Successful trials of cholesterol-fighting drug TriLipix, taken in combination with commonly used statins, could translate into high earnings for Belgian pharmaceutical company Solvay SA (SOLB.BT), said analysts.

The trials, whose results were presented this week at the American Diabetes Association's 2009 scientific session, showed the effectiveness of combining Solvay's cholesterol-lowering drug TriLipix with an established drug from the statin family to treat patients with type 2 diabetes and mixed dyslipidemia. Mixed dyslipidemia is a combination of two or more lipid problems such as low levels of "good" HDL cholesterol, high levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol, and high levels of heart-harming blood fats called triglycerides.

TriLipix was co-developed with U.S. pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories (ABT) and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last December.

In the trials, conducted across the U.S. by Abbott, combination therapy proved substantially more effective than single-drug therapy in helping patients improve their blood cholesterol levels.

Last week, Abbott and AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) filed for U.S. regulatory approval for a newly-developed cholesterol drug called Certriad. Certriad combines Abbott's and Solvay's TriLipix with AstraZeneca's blockbuster statin Crestor, a marriage that promises to expand TriLipix's market.

Petercam analyst Jan van den Bossche said statins generated about $2.5 billion more than alternative drugs like TriLipix last year. As a result, he said, the new combination drug Certriad promises "very high sales potential" for Solvay. Although Solvay has not released the dollar amount of the royalties it receives from TriLipix sales, Bank Degroof analyst Bernard Hanssens said that TriLipix constituted a "significant part of Solvay revenue."

Certriad will also protect Solvay from generic competition, Hanssens said.

Israeli pharmaceutical company Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) recently sought approval to manufacture a generic version of TriCor, TriLipix's $1.2 billion-a-year predecessor.

Approval of Certriad would render TriCor - and its generic counterparts - increasingly obsolete. "The faster clients switch to TriLipex or Certriad, the more difficult it'll be for the generic to penetrate the market," said Hanssens.

-By Elizabeth Bewley, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 1 485; elizabeth.bewley@dowjones.com