(Reuters) -The European Union’s medicine regulator has begun a review of some medicines that contain sodium oxybate and are used to treat alcohol withdrawal syndrome, it said on Friday.
Sodium oxybate is an active ingredient that calms the activity of certain cells in the central nervous system and is also used to treat narcolepsy.
The European Medicines Agency’s human medicines committee will review the benefit-risk balance of sodium oxybate to treat alcohol withdrawal syndrome and support long-term alcohol abstinence, the agency said.
The review comes after the French medicines agency flagged concerns about effectiveness of the ingredient and the risk of abuse or misuse due to its effects on the brain.
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)
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