Utah Woman Developed Inflammatory Bowel Disease After Using This Hoffman-LaRoche Drug
(Posted by Tom Lamb at DrugInjuryWatch.com)
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Update: Roche Wins Reversal of $10.5 Million Accutane Verdict in New Jersey CaseBy Jef Feeley - Aug 5, 2010
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could have potentially and reasonably led a jury to reach a different verdict,” the appeals court said in an 89-page unpublished decision....
(8/6/10)
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Update: Accutane Retrial Verdict: Roche Ordered to Pay $25 Million to Accutane User
By David Voreacos and John Martin - Feb 16, 2010
Roche Holding AG, the Swiss drugmaker, must pay $25.16 million in damages to a former user of its Accutane drug who blamed the acne medicine for his inflammatory bowel disease, a New Jersey jury ruled.
Andrew McCarrell, 38, won the verdict today at a retrial in Atlantic City, New Jersey. An appeals court ordered the new trial after overturning a $2.62 million award he won in May 2007. McCarrell, a computer technician from Birmingham, Alabama, testified he got sick after taking the drug for acne in 1995. He needed five surgeries, including one to remove his colon....
(2/18/10)
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A 24-year old woman from Utah was awarded more than $10 million in legal compensation by a New Jersey state court jury in a trial involving the allegation that Accutane (isotretinoin), a prescription acne medication, caused her inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The case is Kamie S. Kendall v. Hoffman-La Roche Inc., No. ATL-L-8213-05-MT, N.J. Super., Atlantic Co.
From an April 23, 2008 article, "Jury Awards $10.5 Million Over Accutane", by Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Heather Won Tesoriero:
The jury awarded $10.5 million of compensatory damages plus $78,500 for medical expenses. The judge presiding over the case ruled there was insufficient evidence to allow the jury to consider punitive damages or consumer fraud....
Since it was introduced in 1982, Accutane, which is still sold, has been taken by roughly 13 million people in the U.S. A company spokesman said in a statement that "the Accutane labeling has contained a warning about IBD for more than 20 years."
In May 2007 the first New Jersey case against Hoffman-La Roche Inc. for the failure to warn that its acne drug Accutane can cause inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) went to trial; it resulted in a $2.6 million verdict against the drug company.
A second Accutane trial in October 2007 ended with a jury awarding $7 million to the plaintiff.
A Hoffman-LaRoche spokesman said the company plans to appeal all three Accutane verdicts, according to the April 23 WSJ article.