Abbott to acquire Belgian drug company Solvay for $6.6 billion

In a year of consolidation of the global pharmaceutical industry, the American diversified pharmaceuticals health care company Abbott Laboratories said yesterday that it would acquire the pharmaceutical business of Belgium's Solvay for $6.6 billion in cash and take full control of its joint cholesterol drug venture.

This deal includes additional potential payments of up to $439 million if certain milestones are met between 2011 and 2013. It also includes Abbott taking on $584 million of assumed certain liabilities of Solvay.

Abbott plans to fund the entire transaction with the cash it currently has on its balance sheet and said that the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010, pending antitrust approval from the EU and the US.

The Abbott Park- (Illinois) based Abbott and Solvay co-promote and sell the Belgian company's cholesterol lowering drug fenofibrate called TriCor, meant to raise "good" HDL cholesterol and reduce triglycerides and "bad" LDL cholesterol.

Currently, Abbott has the US rights to TriCor and pays royalties to Solvay-a drug that generated more than $1.3 billion in sales for Abbott last year.

With the with patent expiring in 2011 for TriCor and exposing it to generic competition, Abbott will get the sole rights to its successor, Solvay's Trilipix, which was approved last December by the US Food and Drug Administration.