B-MS to withdraw nefazodone in Europe

The difficulties facing Bristol-Myers Squibb do not show any sign ofabating (see also page 3), with the news that the company has elected to discontinue the marketing of its antidepressant nefazodone, marketed as Serzone in the USA, from the European market.

Nefazodone has already seen the end of its marketing in Sweden and the Netherlands after being linked to cases of liver damage, which led B-MS to tighten the label on the product with a "black box" warning at the end of 2001 (Marketletter December 17, 2001). In the latest development, the UK Medicines Control Agency has issued a statement noting that B-MS' decision on nefazodone comes after it has been linked to liver failure and/or death in 26 people worldwide.

In a letter sent to the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board towards the end of last year, the company said that it would stop selling nefazodone after April 1, 2003, while it was taken off the market in Sweden in 2002. In the USA, B-MS has been taken to court by lawyers representing patients who claim to have been harmed by the antidepressant.