ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A New Jersey state court jury on April 22 awarded $10.57 million in compensation to a Utah woman who claims to have developed inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) from taking the acne drug Accutane (Kamie S. Kendall v. Hoffman-La Roche Inc., No. ATL-L-8213-05-MT, N.J. Super., Atlantic Co.).
The nine-member jury in the Atlantic County Superior Court ruled that Accutane is a cause of IBD, that manufacturer/defendant Hoffman-La Roche Inc. failed to adequately warn plaintiff Kamie S. Kendall and her doctor about Accutane’s IBD risks before April 1999 and that the failure to warn was the proximate cause of Kendall’s IBD. The jury voted 9-0 on those three questions.
The jury voted 7-2 to award compensation of $78,500 for past medical expenses and $10.5 million in unspecified compensation.
A source told Mealey Publications that Judge Carol E. Higbee denied a motion to award punitive damages.
Trial began April 3. Roche began presenting its case on April 14.
Kendall’s case was the second IBD case to go to trial in the New Jersey Accutane mass torts court. In June, a jury in the same court awarded $2.6 million in another IBD case.
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