Warner Chilcott follows a low-key route to success

On the day Galen floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1997, its shares jumped 19 per cent to 179 pence, prompting one dealer to remark that the company could "become the next Elan".

Though Elan was flying high at the time, the people behind the dynamic Craigavon-based company will probably be delighted that the company which this year renamed itself Warner Chilcott followed a lower-key path.

Not that it was uneventful. The Northern Ireland group has proven innovative in the field of female health products, contraceptives and delivery systems, weathering the volatility that followed adverse reports on side effects of rivals' HRT products.

Warner Chilcott concluded 2004 by agreeing to an offer from a private consortium fronted by Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and JP Morgan but the seeds of that decision lay in 2000 when the then Galen acquired Dublin-based Warner Chilcott - ironically an Elan spin-off.

The €330 million deal changed the nature of the business from one providing pharmaceutical services to a more straightforward drug company and one with a greater focus on the US market. It also saw Warner Chilcott's Mr Roger Boissoneault join the company and he has become its driving force.

The gradual metamorphosis to Warner Chilcott was accelerated by founder Dr Allen McClay (71) who started buying back bits of the company. By mid-2004, Dr McClay had paid £225 million, (€320 million) acquiring five separate parts of his former business.

The company started the year reorganising its debt to take account of more favourable interest rates. On the operating side, the company was bullish about the prospects for a new chewable oral contraceptive, Ovcon, the first product of its kind licensed by the US Food and Drugs Administration in 2003.

It also concluded a complicated rights deal with Barr Laboratories, whose all-share approach for the company last year had been undermined by share price movements. The deal brought to an end a patent dispute between the two parties.

Dr McClay severed his links with the group in April when he sold his remaining shares in the company. Two months later, the company decided to change name to Warner Chilcott, a brand that was seen as more identifiable in the key US healthcare markets.

The end game for the group as a listed entity came in mid-September when, with the shares in a dip on performance concerns around its anti-depressant Sarafem, a consortium featuring Goldman Sachs, the Blackstone Group and Mr David Bonderman's Texas Pacific launched an 800 pence a share bid.

The news attracted other suitors and, in the end, it was the CSFB/JP Morgan grouping Waren Acquisitions which persuaded rivals Bain Capital and Thomas J H Lee, to join its 837p a share offer, which won the day.

Warner Chilcott will open 2005 by surrendering its listings in Dublin, London and New York following completion of the £1.62 billion deal, having delivered handsome profits for its early investors, including staff and Queen's University, who were presented with substantial holdings when the company first listed in 1997.