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Brian Buchan has paid the price for failing to sell SSL International's medical business to 3i by agreeing to step aside as chief executive of the company that makes Durex condoms and Dr Scholl sandals.

Garry Watts, who is finance director and head of the company's European operations, will take over as chief executive on April 1.

SSL yesterday said Mr Buchan was leaving by mutual agreement, and added he would leave the company in a far better position than it was in February 2001 when he took over from Iain Cater, who now faces fraud charges over the company's accounts.

In spite of progress, the board is understood to have lost patience with Mr Buchan after exclusive talks with 3i dragged on for three months without agreement.

People who have worked with Mr Watts said his move to the top job was almost a formality.

"You could easily have made the mistake of thinking Garry was the chief executive," one said.

Mr Watts is credited with discovering an alleged fraud that had inflated sales at SSL when he was brought in as finance director after a series of profit warnings in 2001. Five former SSL executives were charged with fraud in November after a

Serious Fraud Office investigation into the healthcare company's finances.

SSL this month ended talks to sell its antiseptics and surgical gloves business but has reopened negotiations with another potential buyer, thought to be Apax Partners, the private equity group.

The planned disposal is part of a restructuring aimed at unravelling a string of acquisitions that saw family-owned Seton merge with Scholl and then acquire London International Group in the 1990s in an effort to become a leading international healthcare company.

At one time SSL was valued at £1.4bn, but following the discovery of the alleged fraud that had inflated sales, investors lost confidence in its strategy and the indebted company decided to sell its medical operations to focus on Durex and Dr Scholl, its best-known consumer brands.

There has been speculation that SSL was being stalked by Reckitt Benckiser or another retail brands group keen to acquire it after SSL revealed it had rejected an approach after talks with a potential buyer in September last year.

The shares, which have fallen 10 per cent this year, closed up 4p at 297p, valuing the group at £562m.

By David Firn
Financial Times

Men have been given unrealistic expectations of the benefits of Viagra, researchers have said. Erectile dysfunction sufferers who took the drug but found it did not work were left demoralised.

A study of 40 men by the Royal Hampshire Hospital, published in the British Medical Journal, showed most had high hopes for the treatment.

The media's "sensational reporting" of Viagra was blamed for the distress caused when it failed to work.

Researchers interviewed a random sample of 40 men with an average age of 52 who had been prescribed Viagra and had attended a men's health clinic in the year before the study.

Erectile dysfunction caused serious distress to all those men who suffered from it, with marked effects on their self-esteem and well-being.

There was generally an improvement in well-being when Viagra, the generic name for which is sildenafil, was successful. But when it failed the distress was severe.

Fault

Many of the men said this was the fault of media hype.

The researchers at the Royal Hampshire Hospital's men's health clinic said: "The media have had a major effect on expectations of sildenafil, and in retrospect, less sensational reporting would have lowered those expectations to the patients' benefit."

Health professionals also needed to be aware of the extreme distress erectile dysfunction could cause, they said.

Ann Tailor, director of the Sexual Dysfunction Association, said: "There was a very high expectation of Viagra. It was portrayed as a wonder drug in the press - take this and get the best sex life.

"For many people who have taken it, it has been safe and effective, but there have been a number of men who it has not worked for."

The reasons why it had not worked were not always understood, she said. The drug should not be taken after food or alcohol and sexual stimulation is still required for it to have the desired effect.

Therapy

Mrs Tailor added that if patients had psychological problems because of the failure of the treatment, or the erectile dysfunction itself, they should seek sexual therapy.

Prof Dinesh Bhugra, at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, said: "There is no doubt that people who invest a lot of hope in a particular kind of treatment, when it does not work, they feel much worse because it makes them stand out.

"They think, if it works for everyone else I must be much worse."

However, the reality was that there were a number of factors in individual cases, both physical and psychological, Prof Bhugra said.

Health professionals should consider a range of treatments suitable to the patient, he said.

