A new Abilify compulsive gambling lawsuit was filed in federal court in Florida. The plaintiff, Chris L., is alleging injuries secondary to ingesting Abilify, an antipsychotic drug used in the treatment of clinical depression and schizophrenia.

Chris is bringing this complaint against the Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., and Otsuka America Pharmaceutical Inc., the manufacturers and promoters of the medication.

According to the short-form narrative of this recent Abilify compulsive gambling lawsuit, Chris L.—a citizen and resident of the State of California—took Abilify on two separate occasions. The first treatment period was from Feb. 11, 2008 to Feb. 8, 2009. The second treatment period was from Jan. 15, 2015 to July 3, 2016.

The Abilify compulsive gambling lawsuit short-form goes on to identify economic injuries that the complainant alleges are a direct consequence of this treatment. Among them is accumulated debt of $33,286.59 and complete loss of financial stability.

The debt is purportedly related to compulsive gambling, and the losses sustained are expected to be ongoing.

Chris L. is bringing the following actions from the larger Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) which organizes and streamlines all Abilify compulsive gambling product liability lawsuits. Chris’s Abilify lawsuit raises claims based on theories of strict liability, breach of warranty, negligence, misrepresentation, fraud, and violation of state consumer protection laws.

As indicated in the long-form Abilify compulsive gambling MDL, Chris is seeking to recover damages for all the mental, physical, and monetary suffering alleged to come from his ingestion of Abilify.

Additionally, this plaintiff hopes for a return of all expenses of litigation against Bristol-Myers Squibb and other defendants as well as associated court and attorney fees. Finally, Chris requests that punitive damages be assessed against the named defendants.

A History of Abilify

Abilify was introduced to the commercial marketplace in 2002. Almost 10 years later in 2012, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) decided to force the defendants to change the label and include a warning about Abilify compulsive gambling.

The drug oversight agency noted statistically significant reports of this issue arising with patients taking Abilify even if the patients had never had a history of gambling problems or even the inclination to gamble.

Three years later, the Canadian drug oversight agency made a similar requirement of the defendants. Despite these required label changes in Europe and Canada, there was no move to add a similar warning to the U.S. domestic label.

Given this timeline, the Abilify compulsive gambling lawsuit alleges that the defendants knew these risks existed but did nothing to warn consumers or the medical community about them.

The first label mention of compulsive gambling side effects in the U.S. finally occurred in January of 2016. Even then, the mention happened in the post-market experience section—not a part of the label conspicuously marked as a warning.

This Abilify Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-00283-MCR-GRJ in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Florida, Pensacola Division.