In the winter of 2010, a New Jersey court presided over a case where a plaintiff, who claimed he developed a severe side effect following the use of an acne medication, was awarded more than $25 million in damages and medical compensation. The drug in question was the acne medication Accutane. The side effect that the plaintiff developed following his use of Accutane was Crohn’s disease. Complications from the onset of this condition forced the surgical removal of the plaintiff’s colon, all because he sought an effective treatment for a case of acne. Please contact us for the latest Accutane lawsuit 2010 update.
What Is Accutane?
Accutane is a potent, powerful medication derived from the chemical isotretinoin, itself made from vitamin A. It was designed by Roche Pharmaceuticals to treat the most severe cases of acne. Described by Roche Pharmaceuticals and doctors as an acne treatment “of last resort,” it was made specifically for patients who experienced no success with any other forms of acne treatments. Concerning the severe nature of Accutane long term side effects, this designation seems a little too prescient for its own good.
Roche Pharmaceuticals still claims that Accutane, being an all natural derivative of a chemical that occurs naturally in the human blood stream, is completely safe. They further assert that the side effects are either coincidental or that they were fully disclosed to patients prior to prescription, during consultation with doctors. The fact that Roche Pharmaceuticals claims potentially contradictory defenses for Accutane should raise a few questions about the subject.
Many of the Accutane bowel problems concern the rapid onset of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD). These diseases include Crohn’s disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, ulcerative colitis, and some forms of liver damage. Other side effects of Accutane include severely dry skin, nose bleeds, rashes, and the onset of severe depression and suicidal thoughts in adolescent patients.
Accutane Lawsuits and Crohn’s Disease
Due to the rapid onset of these side effects, most notably Crohn’s disease and other Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, lawsuits are being filed in New Jersey courts on behalf of plaintiffs located all over the country. Roche Pharmaceuticals has begun undertaking negotiations for out of court settlements of Accutane cases. Roche Pharmaceuticals faces more than 1,000 lawsuits from patients that have developed these chronic, painful and debilitating side effects.
Accutane Lawsuit Information
Because of the enormous number of lawsuits concerning Accutane’s side effects, court dockets in New Jersey are very busy. In the fall of 2009, Roche Pharmaceuticals pulled Accutane out of the market, off of pharmacy shelves and out of doctors’ offices around the world. They claimed at the time that this was due to competition from generic forms of the drug that were hitting their bottom line. Yet just a couple of months later, Roche Pharmaceuticals lost its third case over Accutane side effects years later, and faced more than 1,000 more.