UPDATE: Ratiopharm to be sold after Merckle suicide

German billionaire entrepeneur Adolf Merckle, whose generics firm Ratiopharm is to be sold to cover mounting debts, has taken his own  life, his family has said.

In a statement, Mr Merckle's wife and children said that helplessness in  the face of the financial crisis had "broken" the industrialist. He was  hit by a train near his home in Blaubeurne on the evening of January 5.

Mr Merckle's drug empire, which also includes Germany's biggest drug  wholesaler Phoenix Pharmahandel, is to be offered as collateral on a  loan extension from 40 banks that he was unable to repay on time at the  end of last year as his VEM empire had amassed a reported 5.0 billion  euros in debts ($6.81 billion). The entrepeneur lost out heavily by  short-selling stock in car-maker Volkswagen, along with a series of  highly-leveraged acquisitions in recent years.