Accutane Lawyers Prepare For Thousands of Trials

5,169 lawsuits against drugmaker Roche in regards to the once-popular acne drug Accutane are currently pending in the New Jersey State Court. A few cases have already gone to trial, but it could be years before others are decided. Some plaintiffs may be settled with out-of-court for undisclosed amounts. This might be necessary in order for drugmaker Roche to deal with the sheer number of Accutane lawsuits that have already been filed – and that are likely to keep coming in. The first few Accutane suits were filed in January of 2003, and since then the number has continued to increase exponentially.

Since the beginning of 2011 alone the number of Accutane cases has more than doubled, with around 2,500 in January 2011 increasing the 5,169 that were reported as of June of this year. It looks like the number will keep increasing, if the pattern continues – the first six months of 2011 showed a 25 percent increase in the number of cases filed as compared to the number filed in the entire year of 2010. The increased media coverage of the trials may be a contributing factor to the number of lawsuits being filed at this time.

Accutane side effect lawsuits are likely to revolve around a small group of very serious side effects, namely inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease. Each of these conditions is a gastrointestinal disorder that can be permanent and have an impact on a patient’s health and quality of life for the rest of their lives.

Some Accutane cases have already been decided, with a few resulting in a substantial settlement being awarded to the plaintiff and some others ending with the jury siding with the defendant, Roche. Most lawsuits that have been filed allege that Roche failed to appropriately warn patients of the serious side effects that have been linked to Accutane, as was the case with the lawsuit of Kamie Kendall. Ms Kendall, from Utah, won $10.6 million in damages from Roche during her 2008 case, but in 2010 it was determined that evidence was barred unfairly, and the verdict was thrown out. Her retrial is forthcoming.

It is not yet clear whether or not lawsuits regarding generic forms of Accutane will be included in Accutane mass tort litigation.