Roche drug litigation suit pays $13M to Accutane users
2008-11-20 22:29:03 (GMT) (Caymanmama.com - Law News)
Drug maker Roche has been ordered to pay $13 million to three users Accutane who developed a chronic bowel disorder
Providence, Rhode Island (CaymanMama.com) — Swiss drug maker Roche has been ordered by a jury to pay approximately $13 million in restitution to three users of the company’s acne drug Accutane who claimed to have developed a chronic bowel disorder.
Roche’s U.S. subsidiary Hoffman-La Roche is planning on appealing the verdict.
The award was handed down in New Jersey State Superior Court on Thursday. The three Florida patients will split the settlement, their attorneys said in a statement.
The patients all started using the acne drug over ten years ago to treat teen-related acne problems. One of the three patients is scheduled to have his colon removed while the other two patients will require long-term drug rehabilitation, the attorneys said.
This drug litigation suit is not the first for Roche; previous lawsuits have been filed against the drug maker accusing them of minimizing the link between Accutane and inflammatory bowel disease. Statistics show that about 1.4 million people in North America suffer from inflammatory bowel disease.
The contradiction is clear since the warning label on the acne drug says it is “associated with” chronic bowel problems, but Roche claims that there is no direct link between Accutane and the disease.
The plaintiff’s lawyers presented internal Roche studies that they claim show the drug maker was aware of the damage Accutane has caused to the intestinal tract leading to inflammatory bowel disease.
“This is an important outcome and consistent with the recognition by the medical community that Accutane is a trigger for IBD,” said David Buchanan, a partner with Seeger Weiss in New York who worked on behalf of the plaintiffs.
Hoffman-La Roche said in a statement “there is no reliable scientific evidence that Accutane actually causes” inflammatory bowel disease.
CaymanMama.com - Press Release Distribution Service
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