIA Holdings 10-K 2021-12-31

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021

or

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from to .

Commission File Number: 001-35907

IQVIA HOLDINGS INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

4820 Emperor Blvd., Durham, North Carolina 27703

(Address of principal executive office and Zip Code)

(919) 998-2000

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or section 15(d) of the Exchange Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding twelve months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based upon the closing sale price as reported on the New York Stock Exchange on June 30, 2021, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second quarter, was approximately $45.7 billion.

As of February 7, 2022, there were approximately 190,485,264 shares of the registrant’s common stock outstanding.

Portions of the registrant’s Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated herein by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the extent stated herein. Such proxy statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.

IQVIA HOLDINGS INC.

FORM 10-K

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Except for any historical information contained herein, the matters discussed or incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (“Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Such forward-looking statements reflect, among other things, our current expectations, our forecasts and our anticipated results of operations, all of which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, market trends, or industry results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Therefore, any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements and should be evaluated as such. Without limiting the foregoing, the words “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” "forecasts," “plans,” “projects,” “should,” “targets,” “will” and similar words and expressions, and variations and negatives of these words are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words.

We caution you that any such forward-looking statements are further qualified by important factors that could cause our actual operating results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, including without limitation, that business disruptions caused by natural disasters, pandemics such as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, including any variants, and the public health policy responses to the outbreak, international conflict or other disruptions outside of our control; our ability to accurately model or forecast the impact of the spread and/or containment of COVID-19, including any variants, among other sources of business interruption, on our operations and financial results; most of our contracts may be terminated on short notice, and we may lose or experience delays with large client contracts or be unable to enter into new contracts; the market for our services may not grow as we expect; we may be unable to successfully develop and market new services or enter new markets; imposition of restrictions on our use of data by data suppliers or their refusal to license data to us; any failure by us to comply with contractual, regulatory or ethical requirements under our contracts, including current or future changes to data protection and privacy laws; breaches or misuse of our or our outsourcing partners’ security or communications systems; failure to meet our productivity or business transformation objectives; failure to successfully invest in growth opportunities; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights and our susceptibility to claims by others that we are infringing on their intellectual property rights; the expiration or inability to acquire third party licenses for technology or intellectual property; any failure by us to accurately and timely price and formulate cost estimates for contracts, or to document change orders; hardware and software failures, delays in the operation of our computer and communications systems or the failure to implement system enhancements; the rate at which our backlog converts to revenue; our ability to acquire, develop and implement technology necessary for our business; consolidation in the industries in which our clients operate; risks related to client or therapeutic concentration; government regulators or our customers may limit the scope of prescription or withdraw products from the market, and government regulators may impose new regulatory requirements or may adopt new regulations affecting the biopharmaceutical industry; the risks associated with operating on a global basis, including currency or exchange rate fluctuations and legal compliance, including anti-corruption laws; risks related to changes in accounting standards; general economic conditions in the markets in which we operate, including financial market conditions and risks related to sales to government entities; the impact of changes in tax laws and regulations; and our ability to successfully integrate, and achieve expected benefits from, our acquired businesses.

These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors.” If one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if underlying assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results may vary materially from those expected, estimated or projected or as otherwise suggested by the forward-looking statements that we make for a number of reasons. Given these uncertainties, users of the information included or incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including investors and prospective investors, are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof. We assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking information to reflect actual results or changes in the factors affecting such forward-looking information.

GENERAL

When we use the terms “IQVIA,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” or “our” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we mean IQVIA Holdings Inc. and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis, unless we state or the context implies otherwise.

INDUSTRY AND MARKET DATA

This Annual Report on Form 10-K includes market data and forecasts with respect to the healthcare industry. In some cases, we rely on and refer to market data and certain industry forecasts that were obtained from third party surveys, market research, consultant surveys, publicly available information and industry publications and surveys that we believe to be reliable. However, we have not independently verified data from industry analyses and cannot guarantee their accuracy or completeness. We believe that data regarding the industry, market size and its market position and market share within such industry provide general guidance but are inherently imprecise. Other industry and market data included in this annual report are from IQVIA analyses and have been identified accordingly, including, for example, IQVIA Market Prognosis, which is a subscription-based service that provides five-year pharmaceutical market forecasts at the national, regional and global levels. We are a leading global information provider for the healthcare industry and we maintain databases, produce market analyses and deliver information to clients in the ordinary course of our business. Our information is widely referenced in the industry and used by governments, payers, academia, the life sciences industry, the financial community and others. Most of this information is available on a subscription basis. Other reports and information are available publicly through our IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science (the “IQVIA Institute”). All such information is based upon our own market research, internal databases and published reports and has not been verified by any independent sources. Our estimates and assumptions involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change based on various factors, including those discussed in Part I, Item IA, “Risk Factors”. These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the estimates and assumptions.

TRADEMARKS AND SERVICE MARKS

All trademarks, trade names, product names, graphics and logos of IQVIA contained herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of IQVIA Holdings Inc. or its subsidiaries, as applicable, in the United States and/or other countries. All other party trademarks, trade names, product names, graphics and logos contained herein are the property of their respective owners. The use or display of other parties’ trademarks, trade names, product names, graphics or logos is not intended to imply, and should not be construed to imply, a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of IQVIA Inc. or its subsidiaries by such other party.

Solely for convenience, the trademarks, service marks and trade names referred to in this annual report are listed without the ®, (sm) and (TM) symbols, but we will assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights or the rights of the applicable licensors to these trademarks, service marks and trade names.

PART I

Our Company

IQVIA is a leading global provider of advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services to the life sciences industry. IQVIA creates intelligent connections across all aspects of healthcare through its analytics, transformative technology, big data resources and extensive domain expertise. IQVIA Connected Intelligence™ delivers powerful insights with speed and agility — enabling customers to accelerate the clinical development and commercialization of innovative medical treatments that improve healthcare outcomes for patients. With approximately 79,000 employees, we conduct operations in more than 100 countries.

We are a global leader in protecting individual patient privacy. We use a wide variety of privacy-enhancing technologies and safeguards to protect individual privacy while generating and analyzing information on a scale that helps healthcare stakeholders identify disease patterns and correlate with the precise treatment path and therapy needed for better outcomes. Our insights and execution capabilities help biotech, medical device and pharmaceutical companies, medical researchers, government agencies, payers and other healthcare stakeholders tap into a deeper understanding of diseases, human behaviors and scientific advances, in an effort to advance their path toward cures.

We have one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of healthcare information in the world, which includes more than 1.2 billion comprehensive, longitudinal, non-identified patient records spanning sales, prescription and promotional data, medical claims, electronic medical records, genomics, and social media. Our scaled and growing information set contains approximately 56 petabytes of proprietary data sourced from approximately 150,000 data suppliers and covering over one million data feeds globally. Based on this data, we deliver information and insights on over 85% of the world’s pharmaceuticals, as measured by 2020 sales. We standardize, curate, structure and integrate this information by applying our sophisticated analytics and leveraging our global technology infrastructure. This helps our clients run their organizations more efficiently and make better decisions to improve their clinical, commercial and financial performance. The breadth of the intelligent, actionable information we provide is not comprehensively available from any other source and our scope of information would be difficult and costly for another party to replicate.

We combine our proprietary information assets with advanced analytics, transformative technology and domain expertise to develop clinical and commercial capabilities that enable us to grow our relationships with healthcare stakeholders throughout the life science’s value chain. This set of capabilities includes:

• A leading healthcare-specific global IT infrastructure,** representing what we believe is one of the largest and most sophisticated information technology (“IT”) infrastructures in healthcare. We receive approximately 100 billion healthcare records annually, and our infrastructure then connects complex healthcare data while applying a wide range of privacy, security, operational, legal and contractual protections for data in response to local law, supplier requirements and industry leading practices;

• Analytics-driven clinical development,** which improves clinical trial design, site identification and patient recruitment by empowering therapeutic, scientific, and domain experts with expansive levels of information, including product level tracking in 93 markets, and information about treatments and outcomes on more than 1.2 billion unique non-identified patient records globally;

• Robust real world solutions ecosystem,** with sophisticated retrospective database analytics, prospective real world data collection technology platforms and scientific expertise, which enables us to address critical healthcare issues of cost, value and patient outcomes;

• A growing set of proprietary clinical and commercial applications,** which helps our clients increase their clinical operations performance, supports their regulatory and compliance needs and orchestrates their sales operations, sales management, multi- channel marketing and performance management; and

• A staff of approximately 79,000 employees** across the globe, including over 28,000 Technology & Analytics Solutions employees, approximately 42,000 Research & Development Solutions employees and approximately 6,000 Contract Sales & Medical Solutions employees.

• Integration of information, analytics, technology, and domain expertise through Connected Intelligence****,** which enables us to provide our clients with more effective options to address their needs from Research and Development through commercialization as well as truly innovative breakthroughs such as virtual trials and global real-world evidence networks.

Our Market Opportunity

We compete in a market of greater than $285 billion consisting of outsourced research and development, real-world evidence and connected health and technology enabled clinical and commercial operations markets for life sciences companies and the broader healthcare industry. The following sets forth our estimates for the size of our principal markets:

• Outsourced research and development:** Biopharmaceutical spending on drug development totaled approximately $150 billion in 2021. Of that amount, we estimate that our addressable opportunity (clinical development spending excluding preclinical spending) was approximately $81 billion. The portion of this addressable opportunity that was outsourced in 2021, based on our estimates, was approximately $39 billion;

• Real-World Evidence and connected health:** Total addressable market of approximately $60 billion based on 2021 sales that consists of tightly coupled life sciences and healthcare markets. First, the life sciences market for Real-World Evidence of approximately $20 billion includes post-launch evidence generation, market access, and patient engagement services. Second, the market for connected healthcare of approximately $40 billion includes areas such as revenue cycle management, payer analytics and clinical decision support services; and

• Technology enabled commercial operations:** Total addressable market of approximately $75 billion based on 2021 sales that includes information, data warehousing, IT outsourcing, software applications and other services in the broader market for IT services. This addressable market also includes commercial services such as recruiting, training, deploying and managing global sales forces, channel management, patient engagement services, market access consulting, brand communication, advisory services, and health information analytics and technology consulting.

In deriving estimates of the size of the various markets described above, we review third-party sources, which include estimates and forecasts of spending in various segments, in combination with internal IQVIA research and analysis informed by our experience serving these segments, as well as projected growth rates for each of these segments. See “Industry and Market Data” above.