BBC News

Almost one in four of all teenage girls aged 16 and 17 in Britain takes the contraceptive pill, figures suggest.

The proportion has risen from 17% to 24% in four years, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Campaigners for contraception and sexual health have welcomed the results of Living in Britain, a report on the 2002 General Household Survey.

The study also looks at other aspects of daily life including smoking, drinking and consumer goods like cars.

The survey - which compared figures in 1998/9 with those in 2002/3 - indicates just over a quarter of all women use the contraceptive pill, with the biggest increase in the 16 to 17 age bracket.

The proportion of 30 to 34 year olds and women aged 45 to 49 taking the Pill has also grown, it says.

Overall, researchers found 19% of women aged 16 to 49 had partners who preferred to use a condom.

Among teenagers aged 16 and 17, condom use by partners rose from 18% to 23% in the four years from 1999 to 2003.

The report says one in seven of all women between 16 and 49 uses at least one method of contraception, a figure which has remained fairly constant since 1986.

Family Planning Association spokeswoman Melissa Dear said: "It's very positive news.

"It shows women have confidence in the Pill and are happy using it.

"I think the rise in use in women at both ends of the spectrum shows that the message that the Pill is safe for women of any age is getting through."

She said she hoped the figures would dispel the "doom and gloom" surrounding teenage pregnancy rates - a figure which she said had declined by 9.4% in under-18s since 1998.

Sterilisation rise

"It's particularly encouraging to see that women are taking condoms seriously and using them too," she said.

"Considering the rise in sexually transmitted infections, it means condom use is particularly important."

Ms Dear said the increase in contraceptive use among teenagers was probably a result of improved sex education and access to services for young people.

The number of women aged 45 to 49 choosing sterilisation of one or both partners as a contraceptive method showed a big rise, from 35% in 1986 to 44% in 2002.

But the proportion of younger women, aged 25 to 39, opting for sterilisation has fallen, the report suggests.

The percentage of women aged 16 to 49 who had taken the "morning after pill" once during the last year was 5% - a small decrease on the year before.

A spokeswoman for Marie Stopes International said: "We welcome these statistics but there is still a lot of work to be done to encourage young people to use reliable contraceptive methods."

The survey was compiled after the Office for National Statistics questioned people aged 16 and over from more than 8,500 households to gather a picture of households, families and individuals living in Britain.

BBC News

Ways to deal with the rise in sexually transmitted infections in Cumbria are due to be discussed at a conference.

There are now more than three times as many cases of chlamydia in North Cumbria than three years ago.

And last week, North Cumbria Primary Care Trust revealed on average one new person a month contracts the HIV virus.

Monday's conference in Penrith aims to improve sexual health and HIV services and to reduce the number of cases of sexually transmitted infections.

The conference organiser Sally Cawley, who is the HIV and sexual health expert for North Cumbria, said: "We are doing a lot through schools but there is still obviously, and particularly I think amongst young men, an awful lot more that we need to do."

'Healthier attitude'

She said among the things they have done is to fund a young men's health worker post working around these issues

She said the issues included ignorance about facts and risks as well as having the skills to negotiate safer sex.

Ms Cawley said: "Today is not just about people having a day out from work or sitting about and talking

"The title of the conference is 'Meeting the challenge' and delegates will be going away all committed to doing something different and extra to be part of this fight against sexually transmitted infections and to promote a healthier attitude towards sex and sexuality and support for people with HIV."

The chair of the government advisory group on sexual health Baroness Gould will be speaking at the conference and there will be two representative from the Department for Health.

BBC News

The terminology was enough to make the more faint-hearted Liberal Democrat choke on his or her cup of Earl Grey tea.

Talk of vibrators, orifices, sexual fantasies and brothels - not the usual stuff of party conferences - bounced off the walls of the Southport Theatre and Floral Hall Complex.

The Lib Dems' spring conference was debating the thorny issue of whether to give teenagers permission to watch dirty films and thumb through porn magazines when they reach 16.

The party's culture spokesman Don Foster argued that if people that age could have sex, get married and even have babies, why couldn't they watch a sexually explicit video?

'Horrible motion'

After all, "matters of taste should have no role in censorship", he said.

His colleague Steve Webb had a slightly less liberal view - he worried that if 16 year olds got hold of this stuff, where would it stop?

He had visions of 13, 14 and 15 year olds being given a glimpse of what their older peers were now allowed to see.

Activist Lynne Ravenscroft, a former magistrate, went one stage further and urged the party to "reject this horrible motion".

She said after 23 years in the courts, passing judgement on many sexually explicit videos, she had concluded that pornography "is not about the enjoyment of sex, it's about denigration, it's about violence".

Human dignity

The hall fell silent as this bespectacled woman, wearing a bright pink top, green cardigan and black and white striped tights, warned about the fate of some of the stars.

Some were young girls abducted from Nepal, she said. Many ended up spending their time in Indian brothels dying of Aids.

"These are the people you will find on your pornographic videos ... what choice do they have?" she asked.

There was some applause when she stressed: "This is no policy for a mature political party that wants to take power at the next election.

"I thought we believed in protecting the rights and the dignity of all human beings!"

By this time, some delegates were loosening their collars, but there was no let-up in the sexual banter.

Arnie Gibbons, a balding councillor who represents part of the notorious red light district of Kings Cross, gave an almost tourist guide's view of the area, which he said, boasted two porn cinemas, saunas, private sex clubs, "at least one brothel" and a licensed sex shop.

"The reality is, sex is a very natural activity," he said, sagely. "Like the prohibition of alcohol in the US, banning it will not make it go away."

Among those to follow him was a 17-year-old youth, who promised his appeal for an age reduction was not about self interest.

Alison Goldsworthy, a former chair of the Lib Dems' youth wing and a prospective European parliamentary candidate, asked why some people believed smoking at 16 was less harmful than viewing porn.

However, Martin Turner, a 37-year-old lead guitarist "in a hard rock band", warned that 18 was the earliest people should be allowed to watch porn, otherwise it could end up making its way around the schools.

The activists, now immune to the debate's explicit nature, rejected that argument and decided 16 was a perfectly acceptable age for watching X-rated movies.

As the debate moved on to other weighty matters, including the pros and cons of euthanasia, some delegates left the auditorium, eager for a lungful of bracing, but fresh, Southport air.

by Jackie Storer
BBC News Online political staff

BBC News

An Australian man caught driving without a licence told police he was on an urgent mission to deliver condoms his cousin.

The Northern Territory News reports magistrates in Darwin heard how 24-year-old Lee Collinson was pulled over by officers in October.

When asked why he was driving without a licence, he said: "My cousin was about to (have sex with) this girl and he needed his bum bag because it had his condoms in it."

Magistrate David Loadman said: "Carrying condoms to a mate who is in desperate need must be something much better than the good Samaritan ever did.

"I cannot imagine the scene. This woman, about to embrace passionately, is waiting for the condom arrival. Bizarre in the extreme."

He told Collinson: "When the Poms ask Australians to define mateship, your circumstances could serve as a very good example."

Collinson, of Darwin, was fined $100. Outside court he said: "I don't regret my actions and I would do it again. My cousin is like a brother to me.

"And at least he was practising safe sex. He was being responsible. He got the condoms and I think he had a good night."

Ananova.com

The lesbian student who auctioned her virginity on the internet is to choose the winner shortly. Rosie Reid, 18, will meet the five top bidders to assess their suitability before selecting one.

The Bristol University student has been offered up to £8,400, which she says she will use for university fees.

The university authorities have distanced themselves from her actions. The biggest bid was from a 44-year-old man, Ms Reid's spokesman said.

The second highest bid was £8,000 from a 39-year-old London-based "professional", the spokesman added.

