...Rating Outlook Revised to Stable. Fitch's rating outlook for the global pharma sector has been changed to stable from negative. The change reflects anticipated good R&D productivity, manageable patent expiries, a declining degree of event risk, and supportive underlying secular trends. Rating headroom has also been increasing following a series of downgrades during 2016, reflecting more differentiated business risk profiles and, in some cases more aggressive capital structures to support investment in growth, consolidation and business models. For example, AstraZeneca's `A' rating remains underpinned by acceleration of investments by way of acquisitions and R&D. GSK's downgrade to `A' from `A+' in May 2016 reflected the double-digit decline of the key pharmaceutical division drug Advair. Stable Sector Underpins Ratings: We expect global pharma players to continue to have strong investment-grade credit profiles and for the sector's underlying long-term drivers to remain stable. The industry's...