We believe there are six key trends affecting our end markets that will create increasing demand for research and development services, technology & analytics solutions and contract sales and medical solutions:

Growth and innovation in the life sciences industry. The life sciences industry is a large and critical part of the global healthcare system, and, according to the latest information available from the IQVIA Market Prognosis service, is estimated to have generated approximately $1.42 trillion in revenue in 2021. According to our research, revenue growth in the life sciences industry globally is expected to range from 3% to 6% between 2022 and 2026. According to the IQVIA Institute, it is estimated that spending on pharmaceuticals in e

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RISK FACTORS

We operate in a rapidly changing environment that involves a number of risks, some of which are beyond our control. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below together with the other information included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, in evaluating our Company. The occurrence of any of the following risks may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects.

Summary of Risk Factors

Below is a summary of some of the principal risks that could adversely affect our business, operations and financial results:

Risks Relating to Our Business

• Our business and operations may be adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The potential loss or delay of contracts could adversely affect our results.

• Our financial results may be adversely affected if we underprice our contracts, overrun our cost estimates or fail to receive approval for or experience delays in documenting change orders.

• Failure to meet productivity objectives under our internal business transformation initiatives could adversely impact our competitiveness and harm our operating results.

• If we are unsuccessful at investing in growth opportunities and are unable to develop and market new services or enter new markets, our growth, results of operations or financial condition could be adversely affected.

• If we are unable to successfully identify, acquire and integrate existing businesses, services and technologies, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely impacted.

• If we are unable to attract suitable investigators and patients for our clinical trials, our clinical development business might suffer.

• If we lose the services of key personnel or are unable to recruit additional qualified personnel, our business could be adversely affected.

Intellectual Property

• We depend on third parties for data and support services. Our suppliers or providers might restrict our use of or refuse to license data or provide services, which could lead to our inability to access certain data or provide certain services and, as a result, materially and adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.

• Our success depends on our ability to protect our intellectual property rights.

• We may be subject to claims by others that we are infringing on their intellectual property rights.

• We rely on licenses from third parties to certain technology and intellectual property rights for some of our services and the licenses we currently have could terminate or expire.

IT systems and Information

• Security breaches and unauthorized use of our IT systems and information could expose us, our clients, our data suppliers or others to risk of loss.

• We may experience challenges with the acquisition, development, enhancement or deployment of technology necessary for our business.

• Our business depends on the continued effectiveness and availability of our information systems, including the information systems we use to provide our services to our clients.

• Data protection, privacy and similar laws restrict access, use and disclosure of personal information, and failure to comply with these laws could materially harm our business.

Client Risks

• Consolidation in the industries in which our clients operate may reduce the volume of services purchased by consolidated clients following an acquisition or merger.

• We may be adversely affected by client or therapeutic concentration.

• Our relationships with existing or potential clients who are in competition with each other may adversely impact the degree to which other clients or potential clients use our services.

• There is a risk that we may initiate a clinical trial for a client, and then the client becomes unwilling or unable to fund the completion of the clinical trial, and we may be ethically bound to complete or wind down the clinical trial at our own expense.

Market Forces

• Disruptions in the credit and capital markets and unfavorable general economic conditions could negatively affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

• Our effective income tax rate may fluctuate for a variety of reasons.

• Changes in accounting standards issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) or other standard-setting bodies may adversely affect our financial statements.

• Due to the global nature of our business we are subject to international economic, political and other risks that could negatively affect our results of operations and financial condition.

• Climate change may have an impact on our business.

Liability Exposure

• Our Research & Development Solutions business could subject us to potential liability.

• Our Contract Sales & Medical Solutions business could result in liability to us if a drug causes harm to a patient.

• Our insurance may not cover all of our indemnification obligations and other liabilities associated with our operations.

• We may make mistakes in conducting a clinical trial that could negatively impact the usefulness of the clinical trial which could subject us to significant costs or liability.

• If we fail to perform our services in accordance with contractual requirements, regulatory standards and ethical considerations, we could be subject to significant costs or liability.

Risks Relating to Our Industry

• The biopharmaceutical services industry is highly competitive.

• Outsourcing trends in the biopharmaceutical industry and changes in aggregate spending and research and development budgets could adversely affect our operating results and growth rate.

• We may be affected by healthcare reform and potential additional reforms.

• Actions by government regulators or clients to limit a prescription’s scope or withdraw an approved drug from the market could affect our business and result in a loss of revenues.

• If we do not keep pace with rapid technological changes, our services may become less competitive or obsolete.

• Laws restricting biopharmaceutical sales and marketing practices may adversely impact demand for our services.

Risks Relating to Our Indebtedness

• Restrictions imposed in the Senior Secured Credit Facilities (as defined below) and other outstanding indebtedness, including the indentures governing outstanding notes issued by our wholly owned subsidiary IQVIA Inc., may limit our ability to operate our business and to finance our future operations or capital needs or to engage in other business activities.

• Restrictive covenants in our other indebtedness may limit our flexibility in our current and future operations.

• Interest rate fluctuations and our ability to deduct interest expense may affect our results of operations and financial condition.

• We may be adversely affected by changes in the method of determining the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”), or the replacement of LIBOR with an alternative reference rate.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

• Provisions of the corporate governance documents of IQVIA could make an acquisition of IQVIA difficult and may prevent attempts by its stockholders to replace or remove its management, even if beneficial to its stockholders.

• Our operating results and share price may be volatile, which could cause the value of our stockholders’ investments to decline.

• Our certificate of incorporation contains a provision renouncing any interest and expectancy in certain corporate opportunities identified by certain parties.

