AbbVie Inc.'s Senior Unsecured Notes Rated 'A-'

NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Sept. 13, 2018--S&P Global Ratings today assigned its 'A-' issue-level rating to AbbVie Inc.'s announced offering of senior unsecured notes, to be issued in four tranches. The company will use proceeds to repay the 2% senior notes due in 2018, to repay the term loan due in 2018, and for general corporate purposes. The transaction does not affect our 'A-' issuer credit rating on AbbVie. It continues to reflect the company's well-established position in the branded pharmaceuticals market; its highly profitable, market-leading product, Humira; and a promising pipeline over the next few years despite continued product concentration in Humira. We expect solid sales and earnings growth in 2018 and 2019, even with biosimilar competition to

...NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Sept. 13, 2018--S&P Global Ratings today assigned its 'A-' issue-level rating to AbbVie Inc.'s announced offering of senior unsecured notes, to be issued in four tranches. The company will use proceeds to repay the 2% senior notes due in 2018, to repay the term loan due in 2018, and for general corporate purposes. The transaction does not affect our 'A-' issuer credit rating on AbbVie. It continues to reflect the company's well-established position in the branded pharmaceuticals market; its highly profitable, market-leading product, Humira; and a promising pipeline over the next few years despite continued product concentration in Humira. We expect solid sales and earnings growth in 2018 and 2019, even with biosimilar competition to Humira in Europe, because of growth from drugs such as Imbruvica and newly launched Mavyret. We expect AbbVie to generate sizable cash flow and maintain adjusted net leverage between 2x-3x. For the issuer credit rating rationale...

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