Accutane Lawsuits Build Momentum

A number of Accutane lawsuits have already been decided, with significant wins both for drugmaker Hoffman-La Roche and patients who have been winning damages in the millions as decided by a panel of jurors present for their personal injury case. Roche has challenged a number of the decisions if they were in favor of the plaintiff; however, in most cases in which Roche appealed, they lost their appeal. Patients who can prove Accutane inflammatory bowel disease was related to the acne treatment drug Accutane may be able to win millions of dollars in damages, depending on their case filed by Accutane lawyer.

Accutane is a medication that is extremely powerful and was only approved for use on moderate to severe acne that did not respond well to other treatments such as topical ointments and antibiotic regimens. However, a number of doctors began to prescribe it for patients who only had mild to moderate acne. This put a number of patients at risk who should not have been using the medication in the first place, and these patients are among those who have filed suit against Hoffman-La Roche because of serious gastrointestinal conditions they developed that may have been related to their use of the controversial drug.

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are two of the most common inflammatory bowel diseases that Accutane has been linked to. Symptoms can include weight loss (even to the point of malnutrition in extreme cases), unexplained fatigue, frequent and sometimes bloody diarrhea, frequent bouts of vomiting, and severe abdominal pain. These symptoms often plague a patient throughout his or her life as there is no cure for inflammatory bowel disease. There are a number of treatments, but in extreme cases Crohn’s disease may result in intestinal blockage. If this happens a portion of the patient’s bowel may need to be surgically removed in a procedure that, like all surgeries, can be risky. This will not cure the disease, but may alleviate some of the more serious symptoms.

Patients with Accutane inflammatory bowel disease may need to be hospitalized on and off for the rest of their lives and often have symptoms on a daily basis.