...+ We've reviewed Mallinckrodt Plc's financial policy and product-portfolio prospects with management in light of the company's recently announced acquisition of Sucampo and the underperformance of its key drug: H.P. Acthar Gel. + We believe Mallinckrodt, a specialty pharmaceutical company, will limit its 2018 business-development and share-repurchase activities and use its internally generated cash flow to reduce leverage. We expect pro forma 2018 leverage of about 5x, improving to below 5x in the first half of 2019; this is consistent with our expectation that Mallinckrodt's leverage will generally remain in the 4x-5x range. + As a result, we are affirming our '##-' corporate credit rating on the company and all issue-level ratings except for one recovery rating. (We are revising the recovery rating on the company's unsecured debt to '4' from '3', reflecting our reduced valuation of Mallinckrodt's emergence EBITDA in a hypothetical default scenario.) + We are also removing all of the ratings...
