Second Ever Accutane Lawsuit Wins $2.6M

Accutane lawyers are anxiously awaiting Kamie S. Kendall vs. Hoffmann-La Roche, the next Accutane lawsuit set to go to trial in the Atlantic County New Jersey Superior Courts. In 2008, Ms. Kendall won a $10.5 million settlement after a jury agreed that Accutane had caused her to develop an extremely traumatic case of inflammatory bowel disease and that drug warnings had not warned her of the risk of Accutane induced IBD. But in 2010, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, maker of the anti-acne drug Accutane, won an appeal. The original jury verdict was reversed and the case was sent back for retrial.



On March 2006, the US Food and Drug Administration implemented a risk management program to reduce the risk of fetal exposure, isotretinoin. Accutane is also used for the treatment of many other skin diseases, although Accutane has come under scrutiny after finding numerous risky side effects. As derivate of Vitamin A, isotretinoin is sold by Hoffman-La Roche Pharmaceuticals under 2 brand names, Accutane and Roaccutane. This drug works by reducing the sebaceous gland activity; hence an eventual reduction of the size of localized sebaceous glands. Accutane was found as a leading factor to birth defects and other adverse effects.

Kendall’s case was the second IBD case to go to trial in the New Jersey Accutane mass torts court. In June, a jury in the same court awarded $2.6 million in another IBD case. Last fall, a Florida jury decided Roche failed to adequately warn the publuc of the many adverse side effects of Accutane and helped cause Crohn’s disease in an unemployed, 31-year-old welder, who took the drug for nine years. Roche, which was ordered to pay $7 million in that case, faces about 400 such lawsuits in different courts.