BOSTON (Standard&Poor's) Aug. 26, 2014--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings on Waltham, Mass.-based Alkermes PLC remain unchanged following the company's second quarter earnings and updated guidance for a substantial increase in research and development (R&D) expense over the next two years to fund several late-stage projects. This is despite significant pressure to margins and a substantial increase in adjusted debt leverage in the near term. We now expect free cash flow to be only modestly positive in 2014 and negative in 2015. Credit metrics in 2014 and 2015 will be weak, with debt to EBITDA well above 5x and funds from operations to total debt of substantially less than 12%. However, Alkermes' cash balance
