Some don't heed warnings of acne drug danger during pregnancy conception

iPLEDGE mandates pregnancy test for women who want a prescription for isotretinoin

It’s long been known that the highly effective acne medication isotretinoin — marketed as Accutane and Roaccutane — is tied to the risk of severe birth defects. But even with a special program in place to prevent conception in women taking the drug, each year two to three hundred women in the US become pregnant while taking it, a new study shows.

The program, dubbed iPLEDGE, which was started in 2006 by the Food and Drug Administration, requires women who want a prescription for isotretinoin to use birth control or promise to abstain from intercourse and to take a pregnancy test