New Jersey Jury Awards US$25.16 Million to Patient Whose Use of Roche Acne Medication Accutane Found to Cause Severe Bowel Illness

Alabama man who took Accutane in his 20s, developed inflammatory bowel disease and had colon removed; Plaintiff represented jointly by law firms Hook Bolton, Seeger Weiss, Beggs & Lane, and Levin Papantonio.

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey and BASEL, Switzerland, February 18, 2010 - In another major courtroom verdict linking powerful acne medication
Accutane with long-term inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a nine-person New
Jersey (United States) jury has found that pharmaceutical maker Hoffman-La
Roche Inc. failed to provide an adequate warning of the possible condition to
Andrew McCarrell's prescribing physician, which then led to his development
of chronic IBD. Mr. McCarrell, who was 23 at the time he took Accutane,
developed a severe case of IBD and thereafter had his colon removed. The jury
awarded compensatory damages of US$25.16 million to Mr. McCarrell, now in his
thirties.

The verdict, reached on February 16, capped a five-week trial in New
Jersey Superior Court and follows a series of recent plaintiffs' wins here
and elsewhere against Roche over allegations that Accutane was a cause of
severe bowel maladies, chronic bowel disease, and in some cases removal of
all or some of plaintiffs' colons and intestines. The symptoms of disease in
many cases have arisen even after patients have discontinued their use of
Accutane.

Andy McCarrell, now 38, was first prescribed Accutane in the mid-1990s
while in his early 20s to treat his acne. Shortly after discontinuing his use
of Accutane, Mr. McCarrell developed chronic ulcerative colitis, which led to
the subsequent removal of his colon — little over a year after completing
his course of Accutane. Since having his colon removed, Mr. McCarrell has
suffered from chronic bowel problems and severe complications of IBD,
including several additional surgeries.

Roche first advised physicians about a possible association between
Accutane and inflammatory bowel disease in 1984. In the ensuing years, the
evidence accumulated by Roche and outside scientists demonstrated that, far
from a coincidence, Accutane was in fact inducing inflammatory bowel disease
in Accutane patients. Nonetheless, Roche failed to strengthen its warnings
either to patients or prescribing physicians.

The jury saw evidence of Roche studies, never published to the scientific
and medical community, that Accutane's by-products damage the
gastrointestinal tract and lead to degeneration and erosion of the intestinal
lining — a trigger for IBD. Significantly, those studies, which were done in
animal models specifically to test the gastrointestinal safety of the drug,
used exposures of the drug that were lower than those given to humans.
Likewise, in the company's files but not shared with the medical community,
were numerous patient reports from physicians where Accutane use triggered
the symptoms of IBD, which subsided when Accutane use was terminated but then
reoccurred following subsequent Accutane usage; those patients were
ultimately diagnosed with IBD. Roche repeatedly determined internally that
Accutane was the best or only explanation for the patient's condition. While
Roche internally concluded that Accutane use was "causally associated" with
the development of inflammatory bowel disease, in this trial as in others,
Roche argued otherwise to the jury.

In reaching their verdict, jurors addressed the following questions:

1. Did Roche fail to provide an adequate warning to Plaintiff Andy
McCarrell's prescribing physician about the risks of inflammatory bowel
disease from Accutane that Roche either knew or should have known about prior
to June 1995?

2. Was Roche's failure to warn a proximate cause of Plaintiff's
inflammatory bowel disease?

Having answered "Yes" to these questions, the jury then turned to the
issue of what amount of money would "fairly and reasonably" compensate Mr.
McCarrell for his damages? The jury answered that question with a
US$25,159,530 compensatory damage award. Punitive damages were not sought in
the case.

Michael Hook with the firm Hook Bolton of Pensacola, Florida served as
lead counsel in the case. Mr. Hook stated, "It was nice to see justice served
once again. Andy has suffered greatly over the last 15 years due at the hands
of this acne medicine. Sadly, he will continue to suffer with his disease for
the rest of his life. We applaud the jury's verdict and diligence in
considering the evidence."

"This is an important outcome and consistent with the recognition by the
medical community that Accutane is a trigger for IBD," said David Buchanan, a
partner with Seeger Weiss in New York and New Jersey who served as co-counsel
to the plaintiff at trial. "Recent studies confirm that Accutane increases
the risk of inflammatory bowel disease like that which Andy suffered from by
400 to 500%."

Mr. Hook further noted that, "It is unconscionable that faced with so
much scientific proof that Roche has continued to deny its culpability in
these cases. Sooner or later, Roche needs to acknowledge what five separate
juries have concluded. That is, that Roche failed to adequately warn of the
risk of inflammatory bowel disease with the use of its drug, Accutane."

Roche faces as many as 800 cases around the country. Mr. Buchanan noted
that "This verdict, like those of each of the four juries that preceded it,
bodes well for the broader Accutane litigation and the many plaintiffs
afflicted with IBD at the hands of Accutane."

The trial team also included Mary Jane Bass and Jack Lurton of Beggs &
Lane, and Pete Kaufman of Levin Papantonio, also of Pensacola, Florida.

The case caption was McCarrell v. Roche, Docket No. ATL-L-1951-03-MT.
Read more about Accutane litigation at www.seegerweiss.com.

    Contact:
    Molly McArdle, +1-212-584-0763, mmcardle@seegerweiss.com
    Allan Ripp, +1-212-262-7477, arippnyc@aol.com

Molly McArdle, +1-212-584-0763, mmcardle at seegerweiss.com; or Allan Ripp, +1-212-262-7477, arippnyc at aol.com