I’ve stumbled onto an short news item regarding the acne medicine Accutane. Quote is from Myway’s news section, as an AP newswire (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100217/D9DTLS5O3.html).
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) – A New Jersey jury has hit the pharmaceutical company that makes Accutane with a $25.16 million judgment in a lawsuit filed by an Alabama man who blamed the drug for his inflammatory bowel disorder.
Thirty-eight-year-old Andrew McCarrell of Moody, Ala., took the acne drug in his 20s. He says Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. failed to adequately warn of its side effects. McCarrell eventually had his colon removed.
The compensatory damages award came Tuesday in a retrial. An appeals court overturned a $2.6 million judgment he won in May 2007.
Hoffmann-La Roche stopped selling the drug in June 2009. It cited generic competition and the cost of defending against lawsuits, which have sought to blame the drug for suicidal behavior and birth defects.
The Nutley, N.J.-based company says it will appeal.
What I find most interesting is that they finally stopped selling it, and that it took so long to get to this point. I’ve taken Accutane three times over the years, with varying degrees of success. But like some patients, it affected me mentally and I had refused taking it since then. It also only took about 5 or so years after taking it for some of my acne to come back to previous levels, though not as much on the face as it used to in the past.
I’m actually having better success these days with colloidal silver (ingested and topical) as well as tea tree oil (topical), though both are painfully slow. At least they’re natural, and the tea tree oil does have pleasing scent to it. Still need to be careful with them though.
–TSK