For a more complete discussion of the material risk facing our business, see below.

Risks Relating to Our Business

Our business and operations has been and may in the future be adversely affected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

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None.

As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately 250 offices located in approximately 84 countries. Our executive headquarters are located adjacent to Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. We own facilities in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Caracas, Venezuela; Los Ruices, Venezuela; and Bangalore, India. All of our other offices are leased. Our properties are geographically distributed to meet our worldwide operating requirements, and none of our properties are individually material to our business operations. We believe that collectively our facilities are suitable and adequate for our present purposes. We continue to assess the impacts of COVID-19 on the suitability, adequacy, productive capacity and utilization of our existing principal physical properties, and we are in the process of evaluating the future state of our workforce practices, which may result in changes to our physical property needs.

Information pertaining to legal proceedings can be found in Note 12 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is incorporated by reference herein.

Not applicable.

PART II

Securities Market Information for Common Stock

Our common stock trades on the NYSE under the symbol “IQV.”

Holders of Record

On February 7, 2022, we had approximately 20 stockholders of record as reported by our transfer agent. Holders of record are defined as those stockholders whose shares are registered in their names in our stock records and do not include beneficial owners of common stock whose shares are held in the names of brokers, dealers or clearing agencies.

Dividend Policy

We do not currently intend to pay dividends on our common stock, and no dividends were declared or paid in 2021 or 2020. However, we expect to reevaluate our dividend policy on a regular basis and may, subject to compliance with the covenants contained in our Senior Secured Credit Facilities and long-term debt arrangements and other considerations, determine to pay dividends in the future. The declaration, amount and payment of any future dividends on shares of our common stock will be at the sole discretion of our Board, which may take into account general and economic conditions, our financial condition and results of operations, our available cash and current and anticipated cash needs, capital requirements, contractual, legal, tax and regulatory restrictions, the implications of the payment of dividends by us to our stockholders or by our subsidiaries to us, and any other factors that our Board may deem relevant. Our long-term debt arrangements contain usual and customary restrictive covenants that, among other things, place limitations on our ability to declare dividends. For additional information regarding these restrictive covenants, see Part II, Item 7 “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources” and Note 10 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

We did not sell any unregistered equity securities in 2021.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer

On October 30, 2013, the Board approved an equity repurchase program (the “Repurchase Program”) authorizing the repurchase of up to $125.0 million of either our common stock or vested in-the-money employee stock options, or a combination thereof. The Board increased the stock repurchase authorization under the Repurchase Program with respect to the repurchase of the Company's common stock by $600 million, $1.5 billion, $2.0 billion, $1.5 billion, and $2.0 billion, in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 respectively. On February 10, 2022, the Board increased the stock repurchase authorization under the Repurchase Program with respect to the repurchase of the Company's common stock by an additional $2.0 billion, which increased the total amount that has been authorized under the Repurchase Program to $9.725 billion. The Repurchase Program does not obligate us to repurchase any particular amount of common stock or vested in-the-money employee stock options, and it may be modified, extended, suspended or discontinued at any time. The timing and amount of repurchases are determined by our management based on a variety of factors such as the market price of our common stock, our corporate requirements, and overall market conditions. Purchases of our common stock may be made in open market transactions effected through a broker-dealer at prevailing market prices, in block trades, or in privately negotiated transactions. The Repurchase Program for common stock does not have an expiration date. In addition, from time to time, we have repurchased and may continue to repurchase common stock through private or other transactions outside of the Repurchase Program.

From inception of the Repurchase Program through December 31, 2021, we have repurchased a total of $6.8 billion of our securities under the Repurchase Program.

During the year ended December 31, 2021, we repurchased 1.7 million shares of our common stock for approximately $395 million under the Repurchase Program. For additional information regarding our equity repurchases, see Part II, Item 7 “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources” and Note 13 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

As of December 31, 2021, we had remaining authorization to repurchase up to approximately $0.5 billion of our common stock under the Repurchase Program. The February 10, 2022 $2.0 billion increase in the stock repurchase authorization, increased the remaining authorization to repurchase common stock under the Repurchase Program up to approximately $2.5 billion.

Since the Merger between Quintiles and IMS health, we have repurchased 67.4 million shares of our common stock at an average market price per share of $100.95 for an aggregate purchase price of $6.8 billion both under and outside of the Repurchase Program. This includes shares withheld from employees to satisfy certain tax obligations due in connection with grants of stock under the Quintiles IMS Holdings, Inc. 2017 Incentive and Stock Award Plan (the “Plan”). The Plan provides for the withholding of shares to satisfy tax obligations. It does not specify a maximum number of shares that can be withheld for this purpose. The shares of common stock withheld to satisfy tax withholding obligations may be deemed to be “issuer purchases” of shares that are required to be disclosed pursuant to this Item.

The following table summarizes the monthly equity repurchase activity for the three months ended December 31, 2021 and the approximate dollar value of shares that may yet be purchased pursuant to the Repurchase Program.

Stock Performance Graph

This performance graph shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act or incorporated by reference into any filing of IQVIA Holdings Inc. under the Exchange Act or under the Securities Act, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.

