The Netherlands Medicine Assessments Board (CBG) announced Wednesday that it will begin an investigation of the anti-depressant drug nefazodone, sold in the Netherlands under the brand name Dutonin and in the United States as Serzone, after receiving 26 reports of liver failure and several reports of deaths worldwide.
Although only one of these cases involved a patient living in the Netherlands, the CBG plans to open an investigation due to the seriousness of the medication's potential side effects. Manufactured by Bristol-Meyers Squibb, nefazodone includes a black box warning on its label, the strongest warning a medication can carry, alerting consumers to its link to liver failure. The medication has already been voluntarily withdrawn from the Swedish market.