Moody's Cuts Lilly's Debt Rating; Daiichi Says It's Confident in Prasugrel

(MoneyWatch)  Moody's, the debt rating service, cut its rating of the quality of Eli Lilly's credit down to A1 from Aa3. The move indicates that Lilly's acquisition of ImClone has come with a price on top of the one on the sales tag. Moody's said:

Although the ImClone acquisition creates favorable long term opportunities, Lilly's former Aa3 rating could no longer be supported because of higher financial leverage and rising operating risks due to patent exposures and pipeline setbacks. -- Michael Levesque, Moody's svp.

The outlook is stable, MarketWatch reports. The news is not unexpected. Lilly acquired ImClone quickly, and the suspicion is that it did so because management suspects that its new blood thinner, prasugrel, will not make it through the FDA. Prasugrel has problems, according to one Cedars Sinai doc.

There's good news for Lilly, however. Its partner on prasugrel, Daiichi, expressed confidence recently that the drug -- branded Effient -- would pass muster. It also let on that it has already built a salesforce, ready to go.