Pre-trial conference scheduled in Accutane case

What could be the last pre-trial conference in a long-running suit over an acne medication is set for next week.

Madison County Circuit Judge David Hylla will preside over the April 14 pre-trial conference with counsel for the remaining defendant, Dr. Daniel Goran, and attorneys for plaintiff Jason Peipert.

The other defendants in the case, Hoffman-LaRoche Inc. and Roche Laboratories, settled with Peipert last month.

Claims for setoff filed by the defendants against one another remain pending.

Peipert's case, filed in 2003, grew into a suit combining medical malpractice claims with product liability allegations.

Peipert sued Goran for allegedly prescribing Accutane to him in the late 1990s. Accutane is an acne medication.

According to his complaint, the drug is difficult to manage in patients and caused him to develop inflammatory bowel disease.

Accutane has been taken off the U.S. market since Peipert's filing. Other cases involving Accutane have gone to trial across the nation.

Had Peipert's suit gone to trial in Madison County in 2007 as originally set, it would have been the first Accutane trial in the United States.

The trial has moved numerous times. Most recently, Hylla moved the trial from April 12 to April 19.

At a pre-trial conference in February, Hylla urged the parties to settle the case, citing its merits and its age.

At that February conference, the parties indicated that the suit's trial could take over three weeks to complete.

The April 14 setting will begin at 10 a.m.

Settlement details in the Roche defendants' settlement were not released.

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 County case number 03-L-2040.