The European Medicines Agency and Canadian drug regulators moved to have the medication labeled with a warning to this effect in 20 respectively. Off-label, physicians often prescribe it for conditions including but not limited to anorexia and bulimia, and anxiety disorders.Ībilify has been a huge commercial success for the defendants, but adverse event reports from patients connected the drug to an unexplained and uncharacteristic tendency to engage in compulsive gambling, shopping, and unrestrained sexual activity. It is also used to help alleviate symptoms of heightened irritability that are often found in patients with autism spectrum disorders. What Does the Abilify Lawsuit Settlement Hope to Resolve?Ībilify is a psychotropic medication approved in 2002 for on-label treatment of Tourette’s syndrome, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. In the case of the pending deadline for the overall Abilify lawsuit settlement, if the parties fail to come up with an agreeable solution, Judge Rodgers intends to move another group of cases into bellwether status. Bellwether trials take a carefully selected sampling of cases and tests the arguments of both sides, giving the parties in other cases an idea of how their arguments may play out in court. The pending cases are grouped together in what is called multidistrict litigation.Īn Abilify lawsuit settlement was offered in three different individual cases that went to the bellwether trial phase early in 2018. Casey Rodgers is looking to satisfy some 800 pending lawsuits against defendants Bristol-Myers Squibb and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals that have been funneled to this district for efficiency in judicial processing. Some plaintiffs have accused Otsuka of destroying communications from earlier than 2007 that they say were crucial to their claims.U.S. Between 20, the FDA received over 30 reports of compulsive gambling and 24 additional reports of other impulsive behavior, like hypersexuality and shopping. There are currently more than 1,000 lawsuits pending against the manufacturers and distributors of Abilify. The combination of the drug’s compulsive behavior effect and the easy access to casinos in Nevada made it easy for patients to engage in compulsive gambling. In most cases, patients did not exhibit such impulsive behaviors before taking the drug, and those urges subsided when dosages were lowered or the patients stopped taking Abilify entirely. The FDA had received several reports of impulse control disorders.īristol-Myers Squibb, Otsuka’s marketing partner, was also named in the lawsuit as well as two of its sales representatives.Ībilify, known generically as aripiprazole, is prescribed to treat schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder and autism spectrum disorders.Ī report to the European Medicines Agencies in 2011, which was submitted by the defendants, said the possibility that Abilify caused compulsive gambling couldn’t “be excluded.” The company only added warnings to labels in the U.S. Otsuka added warnings of “pathological gambling” to its drug label in Europe and Canada in 2012, but failed to add the warning to labels in the United States until 2016. Ltd., Japanese drug developer, and its American branch were named in the suit. Plaintiffs claim that doctors and patients were not adequately warned of the compulsive behavior side effect, which includes gambling, despite having “opportunities and a duty to do so.” Five Nevadans have filed a lawsuit against the manufacturers and distributors of the prescription drug Abilify, alleging that the companies did not warn patients that the drug can cause compulsive behavior.
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