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Accutane Lawsuits Total More
Than $33 Million
February 17, 2010
A Birmingham-area man won a $25.16 million
verdict Tuesday against a Swiss drugmaker, after claiming
its acne medicine led to inflammatory bowel disease.
Andrew McCarrell, 38, won the verdict
against Switzerland-based Roche Holding AG after a retrial
in state court in New Jersey, where a company unit that
produced the drug Accutane is based. An appeals court
ordered the new trial after overturning a $2.62 million
award McCarrell won in May 2007.
McCarrell is a computer technician who
has lived in the Birmingham area 13 to 15 years. He
testified he got sick after taking Accutane in 1995.
He needed five surgeries, including one to remove his
colon.
"I never thought it would be like
this," McCarrell said. "Never in my wildest
dreams."
With the Tuesday award, six former Accutane
users have won verdicts worth $56 million. All claimed
Roche failed to warn of the drug's risks. Roche stopped
selling Accutane last year, citing competition from
generic formulations and legal costs from defending
personal injury suits. Roche faces almost 1,000 other
cases.
McCarrell had played small-college football
in the Midwest and "was a vibrant healthy guy until
he started taking this drug," said his lawyer,
Michael Hook of Pensacola. "A year after he started
taking it, he had his colon removed."
McCarrell goes to the bathroom 10 to 20
times a day and "suffers from massive gastrointestinal
upset," Hook said. "Imagine going though that
every day. He and his wife are living day by day."
Hook said Roche had internal documents
that said Accutane caused inflammatory bowel disease
and did not tell anyone. "The evidence is overwhelming,"
he said.
In a statement, the company said it would
appeal, as it has in all the other cases.
"Our sympathies remain with Andrew
McCarrell over his disease," Roche said in a statement.
"Both the finding and the amount of damages were
unsupported by the evidence. Roche acted appropriately
in providing information about Accutane, including a
direct warning about inflammatory bowel disease, to
the medical, scientific and regulatory communities."
For more Accutane information please view
the links below:
Accutane
Info | Accutane Lawsuits
| Accutane Attorneys
Accutane Side
Effects | Accutane &
IBS
Accutane Case Evaluation
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954.777.1111
