Accutane Bowel Problem Lawsuits in N.J. Grow by More Than 50%

There has been a sharp increase in the number of lawsuits over Accutane filed this fall in New Jersey state court, with at least 859 new complaints brought by plaintiffs throughout the country who allege that they developed inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other bowel problems from Accutane. 

The flood of Accutane bowel lawsuits raises the total number of New Jersey state court cases to 2,441, as of December 1. That’s an increase of about 54% in the number of claims in just over two months, as there were 1,582 cases filed as of September 16.

The recent spike comes more than five years after the New Jersey Supreme Court designated the Accutane Litigation as a mass tort, centralizing cases filed throughout the state in Atlantic County before Judge Carol E. Higbee. Some of the pending lawsuits in the state court litigation were filed as early as 2003.

All of the complaints involve similar allegations that Hoffman-La Roche, Inc., which manufactured the acne drug, failed to adequately research the side effects of Accutane or warn about the risk of IBD from Accutane, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Accutane (isotretinoin) has been used by more than 16 million people worldwide since it was first introduced in the early 1980s as a treatment for severe acne. Roche discontinued Accutane in June 2009 due to the increasing costs of the litigation, but a number of generic versions remain available under names such as Claravis, Sotret, Amnesteem and generic isotretinoin.

So far, Roche has lost all six cases that have reached a jury, with millions of dollars in Accutane compensation being awarded to individuals who have suffered bowel problems from Accutane.

Following a 2007 trial in New Jersey state court, Roche was able to successfully overturn a jury’s award of $2.62 million in compensation awarded to a man who developed inflammatory bowel problems. However, that case was retried earlier this year and another New Jersey jury awarded the same man more than $25 million.

In August, the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division reversed an Accutane damage award of $10.5 million originally issued at a 2008 trial. That case was remanded back to the trial court for a new trial.

The number of Accutane suits filed in New Jersey has increased as a number of former users just recently learned about the connection between their bowel problems and Accutane following recent news coverage of Accutane trials and television advertisements by Accutane lawyers.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that the Accutane statute of limitations in each case is based on when the plaintiff discovered that there could be a connection between the drug and their bowel disorder. Therefore, it is likely that the number of Accutane bowel problem lawsuits will continue to climb in the coming months.