The following graph shows a comparison from December 31, 2016 through December 31, 2021 of the cumulative total return for our common stock, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index (“S&P 500”), our new peer group set forth below ("New Peer Group") and our old peer group set forth below ("Old Peer Group"). The New Peer Group consists of Cerner Corporation, Charles River Laboratories, Inc., Equifax Inc., ICON plc, IHS Markit Ltd., Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, Nielsen N.V., Syneos Health (formerly INC Research Holdings), Thomson Reuters Corporation and Verisk Analytics, Inc. The difference between the New Peer Group and the Old Peer Group is that PRA Health Sciences, Inc. has been removed from the New Peer Group as it became part of ICON plc during the year ended December 31, 2021. The companies in our peer group are publicly traded information services, information technology or clinical research companies, and thus share similar business model characteristics to IQVIA, or provide services to similar customers as IQVIA. Many of these companies are also used by our compensation committee for purposes of compensation benchmarking.

The graph assumes that $100 was invested in IQVIA, the S&P 500, the New Peer Group and the Old Peer Group as of the close of market on December 31, 2016, assumes the reinvestments of dividends, if any. The S&P 500 and our New and Old Peer Groups are included for comparative purposes only. They do not necessarily reflect management’s opinion that the S&P 500 and our peer groups are an appropriate measure of the relative performance of the stock involved, and they are not intended to forecast or be indicative of possible future performance of our common stock.

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this Annual Report, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. You should read the “Risk Factors” section of this Annual Report for a discussion of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.

Overview

IQVIA is a leading global provider of advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services to the life sciences industry. IQVIA creates intelligent connections across all aspects of healthcare through its analytics, transformative technology, big data resources and extensive domain expertise. IQVIA Connected Intelligence™ delivers powerful insights with speed and agility — enabling customers to accelerate the clinical development and commercialization of innovative medical treatments that improve healthcare outcomes for patients. With approximately 79,000 employees, we conduct operations in more than 100 countries.

We are a global leader in protecting individual patient privacy. We use a wide variety of privacy-enhancing technologies and safeguards to protect individual privacy while generating and analyzing information on a scale that helps healthcare stakeholders identify disease patterns and correlate with the precise treatment path and therapy needed for better outcomes. Our insights and execution capabilities help biotech, medical device and pharmaceutical companies, medical researchers, government agencies, payers and other healthcare stakeholders tap into a deeper understanding of diseases, human behaviors and scientific advances, in an effort to advance their path toward cures.

We are managed through three reportable segments, Technology & Analytics Solutions, Research & Development Solutions and Contract Sales & Medical Solutions. Technology & Analytics Solutions provides critical information, technology solutions and real world insights and services to our life science clients. Research & Development Solutions, which primarily serves biopharmaceutical clients, is engaged in research and development and provides clinical research and clinical trial services. Contract Sales & Medical Solutions provides contract sales to both biopharmaceutical clients and the broader healthcare market.

For a description of our service offerings within our segments, refer to Part I, Item 1, “Business”.

Industry Outlook

For information about the industry outlook and markets that we operate in, refer to Part I, Item I, “Our Market Opportunity”.

Overview of the Impact of COVID-19

During 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the pace of our clinical trials and offerings that rely on face-to-face interactions, but, at the same time, it accelerated change in the industry and created demand for new services. The pandemic resulted in the delay but not cancellation of a number of existing and planned clinical trials, both because many clinical trials were slowed or temporarily paused and because many planned clinical trials did not begin as scheduled as they were crowded out by clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines and other therapies. During 2021, we experienced an acceleration in business momentum as these delayed clinical trial activities began or restarted, which contributed to our financial results for the year.

Throughout the past year and into 2022, we have worked on a substantial number of COVID-related projects. COVID-specific work currently does not represent a material amount of our backlog and is executed over shorter timelines than other therapeutic work, though we do anticipate that this work will continue through 2022 and potentially into 2023 and beyond. There will be a need for vaccines for multiple manufacturers to meet global demand, new vaccines for emerging variants of the virus, alternative vaccines needed as a result of adverse safety events, quality issues, or manufacturing delays, novel treatment programs that are targeted at specific populations and conditions, and vaccine safety monitoring studies.

The pandemic has also affected our business strategy in a number of ways. One of the most significant impacts on our Research & Development Solutions business, has been the acceleration of decentralized clinical trials. Decentralized clinical trials combine the use of remote technologies and field-based services to enable portions of a clinical trial to be conducted away from an investigator site. This approach reduces the burden on patients of having to travel to and from investigator sites frequently and allows trials to continue to be conducted even during periods of limited access to investigator sites. While the decentralized clinical trial opportunity was identified before COVID-19, we saw how critical those capabilities were during the pandemic and accelerated their development accordingly. We invested in the use of remote technologies, expanded our relationships with local laboratories and healthcare providers, and established a virtual network of investigators and care professionals.

We also took the opportunity presented by the pandemic to completely rethink and revolutionize our workplace and in 2021 we implemented the IQVIA Future of Work program. This program was designed to address employee feedback for more flexibility, and it will facilitate approximately 80% of our employees working in flexible arrangements, reducing our physical footprint and the employee commute impact on the environment. To facilitate this transition, we made investments in real estate to reconfigure our office space to install the most efficient work arrangements and in technology to support our employees and ensure that we can innovate, collaborate and grow successfully.

The Company continues to maintain strong liquidity. As of December 31, 2021, cash and cash equivalents were $1,366 million and the Company had $100 million drawn under its $1.5 billion revolving credit facility. As of December 31, 2021, the Company was in compliance with the financial covenants under its debt agreements in all material respects and does not have material uncertainty about ongoing ability to meet the covenants of our credit arrangements.

