BAYER look set to win the bid for drugmaker Schering, at €16.3 billion, after rival Merck pulled out of the race for top spot in Germany’s drugs industry.

Eddie Cassidy

SCHERING, the world’s biggest maker of birth-control pills, said full-year earnings per share will fall 3% to 6% after reporting a profit in the third quarter as more people used its Betaseron multiple sclerosis treatment and Yasmin birth-control pill.

British consumer watchdogs today called for an inquiry into a government agency’s handling of a complaint about advertising for a new contraceptive pill.