Six months after a corporate battle for control of pharmaceuticals and health care giant Corange Ltd., those closely watching the firm believe it is again on the right track.

Bermuda-based Corange Ltd. is a privately-owned $10-billion holding company for Boehringer Mannheim and the DePuy group of companies, which operate globally with 21,000 employees. Boehringer operates about 160 companies in the pharmaceutical, biological and chemical industries.

Corange remains principally owned by the family of Bermuda resident, Mr. Curt Engelhorn, who lives on Five Star Island.

Wracked with a crisis that led to the departure of the board of directors and the ouster of an unpopular management team, the family had to go to Supreme Court in May to regain control over private trusts that contained the voting shares for the company.

Gone is CEO Dr. Max Link and his management team. Gone also are the methods he employed for running the company that proved unpopular with the family of owners and with the staff who worked under him.

The company is having to live with decisions taken during Dr. Link's reign that included the acquisition of a stake in two US companies. One is Protein Design Labs, a California company that designs protein molecules for biological or medical use. The second company was Washington-based Cell Pro.

Company insiders believe the purchases were expensive and unnecessary, and say that as investments they are not likely to pay off in the foreseeable future.

While the company is doing everything it can to make the best of the situation, the acquisitions were considered to be a departure from the company's policies.

Dr. Link became extremely unpopular in the company because of his management style. The company started experiencing labour unrest and a significant "brain drain'' that saw promising young employees leaving the company. Labour wounds appear to be healed, now and morale is said to be on the upswing.

A source close to the company believes the firm has now stabilised and is making a full recovery. Some degree of discord within the family also appears to be dissipating and there is more optimism about the company's future.

The corporate squabbling aside, Corange has been in the news in recent days for more positive things. The Bermuda College received a $1 million donation from the company for a science centre.

Corange's Boehringer Mannheim and Eli Lilly & Company joined forces to market diabetes products in the US. The marketing agreement will provide an opportunity for the two firms to use each other's products in conjunction with their own in the treatment of diabetes.