Business Combinations

We have completed and will continue to consider strategic business combinations to enhance our capabilities and offerings in certain areas, including various individually immaterial acquisitions during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020. These transactions were accounted for as business combinations and the acquired results of operations are included in our consolidated financial information since the acquisition date. See Note 14 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information with respect to these business combinations.

Sources of Revenue

Total revenues are comprised of revenues from the provision of our services. We do not have any material product revenues.

Costs and Expenses

Our costs and expenses are comprised primarily of our costs of revenue, reimbursed expenses and selling, general and administrative expenses. Costs of revenue include compensation and benefits for billable employees and personnel involved in production, trial monitoring, data management and delivery, and the costs of acquiring and processing data for our information offerings; costs of staff directly involved with delivering technology-related services offerings and engagements, related accommodations and the costs o

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Market risk is the potential loss arising from adverse changes in market rates and prices. In the ordinary course of business, we are exposed to various market risks and we regularly evaluate our exposure to such changes. Our overall risk management strategy seeks to balance the magnitude of the exposure and the cost and availability of appropriate financial instruments. The following analyses present the sensitivity of our financial instruments to hypothetical changes that are reasonably possible over a one-year period.

Foreign Currency Exchange Rates

We transact business in more than 100 countries and approximately 60 currencies and are subject to risks associated with fluctuating foreign currency exchange rates. Our objective is to reduce earnings and cash flow volatility associated with foreign currency exchange rate movements. Accordingly, we enter into foreign currency forward contracts to hedge certain forecasted foreign currency cash flows related to service contracts. It is our policy to enter into foreign currency transactions only to the extent necessary to meet our objectives as stated above. We do not enter into foreign currency transactions for investment or speculative purposes. The principal currency hedged in 2021 was the British Pound.

The contractual value of our foreign exchange derivative instruments, all of which were foreign exchange forward contracts, was approximately $110 million as of December 31, 2021. The fair value of these contracts is subject to change as a result of potential changes in foreign exchange rates. We assess our market risk based on changes in foreign exchange rates utilizing a sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity analysis measures the potential gain or loss in fair values based on a hypothetical 10% change in foreign currency exchange rates. The potential gain in fair value for foreign exchange forward contracts based on a hypothetical 10% decrease in the value of the United States dollar was $11 million as of December 31, 2021. However, the change in the fair value of the foreign exchange forward contracts would likely be offset by a change in the value of the future service contract revenue being hedged caused by the currency exchange rate fluctuation. The estimated fair values of the foreign exchange forward contracts were determined based on quoted market prices.

Exchange rate fluctuations affect the United States dollar value of foreign currency revenue and expenses and may have a significant effect on our results. Excluding the impacts from any outstanding or future hedging transactions, a hypothetical 10% change in average exchange rates used to translate all foreign currencies to the United States dollar would have impacted income before income taxes for 2021 by approximately $94 million. The actual impact of exchange rate movements in the future could differ materially from this hypothetical analysis, based on the mix of foreign currencies and the timing and magnitude of individual exchange rate movements.

Additionally, commencing in 2016, we designated a portion of our foreign currency denominated debt as a hedge of our net investment in foreign subsidiaries to reduce the volatility in stockholders’ equity caused by changes in the Euro exchange rate with respect to the United States dollar. As of December 31, 2021, these borrowings (net of original issue discount) were €5,227 million ($5,929 million). A hypothetical 10% decrease in the value of the United States dollar would lead to a potential loss in fair value of $593 million. However, this change in fair value would be offset by the change in value of the hedged portion of our net investment in foreign subsidiaries caused by the currency exchange rate fluctuation.

Interest Rates

Because we have variable rate debt, fluctuations in interest rates affect our business. We attempt to minimize interest rate risk and lower our overall borrowing costs through the utilization of derivative financial instruments, primarily interest rate swaps. We have entered into interest rate swaps with financial institutions that have reset dates and critical terms that match the underlying debt. Accordingly, any change in market value associated with the interest rate swaps is offset by the opposite market impact on the related debt. As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately $6.3 billion of variable rate indebtedness and interest rate swaps with a notional value of $1.8 billion. Because we do not attempt to hedge all of our variable rate debt, we may incur higher interest costs for the portion of our variable rate debt that is not hedged. Excluding debt covered by hedges, each quarter-point increase or decrease in the interest rate on our variable rate debt would result in our interest expense changing by approximately $5.8 million per year.

Marketable Securities

As of December 31, 2021, we held investments in marketable equity securities. These investments are classified as either trading securities or available-for-sale securities and are recorded at fair value. These securities are subject to price risk. As of December 31, 2021, the fair value of these investments was $145 million based on the quoted market value of the securities. The potential loss in fair value resulting from a hypothetical decrease of 10% in quoted market values was approximately $15 million as of December 31, 2021.

MANAGEMENT’S REPORT ON INTERNAL CONTROL OVER FINANCIAL REPORTING

The management of IQVIA Holdings Inc. (the “Company”) is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

Management assessed the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021. In making this assessment, management used the framework established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). As a result of this assessment and based on the criteria in the COSO framework, management has concluded that, as of December 31, 2021, the Company’s internal control over financial reporting was effective.

The effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021 has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report which appears herein.

February 16, 2022

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of IQVIA Holdings Inc.

Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of IQVIA Holdings Inc. and its subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, stockholders’ equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021, including the related notes and financial statement schedules listed in the index appearing under Item 15(a)(2) (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). We also have audited the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the COSO.

