The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to hear appeals in the mass tort alleging that the pharmaceutical giant Hoffmann-La Roche's anti-acne drug Accutane led to users' development of Crohn's disease.

The court will likely hear arguments in the case next year.

In Dec. 8 orders granting petitions for certification, the court agreed to determine whether the plaintiffs can overcome the presumption of adequacy afforded by the Products Liability Act for a drug approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration, and whether a trial judge erred in barring plaintiffs' expert testimony.

The lead attorneys were not immediately available for comment: Paul Schmidt of the Washington office of Covington & Burling, who represents Hoffmann-La Roche; and David Buchanan, of New York's Seeger & Weiss, who represents the plaintiffs.

In July, the Appellate Division ruled that, in more than 2,100 suits lodged by users of Accutane claiming they developed Crohn's disease, plaintiff expert testimony was improperly excluded by Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Nelson Johnson.

Johnson exceeded his role as a gatekeeper when he concluded that plaintiffs' experts on gastroenterology and epidemiology were using unaccepted scientific methods to analyze the evidence in the case, the appeals court said. The decision also said the judge incorrectly determined the credibility of the testimony by plaintiffs' experts. The appeals court reversed an order barring expert testimony by the plaintiffs' experts, and another order dismissing 2,174 cases.