Germany's SCHWARZ PHARMA (EUR 900 mil turnover forecast for 2006, workforce of 4400) has accepted a takeover bid of around EUR 4.4 bn from Belgium's UCB (EUR 2.3 bn turnover in 2005, workforce of 8300). The merged company will have a turnover of more than EUR 3.3 bn, with an R&D budget of EUR 770 million a year. SCHWARZ's shareholders will get EUR 50 in cash and 0.8735 of an UCB ordinary share for each share.