Basis for Opinions

The Company's management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express opinions on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and on the Company's internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have

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None.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

As required by Rule 13a-15 under the Exchange Act, as amended, we carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including the Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”). There are inherent limitations to the effectiveness of any system of disclosure controls and procedures, including the possibility of human error and the circumvention or overriding of the controls and procedures. Accordingly, even effective disclosure controls and procedures can only provide reasonable assurance of achieving their control objectives. Based upon our evaluation, our CEO and CFO concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective to provide reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act, as amended, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the applicable rules and forms, and that it is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our CEO and CFO, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Our management’s report on internal control over financial reporting is set forth in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is incorporated herein by reference.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the quarter ended December 31, 2021 that materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

None.

Not applicable.

PART III

Information required by this Item, other than the information regarding the executive officers of the Company set forth below, is incorporated by reference to the sections of our definitive Proxy Statement for our 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the “2022 Proxy Statement”) entitled “Proposal No. 1: Election of Directors”, “Corporate Governance—Documents Establishing our Corporate Governance” and “Corporate Governance—Committees of the Board.”

The current executive officers of the Company are as follows:

Ari Bousbib, Director, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Bousbib is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. He assumed this position in October 2016 following the Merger of Quintiles and IMS Health. From 2010 until the Merger, Mr. Bousbib served as Chairman and CEO of IMS Health. Prior to joining IMS Health, Mr. Bousbib spent 14 years at United Technologies Corporation (“UTC”), an aerospace, defense and building systems company. From 2008 until 2010, he served as President of UTC’s Commercial Companies, with executive leadership responsibilities for the worldwide operations of Otis Elevator Company, Carrier Corporation, UTC Fire & Security and UTC Power Inc. From 2002 until 2008, Mr. Bousbib was President of Otis, and from 2000 to 2002, he served as its Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining UTC, Mr. Bousbib was a partner at Booz Allen Hamilton. Mr. Bousbib currently serves on the board of directors of The Home Depot, Inc. and is a member of the Harvard Medical School Health Care Policy Advisory Council. Mr. Bousbib holds a Master of Science Degree in Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering from the Ecole Superieure des Travaux Publics, Paris, and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Ronald E. Bruehlman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Bruehlman was appointed as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer effective August 1, 2020. Mr. Bruehlman previously served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of IMS Health from July 2011 until the merger of IMS Health and Quintiles in 2016. Prior to joining IMS Health, Mr. Bruehlman worked for 23 years at UTC, advancing through finance positions of increasing responsibility, culminating in his appointment as Vice President, Business Development, which he held from June 2009 to April 2011, where he led the company’s global strategy and corporate development activities. From June 2005 until May 2008, he was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Carrier Corporation. Prior to that, Mr. Bruehlman was Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis for UTC and also served as Director, Investor Relations of UTC. Mr. Bruehlman served as a director of The Connecticut Forum from 2005 to 2015. He also served as a director of The New England Air Museum from 2009 through 2013. Mr. Bruehlman has a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Delaware, and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

W. Richard Staub, III, President, Research & Development Solutions

Mr. Staub has served as President, Research & Development Solutions since November 2016. Previously Mr. Staub served as President of Novella Clinical, a Quintiles company, since 2013. Prior to Novella’s 2013 acquisition by Quintiles, Mr. Staub served as both president and CEO of Novella Clinical since 2008. Before joining Novella Clinical in 2004, Mr. Staub was senior vice president of global business development for one of the world’s largest clinical research organizations. Mr. Staub’s career in the pharmaceutical industry began at Zeneca Pharmaceuticals in 1989 where he had progressive responsibilities as a medical and hospital sales representative, cardiovascular portfolio analyst and marketing manager. Mr. Staub has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Kevin C. Knightly, President, Technology & Commercial Solutions

Mr. Knightly has served as President, Technology & Commercial Solutions since October 2016. Previously Mr. Knightly served as Senior Vice President, Information Offerings at IMS Health from April 2015 to October 2016. From January 2011 to March 2015, Mr. Knightly served as Senior Vice President, Supplier Management at IMS Health. Prior to that, Mr. Knightly served in a number of senior financial, operations, marketing and general management roles for IMS Health, including as Senior Vice President, Pharma Business Management from 2007 until 2010. Mr. Knightly holds a B.S. in Economics and Accounting from the College of the Holy Cross, and an M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern Business School.

Eric Sherbet, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

Mr. Sherbet has served as our Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary since March 2018. Prior to joining the Company, he served as General Counsel and Secretary at Patheon N.V. from November 2014 until November 2017. Prior to joining Patheon, he was General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at InVentiv Health from April 2011 until October 2014. He also previously served as Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Foster Wheeler AG and before that, as Vice President, Corporate and Securities Law and Secretary with Avaya, Inc. Mr. Sherbet earned his law degree from New York University School of Law and received his bachelor’s degree in commerce/accounting from University of Virginia.

Compensation

The information required by this item is set forth under the headings “Director Compensation,” “Compensation Discussion and Analysis,” “Compensation Committee Report,” “Compensation of Named Executive Officers,” and “Other Relevant Information—Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation” in the 2022 Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

Information in response to this Item, other than Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans, will be set forth in the section entitled “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management” in the Company’s 2022 Proxy Statement, which information is incorporated herein by reference.

Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans

The following table provides certain information with respect to all of our equity compensation plans in effect as of December 31, 2021:

Equity Compensation Plan Information

(1) Consists of: (i) 4,326,554 shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of outstanding time-based stock options and underlying outstanding time-based SARs; (ii) 818,185 shares of common stock issuable in settlement

of outstanding restricted stock units awarded; (iii) 670,160 shares of common stock issuable in settlement of outstanding performance units awarded; and (iv) 2,601 shares of deferred common stock outstanding under the Director Deferral Plan.

(2) Consists of outstanding awards issued to certain executives with supplemental pension benefits in accordance with their individual employment arrangements under the IMS Health DCERP.

(3) The weighted-average exercise price includes all outstanding stock options and SARs but does not include restricted stock units, performance units, deferred stock or IMS Health DCERP awards, all of which do not have an exercise price. If restricted stock units, performance units and other awards that constitute “rights” were included in this calculation, treating such awards as having an exercise price of $0, the weighted average exercise price of outstanding options, warrants and rights would be $86.61.

(4) Consists of all securities remaining available under our equity compensation plans. All of these shares are available for delivery under stock options, SARs, restricted stock, restricted stock units, performance awards or other forms of equity award authorized by the plans. Does not include 2,251,704 shares that would have remained available under our Employee Stock Purchase Plan had it not been discontinued as of December 31, 2016.

The information required by this item is set forth under the headings “Corporate Governance,” and “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions” in the 2022 Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

The information required by this item is set forth under the headings “Audit—Fees Paid to Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm” in the 2022 Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

PART IV

**(a)**The following documents are filed as part of this report:

(1) Financial Statements

The following consolidated financial statements of IQVIA Holdings Inc. and its subsidiaries, and the independent registered public accounting firm’s report thereon, are included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report:

(2) Financial Statement Schedules for the Years Ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019

All other schedules are omitted, since the required information is not applicable or is not present in amounts sufficient to require submission of the schedule, or because the information required is included in the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto.

(3) Exhibits

The exhibits in the accompanying Exhibit Index preceding the signature page are filed or furnished as a part of this report and are incorporated herein by reference. The Company agrees to furnish to the SEC, upon request, copies of any long-term debt instruments that authorize an amount of securities constituting 10% or less of the total assets of IQVIA Holdings Inc. and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis.

EXHIBIT INDEX

† Indicates management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement.

• The Merger Agreement and the description thereof included herein have been included to provide investors and stockholders with information regarding the terms of the agreement. They are not intended to provide any other factual information about Quintiles or IMS Health or their respective subsidiaries or affiliates or stockholders. The representations, warranties and covenants contained in the Merger Agreement were made only for purposes of the Merger Agreement as of the specific dates therein, were solely for the benefit of the parties to the Merger Agreement, may be subject to limitations agreed upon by the contracting parties, including being qualified by confidential disclosures made for the purposes of allocating contractual risk among the parties to the Merger Agreement instead of establishing these matters as facts, and may be subject to standards of materiality applicable to the contracting parties that differ from those applicable to investors. Investors should not rely on the representations, warranties and covenants or any descriptions thereof as characterizations of the actual state of facts or condition of the parties thereto or any of their respective subsidiaries or affiliates. Moreover, information concerning the subject matter of representations and warranties may change after the date of the Merger Agreement, which subsequent information may or may not be fully reflected in public disclosures by Quintiles or IMS Health. Accordingly, investors should read the representations and warranties in the Merger Agreement not in isolation but only in conjunction with the other information about Quintiles or IMS Health and their respective subsidiaries that the respective companies include in reports, statements and other filings they make with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

None.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

Date: February 16, 2022

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant in the capacities and on the dates indicated

(2) Financial Statement Schedules

Schedule I—Condensed Financial Information of Registrant

IQVIA HOLDINGS INC. (PARENT COMPANY ONLY)

CONDENSED STATEMENTS OF INCOME AND COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

IQVIA HOLDINGS INC. (PARENT COMPANY ONLY)

CONDENSED BALANCE SHEETS

IQVIA HOLDINGS INC. (PARENT COMPANY ONLY)

CONDENSED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

IQVIA HOLDINGS INC. (PARENT COMPANY ONLY)

NOTES TO CONDENSED FINANCIAL INFORMATION

The condensed parent company financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Rule 12-04, Schedule I of Regulation S-X as the restricted net assets of IQVIA Holdings Inc.’s (the “Company”) wholly-owned subsidiary, IQVIA Incorporated exceed 25% of the consolidated net assets of the Company. These condensed parent company financial statements are not the general-purpose financial statement of the reporting entity. The ability of IQVIA Incorporated to pay dividends may be limited due to the restrictive covenants in the agreements governing its credit arrangements.

These condensed parent company financial statements include the accounts of IQVIA Holdings Inc. on a standalone basis (the “Parent”) and the equity method of accounting is used to reflect ownership interest in its subsidiary. Refer to the consolidated financial statements and notes presented elsewhere herein for additional information and disclosures with respect to these financial statements. The 2019 statement of cash flow presentation has been revised to conform with current period presentation.

Below is a summary of the dividends paid to the Parent by IQVIA Incorporated in 2021, 2020 and 2019:

Schedule II—Valuation and Qualifying Accounts

Deferred Tax Asset Valuation Allowance

(a)Recorded through purchase accounting transaction.

(b)Impact of reductions recorded to expense and translation adjustments.