Reports say a woman who filed suit after developing ulcerative ended up with the illness after taking the acne drug Accutane was awarded $10.5 million by a New Jersey jury recently.
The suit alleged that Accutane caused inflammatory bowel disease in the patient and left her with the second disease. It was the third of over 400 lawsuits that have been filed and which will evidently continue going to trial. The first three cases also resulted in multi-million dollar judgments against the maker of Accutane, Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc..
Accutane has been the subject of controversy since it was approved by the FDA in 1982. The drug has been accused of being related to other serious side effects, such as birth defects, some psychoses, liver and kidney disease, among other side-affects. But the most common suit has alleged ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, where the intestines become ulcerated.
Reports say Kamie Kendall, a 24-year-old from Utah, took Accutane before her teen years and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at the age of 14. In 2006 she reportedly had her colon removed and now suffers from debilitating diarrhea. It was with this information that the jury awarded Kendall $10.5 million of compensatory damages plus $78,500 for medical expenses, reports say.
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