By Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) - Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday its pipeline of new drugs was progressing on track and it still had high hopes for diet pill Acomplia, despite a rebuff from U.S. experts last year and recent mixed trial news.

"We have six products to be submitted this year and so far we are following the road map," the French drugmaker's head of research, Marc Cluzel, said in an interview in London.

Sanofi will refile its Multaq drug for controlling irregular heartbeats by mid-year and submit four more products for approval by the end of the year.

They are cancer drugs aflibercept and S-1, antidepressant saredutant and sleeping pill eplivanserin. With satavaptan for hyponatremia, which was scheduled for 2008 filing but was actually submitted in late 2007, that takes the tally to six.

A decision on seeking regulatory approval for amibegron, another antidepressant, will depend on further clinical trial results, Cluzel added.

Sanofi, the world's third largest drugmaker, has a broad pipeline of experimental drugs but analysts fear many will not contribute significantly to sales for several years and investors are wary following the problems with Acomplia.

Acomplia, also known as rimonabant or Zimulti, was rejected by a U.S. expert panel last June because of fears it might trigger suicidal thoughts. It is on the market in Europe.

Cluzel, however, still believes Acomplia can be a winner and reiterated plans to submit the drug worldwide as a treatment for type 2 diabetes in 2009, backed up by data from a head-to-head trial against Merck & Co's (MRK.N: Quote, Profile, Research) recently launched Januvia.