Femoxetine


Femoxetine is a drug related to paroxetine that was being developed as an antidepressant by Danish pharmaceutical company Ferrosan in 1975 before acquisition by Novo Nordisk. It acts as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Development was halted to focus attention on paroxetine instead, given femoxetine's inability to be administered as a daily pill.
Both femoxetine and paroxetine were invented in the 1970s by Jorgen Buus-Lassen. Jorgen Buus-Lassen's name is on the pharmacology paper, however.
After Ferrosan's acquisition, femoxetine died from neglect.

Analogs

  1. Addition of the para-fluoro atom results in a different compound that is a hybrid of femoxetine & paroxetine named , which has a separate patent. According to the patent tables, incorporation of the fluorine atom potentiated the 5-HT affinity considerably.
  2. Pfizer made some similar analogs in. E.g. a Viloxazine type of catechol ether is used, but 4-phenyl instead of based on a morpholine ring.