Bristol-Myers Squibb is facing a new Abilify compulsive behavior lawsuit in Florida federal court joining a growing multidistrict litigation against the company.

Plaintiff Kathleen B. is filing the Abilify compulsive behavior lawsuit alleging that the drug caused her to develop a severe compulsive behavior disorder. She, a resident of California, says that she ingested Abilify from May 2006 until June 2013.

However, according to the Abilify compulsive behavior lawsuit, Kathleen says that as a result of taking Abilify she developed a behavior disorder including gambling and shopping.

The Abilify compulsive behavior lawsuit was filed on multiple counts including strict liability, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty, negligence, negligence per se, negligent misrepresentation, Violation of Consumer Protection Law, fraudulent concealment and punitive damages.

Overview: Abilify Compulsive Behavior

Allegations against the manufacturers of Abilify allege that the drug causes compulsive behavior side effects that were never made public and that patients had never been warned about.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required warnings of compulsive behavior side effects such as urges to have sex and shop, and to compulsively eat and gamble, to be placed on Abilify’s label.

Patients that file Abilify compulsive behavior lawsuits seek relief for financial losses and injuries that they have suffered from. Some damages that they hope to obtain include suffering from neuropsychiatric injury, financial losses, economic losses, physical injury, emotional distress, and a spouses’ loss of consortium.

Abilfiy lawsuits allege some combination of the following:

• Otsuka and Bristol-Myers Squibb should have known or knew of the adverse side effects and that the drug contributes to compulsive behaviors including compulsive gambling.
• Patients have suffered from uncontrollable gambling that have led to psychological, physical and financial damage.
• The companies mislead and minimized Abilfy’s risks and overstated the drug’s benefits.
• The companies failed to adequately study Abilfy and its adverse complications.
• The benefits of Abilify do not outweigh its risks.
• $10.6 million in payments were made out to medical physicians to promote Abilify.

Currently there are more than 800 pending lawsuits over claims that Abilify causes compulsive behavior side effects filed in Florida and more than 100 cases filed in state courts.

The lawsuits allege that the drug’s manufacturer defectively designed and manufactured Abilify. According to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent announcement made in June 2016, Abilify’s label did “not entirely reflect the nature of the impulse-control risk.”

In October 2016, lawsuits were consolidated into a multidistrict litigation (MDL) and transferred over the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Florida. The purpose of an MDL is to streamline court proceedings for lawsuits that are similar in facts and thus allows one judge to preside over them.

The Abilify Compulsive Behavior Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-01305-MCR, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Pensacola Division.