A DRAWN-OUT battle for control of Warner Chilcott looked less likely yesterday as one of the three bidders for the Northern drug firm dropped out of the race to join forces with the frontrunner.

The private equity arms of Credit Suisse First Boston and JP Morgan have agreed for Bain Capital and Thomas H Lee to join the Waren Acquisition consortium in their bid to buy pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott for £1.62bn (€2.34bn).

THE American private equity group that plans to buy Northern drug company Warner Chilcott for close to €2.3 billion has opened the door to rival bidders to be part of the takeover.