Description: GlaxoSmithKline, Europe's largest drugs company, is to acquire Reliant Pharmaceuticals for $1.65 billion (£800 million) in cash, giving it the rights to flagship drug Lovaza.

Lovaza, which is set to become a “new driver for sales growth in the US business”, is a non-statin treatment for high triglycerides, a type of fat found in the blood, which increases the risk of heart disease.

Sales of the drug soared 115 per cent in the nine months to September to reach $206 million.

It is the only Food and Drug Administration-approved prescription omega-3 product in the US for the treatment of very high triglycerides, and it has patent protection until 2018.

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The non-statin dyslipidemia market was worth about $2.2 billion in 2006, according to Glaxo, and is expected to grow more than 20 per cent a year.

Chris Viehbacher, president of US p