The website promoting the sale said: "Rosie's auction highlights the financial problems that face today's students."

Lengthy hours

In January Ms Reid said: "It started as a joke, and ended up as 'why not?'

"I am devoting too much time to paid employment and not enough to studying. I am not achieving as much as I could."

The student from Dulwich, south-east London, currently works lengthy hours in order to pay for tuition fees and living accommodation in Bristol.

"I'll leave university £15,000 in debt. That's why I am taking this drastic action."

BBC News

Teenage pregnancies have risen fastest in areas where the government has tried to reduce them, campaigners say.

Teenagers should be taught the benefits of not having underage sex rather than being given the means to have sex, Family and Youth Concern says.

President Valerie Riches called the government's efforts to cut teenage pregnancy a "disaster".

The Department of Health says access to contraception is just part of its strategy to combat teenage pregnancy.

In a booklet entitled Sex Education or Indoctrination published on Monday the group claims the government's efforts to half pregnancies in under-18s by 2010 are not working.

Earlier this month, it was revealed latest figures showed that the number of teenagers becoming pregnant had increased by 2.2%.

The number of under-18s who became pregnant in England and Wales rose from 40,966 in 2001 to 41,868 in 2002, according to government statistics.

'No questions asked'

Mrs Riches said areas with special programmes to tackle the problem had seen a rise in teenage pregnancies, citing increases of 22.4% in Torbay and 16.4% in Cornwall

"They seem to be actively urging young people to have sex with the free availability of contraception, no questions asked and with parents out of the loop," she said.

She said the "vast majority" of youngsters did not want to have sex and that girls, in particular, felt under pressure to "give it away".

"Until our sexual educators overcome their phobia about abstinence and their obsession with sexual expression, they are unlikely to make any positive progress", she added.

A Department of Health spokesman said providing access to contraception should be seen "in the overall context" of the government's teenage pregnancy and sexual health strategies.

"This includes helping young people to resist pressure to have early sex through improved sex and relationship education.

"It also includes improving knowledge of risks of unprotected sex, increasing early uptake of contraceptive and sexual health advice by sexually active young people and involving parents and the wider community", he added.

BBC News

Zambia has banned the distribution of condoms in schools as a measure to counter the spread of Aids.

Education Minister Andrew Mulenga said condoms were encouraging young people to have premarital sex.

The directive contradicts the health ministry's campaign against the disease within educational institutions and has been condemned by activists.

Some 120,000 Zambians die from Aids each year, according to United Nations figures.

Denial

Mr Mulenga said students should be advised to abstain from sex as a measure to fight the disease instead of being urged to use condoms which promote immorality.

A BBC correspondent in Lusaka, says the health ministry has been working with non-governmental organisations in awareness campaigns where condoms are distributed to students.

Condoms are freely available in some schools in Zambia.

Anti-aids activists who have been distributing the condoms have denounced the government announcement.

"We can't continue living in denial. We need to protect the young from this deadly disease," Prof Nkandu Luo, a former health minister turned Aids activist told AFP news agency.

Zambia is one of the countries in southern African most seriously affected by the disease.

BBC News

A German court has rejected a claim from an unemployed man who wanted the state to provide him with pornographic material and free visits to a brothel.

The 35-year-old man took his local authority to court after the foreign ministry refused to pay an airfare for his Thai wife to travel to Germany.

He argued that they should compensate him for his lack of sex.

But the court in the southern town of Ansbach said such activities should be paid out of his welfare benefits.

A court spokesman said the man was planning to appeal.

Unfulfilled needs

The unnamed man argued that, as his wife lived in Thailand, the local authority had to compensate him for his "considerable sexual needs".

The 2,500-euro claim (?1,700, $3,050) a month was to fund weekly brothel trips, eight pornographic videos and transport costs to and from a video store.

"I require the brothel visits for my physical and psychological wellbeing," the man said in his application.

But the court said social security benefits already covered "everyday requirements".

BBC News