U.S. pharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc. is acquiring Stemcentrx Inc. for $5.8 billion in a debt-financed transaction. We project, the acquisition will result in 2016 adjusted leverage ratio around 3.0x, improving to 2.6x in 2017. That is in contrast to our previous projections of 2016 leverage ratio at 2.3x improving to 1.7x in 2017. We are lowering our corporate credit rating on AbbVie Inc. to 'A-' from 'A' reflecting our view that the company's financial policy has proven to be more aggressive than we previously projected, leading to increased leverage. We are also lowering the rating on AbbVie's senior unsecured notes to 'A-' from 'A'. The company's short-term rating remains unchanged at 'A-1'. The stable rating outlook reflects our expectation that
