Swiss drug maker Roche and their popular acne drug Accutane (isotretinoin) is no stranger to the courtroom. But what they are strangers to is a row of paparazzi and a red carpet leading into the courthouse.
All of this hoopla is over allegations by an actor named James Marshal. Never heard of him? Well, that’s the problem. The actor says that the serious side effects of Accutane derailed his career, a career that he and his lawyer said could have equaled that of the legendary James Dean, but instead barely entered the Pauly Shore stratosphere. But before we go into Mr. Marshall’s story, you need to know a little about the drug and what it does.
Accutane was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1982 as a cure for severe cystic acne sufferers who do not get relief from standard dietary and less effective drug treatments. Isotretinoin, a derivative of vitamine A, was first used as a chemotherapy supplement because it was found to hamper cell division in the body. Vitamin A and substances that contain lots of it, like broccoli, have been used for hundreds of years to treat skin, but concentrated vitamin A in large quantities is poisonous. Isotretinoin solves that problem.
There is no dispute that the drug works, but the side effects are severe and Accutane has a laundry list of them. The biggy is birth defects, but the most deadly has turn out to be suicide, particularly amongst the younger patients. This has prompted the FDA to create the iPledge program, the most stringent control of any drug on the market. It requires monthly visits to the doctor for the 4-6 month treatment and a signed contract.
During the visits the physician takes blood to test for pregnancy and examines the progress of the drug and the patient. The problem is that they don’t test for debilitating side effect Marshal and thousands of other patients complain Accutane caused, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).
Accutane Trial
You might remember James Marshall. He played U.S. Marine Louden Downey in the 1992 hit movie “A Few Good Men,” starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kiefer Sutherland, and (like any good movie) Kevin Bacon. The movie was directed by Rob Reiner, one of the witnesses for the defendant.
Marshal claims that his chance at stardom was essentially killed by the crippling side effects due to his use of Accutane. Marshal is asking a jury to award at least $11 million in damages at a trial starting next week that will feature testimony from stars such as Martin Sheen and Brian Dennehy, according to court filings.
Sheen, Dennehy and Reiner will testify that Marshall, now 43, was surely headed for stardom before bowel ailments allegedly caused by Accutane forced doctors to remove his colon.
Reiner, who will testify by videotaped deposition, will tell jurors Marshall had a bright future in the entertainment business that was cut short by his Accutane-related illnesses. Sheen and Dennehy are scheduled to testify in person about Marshall’s potential as an actor.
Marshall’s case has been combined with claims by two other former Accutane users for trial before Judge Carol Higbee in state court in Atlantic City. All three are California residents. Andrews, 29, is an account manager while Gaghan, 34, is a nursing assistant. All of the plaintiffs in the case contend that the drug left them struggling to deal with the pain and suffering of passing their bodily wastes through a tender and inflamed colon.
Both Andrews and Marshall battle incontinence (unexpected bowel movements requiring adult under garments) while Gaghan has developed lupus (a further progressively worse version of IBD) as a result of taking drugs to deal with her Accutane-linked bowel disease, their lawyer said.
Accutane Lawsuits
About 13 million people have taken Accutane in the last 28 years. It was once Roche’s second-biggest selling drug yielding literally $3 billion a year like a big acne fighting money tree. But, like all drugs, patents are only for 20 years and in 2002 Roche lost patent protection. They continued to sell it along with generic competitors and were still able to gather a large portion of the market, keeping annual sales as high as $1.7 billion.
Not bad when competition is all of a sudden created, but there was something chopping even deeper into their pockets and that was lawsuits. The company has lost all lawsuits launched against Accutane since 2007, including the last three in a row.
New Jersey and Florida juries ordered the drugmaker to pay a total of at least $45 million in damages in those cases. Appeals courts later threw out two of the verdicts, including a 2007 award of $7 million to a Florida man who blamed the drug for his inflammatory bowel disease.
Then in February a New Jersey jury ordered Roche to pay $25.1 million to a man who attributed his inflammatory bowel disease to Accutane. The case was a retrial of an earlier verdict that was overturned by an appeals court. Roche has won dismissals of Accutane cases filed in federal court and has challenged the state court verdicts by asking judges to throw them out or filing appeals.
But all of this activity is coming at a high price tag in legal fees. A price tag that prompted them to take their production of Accutane off of the market in 2009, leaving the generic drug makers to deal with whatever repercussions come from the drug’s side effects. Of course Roche has not turned its back on the international market which seems to be much more forgiving of debilitating side effects.
Regardless, this may be the first drug trial with such a star studded cast testifying about the effects on the patients and how the drug can literally change their quality of life and derail their future, whether it is an actor bound for super stardom or a nurse, both are equal when they are sobbing in the bathroom from the pain.
If you or a loved one is suffering from the life-altering side effects of Accutane then you need an experienced defective drug attorney on your side that can get you the compensation you deserve. Call Phillips Webster for a free consultation on your legal options.
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