Infertility

The company generates three-quarters of its sales from the multiple-sclerosis medicine Rebif, which was first sold in 1998, and fertility drug Gonal-f, the first biological copy of a follicle-stimulating hormone, that was approved for sale in 1995.

Rebif faces competition from new oral treatments as well as Elan Corp.'s Tysabri, which may return to the market in coming months.

First Signal The announcement ``is a first signal the company is not up for sale,'' Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch analyst Bob Pooler said in a note to investors.

``The company will become more aggressive in strengthening its product portfolio to reduce the dependency on flagship MS treatment Rebif.'' The drugmaker has been buying products to revive growth and move into new disease areas such as oncology and dermatology.

It acquired rights to Genentech Inc.

and Xoma Ltd.'s psoriasis therapy Raptiva outside the U.S.

and Asia and experimental cancer drugs from companies including Genmab A/S and Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Some of the drugs the company bought as well as those it developed weren't successful.

Serono dropped the development of psoriasis treatment onercept and melanoma drug Canvaxin in April 2005 and The company had to pay $725 million last year to settle...

He said: "The figures for chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis are extremely worrying because they are indicating people are having unsafe sex.

"Syphilis rates had been low in England with less than 400 cases per year.

"However, in the last five years we have seen increases in syphilis with more than 2,000 cases reported in England in 2004.

To see such a rapid reemergence of a condition that had more or less disappeared is a worrying thing." He said there had been a change in people's sexual behaviour.

"People are having sex earlier and people are changing partners more often," he said.

"We know from lifestyle surveys that people are more likely to have two sexual partners concurrently than, for example, in 1999." Education - or lack of it - is a huge issue.

Luke said: "I think there are real issues in getting across the message about condoms providing protection against STIs in addition to the broader contraceptive message around preventing unwanted pregnancy.

The message has to be about condoms and femidoms.

"And we need to get the message across that it is OK not to be having sex.

In this country we have been quite far behind some of our European partners in developing programmes for sex education.

We also know the UK has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Europe." Messages about...