Serono develops and markets pharmaceuticals in the fields of reproductive health, multiple sclerosis, growth & metabolism and dermatology.

Through the acquisition in 1997 of GBRI from GlaxoWelcome, becoming its Geneva based research institute named SPRI, and the Manteia Predictive Medicine spin-off, Serono also nursed the emergence of now a commercial leading massive parallel sequencing technology.

Main manufacturing sites were in Switzerland, Italy, Spain and France; a fifth facility in Israel was closed in 2004 owing to its obsolescence.

Research and development facilities were maintained in Geneva, Switzerland, Boston, USA, and Ivrea, Italy.

In 2005, Serono agreed to a $704 million settlement with the Department of Justice to resolve civil and criminal allegations that the company engaged in a fraudulent scheme to promote the drug Serostim for off-label uses and paid out illegal kickbacks for prescribing the drug in violation of the False Claims Act.