US jury orders Roche to pay $2.5m in first of 400 Accutane lawsuits

A jury in New Jersey, US, found that Roche failed adequately to warn a patient about the bowel disease risks associated with its potent acne medicine Accutane and awarded him $2.5m in damages.

The jury also found that the failure to warn was a major contributing cause of his contracting inflammatory bowel disease and awarded the plaintiff an additional $119,000 to cover medical expenses.

The trial was the first of about 400 US lawsuits involving Accutane, which has been on the market since 1982. Roche said it believes it has significant grounds to appeal against the verdict and intends to pursue them.

'Notwithstanding the verdict, the cause of inflammatory bowel disease remains unknown and there is no reliable scientific evidence that Accutane causes inflammatory bowel disease,' a company statement said, adding that the medicine's label has contained a bowel disease warning for more than 20 years.

Andrew McCarrell, a 36-year-old computer manager from Alabama, said he had undergone multiple surgeries, including having his colon removed, after taking the drug in 1995. His symptoms included chronic diarrhea and incontinence, according to court documents.

Jurors said they believed Roche should have done more testing of the drug after it was on the market and before McCarrell began using the medicine.