Hylla
The makers of an acne drug have settled a seven year-old lawsuit brought by a man who claims their product caused him to develop inflammatory bowel disease.
Defendants Roche Laboratories Inc. and Hoffman-LaRoche Inc. entered mediation with plaintiff Jason Peipert and settled his case against them on March 24.
The settlement amount and terms are confidential, according to docket entry noting the settlement order in the case.
Each party is to bear their own costs.
A copy of that order signed by Madison County Circuit Judge Daniel Stack was not immediately available Thursday.
Peipert's malpractice claims against Dr. Daniel Goran remain pending.
Peipert sued Goran in 2003, alleging that he negligently prescribed the acne drug, Accutane. Peipert alleges that after he took the drug in the late 1990s, he developed inflammatory bowel disease.
The Roche defendants made the drug.
It has since been taken off the U.S. market.
The long-running case would have been the first Accutane suit to go to trial in the country had it gone to a jury on its original trial date in 2007.
The trial date in the case has been continued multiple times in the case.
It is currently set to open at trial April 12. At a pre-trial conference in February, the parties indicated that the trial could last more than three weeks.
At that conference, presiding judge Madison County Circuit Judge David Hylla urged the parties to mediate and settle the case.
"This looks to me like a case that should settle," Hylla said at the pre-trial hearing. "Frankly, this is not a plaintiff that is debilitated or bedridden. I don't expect that there is a seven figure demand in this case. I don't want to waste my time and yours."
Peipert is represented by John Papa, Walter "Skip" Campbell and others.
Goran is represented by Jeffrey Glass.
The Roche defendants are represented by Bart Sullivan and others.
The case is Madison case number 03-L-2040.