Moody's affirms Schering-Plough

Moody's Investors Service said it affirmed the long-term ratings of Schering-Plough Corp., including the Baa1 senior unsecured rating and Prime-2 short-term rating.

At the same time, Moody's said it revised Schering-Plough's outlook to negative from stable, noting that this rating action reflects the recent presentation and discussion of the Enhance clinical trial results at the American College of Cardiology meeting.

The revision in the outlook to negative from stable reflects concerns that negative script trends of Zetia and Vytorin to levels may result in cash flow relative to debt that may no longer support Schering-Plough's Baa1 rating, the agency noted.

"The views of certain cardiology opinion leaders at the ACC conference were more negative than Moody's had anticipated and may lead to faster erosion of Vytorin and Zetia scripts," stated Michael Levesque, senior vice president of Moody's.

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