Orlando Injury Lawyers Report on Accutane Verdict
In a drug product liability action against, Roche Holding, a jury found that the giant pharmaceutical maker failed to adequately warn a patient of the bowel disease risks associated with its acne medicine Accutane and awarded $2.5 million in damages. The jury, during its third day of deliberations, decided that the failure to warn was a major contributing cause of the plaintiff contracting the bowel disease and awarded an additional $119,000 to cover medical expenses.
The trial was the first of about 400 U.S. lawsuits involving Accutane, which has been on the market since 1982. Roche, which runs its U.S. operation out of Nutley, New Jersey, said it believes it has significant grounds to appeal the verdict and intends to pursue them. "Notwithstanding the verdict, the cause of inflammatory bowel disease remains unknown and there is no reliable scientific evidence that Accutane causes inflammatory bowel disease," the company said in a statement, adding that the medicine's label has contained a bowel disease warning for more than 20 years.
In considering New Jersey state consumer fraud charges, the jury in New Jersey Superior Court found for Roche, saying the company did not misrepresent or conceal Accutane's bowel risks prior to June 1995. The plaintiff, a 36-year-old computer manager from Alabama, had undergone multiple surgeries, including having his colon removed, after taking the drug in 1995. His reported symptoms included chronic diarrhea and incontinence.
Importantly, in this case, the jurors interviewed following the verdict said they believed Roche Holding should have done more testing of Accutane after it was on the market and before the plaintiff began using the drug. That bodes well for the other claims that are pending against this pharmaceutical company.
