Jury awards $2.5 mln in Roche Accutane trial

By Jon Hurdle

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (Reuters) - A New Jersey jury on Tuesday found that Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG failed to adequately warn a patient of the bowel disease risks associated with its potent acne medicine Accutane and awarded him $2.5 million in damages.

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

The trial was the first of about 400 U.S. lawsuits involving Accutane, which has been on the market since 1982.

Roche, which runs its U.S. operation out of Nutley, New Jersey, said it believes it has significant grounds to appeal 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," the company said in a statement, adding that the medicine's label has contained a bowel disease warning for more than 20 years.

In considering New Jersey state consumer fraud charges, the jury in New Jersey Superior Court found for Roche, saying the company did not misrepresent or conceal Accutane's bowel risks prior to June 1995.

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.

"It's a huge result for the broader litigation," McCarrell's attorney David Buchanan said. "It bodes well for the 400 other Accutane cases."