The New Jersey Supreme Court recently granted a request to consolidate all pending New Jersey Abilify gambling addiction lawsuits into a multicounty litigation.

On May 9, the Acting Administrative Director of the New Jersey Courts announced that a New Jersey multicounty litigation (MCL) has been established consolidating all New Jersey Abilify gambling addiction lawsuits. The 40 gambling addiction lawsuits in the MCL have been transferred to the New Jersey Superior Court of Atlantic County under Judge Nelson C. Johnson.

A federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) already exists for Abilify gambling addiction lawsuits around the country, but the New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to establish a separate consolidation since Bristol-Myers Squibb’s headquarters are located in the state. The Abilify MDL is centralized in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida under U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers.

In the federal MDL, Judge Rodgers has established an aggressive bellwether program, fast tracking a small group of cases for early trial dates. The bellwether trials will help determine how juries may respond to certain issues.

By establishing facts in bellwether trials, further trials for other cases in the MDL will go quicker with less need to establish general facts. One large question for the court to consider is whether or not the plaintiffs have sufficient evidence to establish causation between Abilify and compulsive behaviors.

Abilify (aripiprazole) is an anti-psychotic drug primarily used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder but the drug can also be used as an add-on treatment for depression, a treatment of Tourette’s syndrome, and a treatment for irritability associated with autism.

Abilify works to treat symptoms of mental disorders by influencing the levels of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers which has been repeatedly linked to impulsive behavior and gambling. Although this mechanism may help control symptoms of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar, evidence allegedly suggests that it may lead to Abilify behavior problems.

In May 2016, the FDA issued a warning that Abilify was associated with “compulsive or uncontrollable urges to gamble, binge eat, shop, and have sex.” The FDA recommended that doctors “make patients and caregivers aware of the risk of these uncontrollable urges,” “closely monitor” patients, and consider reducing or stopping the drug if Abilify behavior problems emerge, the lawsuit claims. Allegedly, Abilify’s label did not include any mention of Abilify behavior problems until after this FDA announcement.

Numerous consumers have filed lawsuit against Bristol-Myers Squibb and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, alleging that the manufacturers knew or should have known about the link between Abilify and compulsive behaviors including gambling, compulsive shopping, and impulsive sexual behavior.

Plaintiffs in gambling addiction lawsuits frequently accuse the manufacturers of failure to warn, claiming that they would not have taken the medication if they knew all of the risks involved. Similar allegations have been made that doctors and the medical community would not prescribed the medications to patients had they known it may cause compulsive behavior at the expense of a consumers financial stability.

The outcome of trials in both the New Jersey MCL and federal MDL will set the course for further gambling addiction lawsuits related to Abilify.