October 29, 2003 BREAKING NEWS!!
Public Citizen renews call to ban Serzone antidepressant drug
Public Citizen issued a petition to immediately ban Serzone antidepressant drug in March 2003. Now, the consumer advocacy group has renewed its call after new reports of deaths and severe liver failure has been reported. Canadian officials announced it would remove Serzone because of its association to “hepatic adverse events such as jaundice, hepatitis and hepatocellular necrosis.”

There were over 2.8 million Serzone prescriptions filled in the U.S. last year alone. According to the director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, it is estimated that only about 10% of cases are reported, meaning there have been potentially hundred of Serzone deaths and hundreds of Serzone injuries.

Serzone has been controversial because the antidepressant has not been found to be any more effective than other antidepressants, yet there has been high risk of death and side effects. Wolfe has asked the FDA to follow in Canada’s footsteps and wrote the FDA that the U.S. is “lagging behind other countries in drug safety,” urging the FDA to “remove this drug from the market before more people are injured or killed.”

The World Health Organization and Health Canada has recently compared a number of different popular antidepressant drugs and found Serzone was the only drug linked to an increased risk for serious liver injury. Last January, Serzone maker Bristol-Myers stopped selling Serzone in Europe. The company responded saying the decision was made because of low sales and not Serzone safety concerns, but foreign regulators had voiced concerns about fatal liver failure at the time.

For more information on Serzone Injury contact us to confer with a Serzone Injury Lawyer.

October 28, 2003 BREAKING NEWS!!
Serzone suicide warning amongst children
The FDA is warning doctors that children and teens on Serzone and other antidepressant drugs may be at a higher suicide risk. The Serzone public health advisory was sent to healthcare providers October 27th after the FDA completed a preliminary review of 20 recent clinical trials of Serzone and seven other antidepressant drugs in more than 4,100 children.


January 15, 2002
Pharmaceutical Care Network (PCN) alerts physicians of Serzone liver damage.
A leading pharmacy benefit manager alerted physicians of the FDA required, black box warning for Serzone antidepressant. Cases of life threatening Serzone liver failures have been reported with Serzone patients at a rate of 1 case per 250,000 to 300,000 patient-years of Serzone treatment. The FDA issued a warning that any individual with active liver disease or elevated baseline serum transaminases should avoid Serzone use. PCN immediately alerted health care professionals, inclusive of physicians and pharmacists of the FDA black box warning in the December issue of Drug Therapy Council Newsletter.
(PR Newswire, 1-15-02)

For more information on Serzone Injury contact us to confer with a Serzone Injury Lawyer.