Accutane Lawsuit Results in $25 Million For Patient with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Roche Pharmaceuticals lost another lawsuit last week in Atlantic City, New Jersey when the company was ordered to pay $25.16 million for its failure to warn consumers of side effects associated with the controversial acne medication, Accutane.

Andrew McCarrell, a 38-year-old computer technician from Birmingham, Alabama, received the payout after taking Accutane in his 20s and later developing inflammatory bowel disease, consequently forcing him to have his colon removed.

This is the second loss for Roche Pharmaceuticals in Atlantic City, where the nearby Hoffman-La Roche unit in Nutley, New Jersey produced Accutane until it was taken off the market this past June. In November 2008, the first verdict of $12.89 million was awarded to three Florida patients who developed severe inflammatory bowel disease after taking Accutane as teenagers.

Roche Pharmaceuticals has more than 750 individual lawsuits pending nationwide, and to-date has lost all six Accutane cases that have gone to verdict.

The central claim of each lawsuit is that Roche Pharmaceuticals failed to properly warn of the link between Accutane and the potential for severe bowel illness, depression, birth defects, and severe, sometimes fatal skin reactions.

The producer of Accutane claims it was not negligent in its product labeling, stating, “Roche acted appropriately in providing information about Accutane, including a direct warning about inflammatory bowel disease, to the medical, scientific and regulatory communities.”

Roche Pharmaceuticals cited increased generic drug competition and high litigation costs as reasons for their voluntary Accutane recall in June.