Family of Teen Who Crashed Plane Blames Acne Drug

Wed Apr 17, 1:19 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The family of a Florida teen-ager who flew a stolen plane into a Tampa office tower filed a $70 million wrongful death lawsuit against Hoffman-La Roche Tuesday, alleging the acne drug Accutane caused the boy to commit suicide.

Charles Bishop, 15, killed himself on January 5 when he crashed the single-engine Cessna into the 28th floor of the 42-story Bank of America building, an incident that echoed the September 11 assaults on New York and Washington. He left a note expressing sympathy for Islamic militant Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).

The lawsuit, filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, said that Hoffman-La Roche negligently made an unsafe product that can cause psychosis, depression and suicide and failed to warn patients about side effects.

"Our suit alleges that Hoffman-La Roche has known that this drug causes spontaneous suicide and depression but they have refused to accept responsibility," said attorney Michael Ryan, who represents Julia Bishop, the boy's mother.

Hoffman-La Roche said that it had not seen the lawsuit and would not comment on specific litigation. But it said that there was no scientific basis to link Accutane (isotretinoin) with depression or suicide.

Hoffman-La Roche Inc., the Nutley, New Jersey-based pharmaceutical arm of Roche AG, also said on Tuesday that a federal court jury has rejected an Oklahoma woman's claims that Accutane caused her depression.

According to Roche, it was sued last August for $3 million in damages by the woman for failing to adequately provide warnings about the drug's possible role in depression. While anecdotal evidence suggests Accutane may play a role in depression and suicide, studies have not been able to conclusively demonstrate this link.

Roche also noted in a statement that Accutane's labeling has mentioned depression since 1985. The label has contained warnings about it as a possible side effect since 1998.

"The plaintiff failed to present any reliable scientific evidence that Accutane could have caused her depression," Roche attorney Harry Woods said. "Even the plaintiff's own experts had to admit that the theory that Accutane can cause depression is not accepted in the scientific community."

-- (big fat mama @ pizza-face. money-sucker), April 19, 2002