The large American drug maker Abbott Laboratories is moving to close a deal today to purchase the prescription drug unit of the Belgian company Solvay for close to $6.6 billion in order to take sole possession of a shared cholesterol drug venture. The deal could possibly pay out an addition $440 million if the product meets certain sales goals from 2011 to 2013.

The deal will also give Abbott sole possession TriCor, which competes with Antara and Lofibra in the highly competitive cholesterol drug market. Last year TriCor had over $1.3 billion in sales.

In addition to TriCor, Abbott will also receive full ownership of Solvay’s drugs for hormone replacement, hypertension, as well as other neurological conditions.

According to the New York Times,

Pending health care legislation in Congress is not considered a deterrent for pharmaceutical acquisitions, because the drug makers are expected to do well in whatever emerges from Washington. The industry has a potentially winning political argument that its drugs prevent disease and save medical costs. And the industry stands to benefit from the addition of tens of millions of Americans to the ranks of the insured, under a health care overhaul.

Abbott’s patent on TriCor is set to expire soon, which means generic, less expensive versions of TriCor will be available. Abbott will then face the challenge of switching consumers over to the new drug Trilipix. This means that Abbott will throw all of it’s marketing behind Trilipix, and try and dupe consumers into buying a medication that is no more affective, yet much more expensive.

The FDA voted yesterday to endorse the new cervical cancer medication from GlaxoSmithKline, Cervarix.

Good news for GlaxoSmithKline, bad news for Merck.

Merck is the owner of Gardasil, the only cervical cancer vaccination that is currently available on the market.

According to MSNBC,

London-based drugmaker Glaxo already has won approval for its vaccine in Europe, but its U.S. launch was delayed in 2007 when the FDA said it needed more data about the vaccine.

Panelists say newer studies suggest the vaccine is safe, but they recommend follow-up studies to monitor miscarriages and inflammatory-muscular problems reported by a small number of patients.

The group said it was unlikely those problems were related to the vaccine, but said the issues should still be noted on the product labeling.

I am not so sure that the FDA was as concerned with the safety of the vaccine as they were with protecting Merck’s profits. Gardasil sales, which reached $1.5 billion in 2007 would have taken a huge hit.

Gardasil and Cervarix both defend against the two most prevalent strains of HPV 16 and 18. These two strains are responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases.