S&P rates Pfizer notes AAA

Standard & Poor's said it assigned an AAA rating to Pfizer Inc.'s offering of about ¥100 billion fixed-rate senior unsecured notes, consisting of two tranches, one due in 2011 and the other in 2016. Existing ratings on Pfizer, including the AAA long-term corporate credit rating and A-1+ short-term rating, were affirmed.

The outlook is stable.

S&P said the ratings reflect Pfizer's excellent position in the worldwide pharmaceutical market, highlighted by its diverse drug portfolio and deep product pipeline, and the company's superior financial profile and cash-generating ability. On a sales basis, Pfizer is the world's largest pharmaceutical company and has one of the broadest drug portfolios in the industry.

Pfizer will be challenged to generate significant sales growth over the next two years, however, as the company is in the midst of a three-year period in which several major products lose patent protection, the agency said. These expiring products include Zoloft in 2006 and Norvasc and Zyrtec in 2007. In total, these drugs generated more than $9.3 billion in sales in 2005, or 18% of total revenues.

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