Accutane Inflammatory Bowel Disease Harsh Blow to Roche

The makers of the controversial, banned acne drug Accutane have appealed a case they lost against plaintiff Kamie Kendall, who won $10 million after suffering Accutane inflammatory bowel disease. Roche went down a similar road back in 2007, with plaintiff Andrew McCarrell, who won over $2 million in his initial trial against the Swiss drugmaker. However, Roche appealed the case – as they are doing now with Kamie Kendall’s case – and ended up losing again. This time, the jury ruled that they should award McCarrell over $25 million – a staggering loss for the company, and a settlement that McCarrell surely never expected.

Despite Drug Manufacturers Protests, Accutane Settlements Rise

Accutane is a powerful acne medication manufactured by Hoffman LaRoche and the subject of an Accutane recall in 2009. According to scientists, Accutane has serious long term side effects including Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Although the acne medication was removed from the market in the United States in June 2009 amid concerns about an increased risk of those diseases, an official Accutane recall was not issued. There are currently nearly 3,500 Accutane lawsuits filed in New Jersey state court. The trial date set for October will involve several groupings of plaintiffs with similar facts and warnings in place at the time the medication was used.

Accutane Retrial Could Pose Problems for Plaintiff

Although the 2008 trial Kendall v. Roche won plaintiff Kamie Kendall a significant amount in damages, defense lawyers for the pharmaceuticals giant responsible for controversial acne drug Accutane were able to reverse the decision, leading to a future retrial for the case. This does not necessarily mean that Kendall will lose her case; in fact, such retrials have proven successful for plaintiffs such as Andrew McCarrell, whose Accutane win was appealed and the retrial granted him almost ten times more than the original amount he had been awarded.