Accutane

Accutane Implicated In Causing Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Accutane is a synthetic form of vitamin A approved by the FDA for the treatment of serious, nodular acne back in the 1980s. Because of its high toxicity and serious side effects, Accutane was intended to be used as a “drug of last resort” to prevent scarring in the most severe acne cases, but after approval the drug became widely used in less-severe cases. The side effects of Accutane include serious birth defects, and the FDA required users of Accutane to enroll in a patient registry for that reason. (The only other drug that has ever required a patient registry was Thalidomide.)

In addition to a long list of less-serious side effects, Accutane has been implicated in causing inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis), a serious condition involving open sores in the bowel which can cause diarrhea, bleeding, and other abdominal problems. In severe cases, surgery to remove part or all of the colon is necessary to treat the effects of the drug.

The manufacturer of Accutane, Hoffmann-La Roche, is part of an international conglomerate known as “the La Roche group” with operations in 150 countries. Roche is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and for many years Accutane was one of its top sellers, with estimated annual sales exceeding $1.2 billion. Accutane has been the subject of extensive litigation in recent years, and Roche voluntarily removed the drug from the market in November 2009, primarily as a result of adverse verdicts against the company.

In May 2007, a patient who required colon surgery after taking Accutane obtained the first verdict against Roche in the amount of $2.5 million. That judgment was followed in October 2007 by a verdict of $7 million in favor of a man who had his colon removed after taking the drug. In April 2008, a 24-year-old woman who had part of her intestines removed won a $10 million verdict against Roche. The most recent case, tried in February 2010, resulted in a $25 million verdict for the plaintiff. Although Roche has vowed to appeal, those verdicts have so far all been upheld.

Greg Martin, a lawyer and senior partner in Martin & Jones, has more than 20 years experience successfully handling pharmaceutical cases against some of the largest drug companies in the world, including American Home Products (Fen-Phen), Warner-Lambert (Rezulin), Wyeth (Reglan), Merck (Vioxx), Eli Lilly (Permax), and Bayer (Trasylol).