Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-05/roche-wins-reversal-of-10-5-million-accutane-verdict-based-on-judge-error.html
Roche Wins Reversal of $10.5 Million Accutane Verdict in New Jersey Case
By Jef Feeley - Aug 5, 2010 7:24 PM ET
Roche Holding AG won reversal of a $10.5 million verdict over its Accutane acne drug because a judge improperly barred the company from using evidence about the medication’s use, an appeals court ruled.
Roche’s lawyers should have been able to use data about how many acne sufferers had used Accutane over the years throughout Kamie Kendall’s 2008 trial of her lawsuit over the drug, the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division ruled today. The decision prompted a judge in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to delay the trial of an actor’s suit alleging the medication causes inflammatory bowel disease.
“Roche was unduly impeded at this trial from adducing and advocating numerical proofs that could have potentially and reasonably led a jury to reach a different verdict,” the appeals court said in an 89-page unpublished decision.
About 13 million people have taken Accutane, once Roche’s second-biggest selling drug, since it went on the market in 1982. Roche, based in Basel, Switzerland, lost patent protection on the drug in 2002 and continued to sell it along with generic competitors. In addition to bowel disease, Accutane has been linked to birth defects and depression.
Roche, the world’s biggest maker of cancer drugs, pulled its brand-name Accutane off the market in 2009 after juries awarded millions of dollars in damages to former users over the bowel-disease claims.