Viloxazine was discovered by scientists at Imperial Chemical Industries when they recognized that some beta blockers inhibited serotonin reuptake inhibitor activity in the brain at high doses. To improve the ability of their compounds to cross the blood brain barrier, they changed the ethanolamine side chain of beta blockers to a morpholine ring, leading to the synthesis of viloxazine.[14]:610[15]:9 The drug was first marketed in 1976.[16] It was never approved by the FDA,[5] but the FDA granted it an orphan designation (but not approval) for cataplexy and narcolepsy in 1984.[17] It was withdrawn from markets worldwide in 2002 for business reasons.[14][6]