American drug producer Abbott Laboratories is reportedly close to an agreement to buy Belgium drugs conglomerate Solvay SA's pharmaceutical unit in a deal worth around $7 billion.

Under the deal, apart from acquiring exclusive rights to Trilipix, which is a new cholesterol cure, Abbott will obtain exclusive possession rights of the TriCor cholesterol pill.

Three people familiar with the situation informed on the condition of anonymity that the deal could be struck as soon as Monday.

Buying Solvay SA's pharmaceutical unit would reduce Abbott’s dependence on the arthritis drug Humira.

Last year, Humira, an arthritis drug, fetched Abbott $4.5 billion in sales. Previous year, total sales of the company stood at $29.5 billion with $5.2 billion in profit.

On the other hand, Solvay SA's pharmaceutical unit brought in 2.7 billion euros in revenue previous year, representing 28 per cent of Solvay's overall sales.

In the recent trading, shares in Abbott gained 0.83 per cent to close at $47.33 on the NYSE.