Ireland-based specialty biopharmaceutical company Alkermes exceeded our revenue and EBITDA expectations since the Elan Drug Technologies merger, and a proposed refinancing will lower pro forma leverage to 3.4x, improving its financial profile. We are assigning a 'BB-' corporate credit rating to Alkermes plc, and withdrawing our corporate credit rating on Alkermes Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Alkermes plc. At the same time, we are assigning a 'BB' issue-level rating to Alkermes Inc.'s proposed $375 million first-lien term loan. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that steady growth of Alkermes' expanded portfolio of products will result in strong free cash flow that the company will use for additional debt reduction. On Sept. 7, 2012, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services assigned
