Household goods firm pays £1.1bn for US drug maker

UK household goods firm Reckitt Benckiser is expanding its healthcare operations in North America after today agreeing a £1.1bn (€1.5bn) takeover of a US cough mixture firm.

The Anglo-Dutch company has agreed a $60 dollars-a-share offer for Nasdaq-listed Adams Respiratory Therapeutics, in a deal which will see it enter the US healthcare market for the first time.