[Never should have gotten on market and should have been banned long ago and perpetrators put in jail for manslaughter and murder.]
Hollywood Star Sues Roche Over Acne Drug That Wrecked His Career James
Marshall, who played a US Marine in the 1992 hit film ‘A Few Good Men,’ claims
his acting career was derailed after he used the Accutane acne pill and
developed inflammatory bowel disease. His colon was subsequently removed and he
is suing the drugmaker for $11 million. His trial starts this week in a New
Jersey courtroom and the spectacle is likely to cause a side effect of its own -
attention on product liability litigation in ways that previous lawsuits have
not generated. How so? For all of the thousands of such lawsuits filed against
drugmakers in recent years, the featured plaintiffs were, basically, John Doe or
Jane Doe - ordinary people whose ordinary lives were allegedly disrupted by the
use of a medication. Rarely were their trials covered in the media. Marshall,
however, was a star. And reports say the New Jersey-bred pretty boy will rely on
testimony from even bigger names - Martin Sheen, Brian Dennehy and Rob Reiner.
His Hol lywood pals are expected to testify that Marshall, 43, was headed for
stardom before his ailments upended his career. “The jury will hear that James
Marshall had the potential to be the next James Dean-like star,” Marshall’s
lawyer, Michael Hook, tells Bloomberg News. “That dream is gone because he took
something to treat acne.” The prospect of one Hollywood headliner after another
taking the stand in Atlantic City, New Jersey, may just attract television
cameras, celebrity bloggers and countless Tweeters - further underscoring the
contentious debate over side effects and proper disclosure just as several other
large drugmakers are scampering to settle thousands of lawsuits as quickly as
possible.
Ed Silverman, Pharmalot
ACCUTANE: A MODERN HORROR STORY Organized medicine is hiding a horror story. It’s the horrific pictures of deformed and aborted babies, malformations that could have been avoided if proper precautions had been taken by health authorities sooner. Remember the pictures of the deformed thalidomide babies? Thalidomide, an anti-nausea drug, was prescribed in the late 1950s and early 1960s and caused approximately 10,000 babies to be born with birth defects. There is another drug, in current use, that is Thalidomide Jr. All it would take to ban the anti-acne drug Accutane is to show the world the photos of the babies born with physical defects, or the spontaneously aborted babies after their mother has been prescribed the synthetic vitamin A drug that is frequently used to treat pimples.
[Media Sept 2005] Acne drug blamed for son's death
[Media Dec 2004] Fight to prove acne drug caused suicides.
[Media Oct 21, 2004 Roaccutane] Student's suicide linked to acne drug