In an order issued on August 31, U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers instructed all plaintiffs in Abilify litigation to furnish more information to estimate the inventory of the alleged gambling cases filed against the drug maker in the federal multidistrict litigation (MDL).
Both the parties were granted time until September 1, 2018, to draft a global settlement plan for the gambling losses claims. Though the parties have indicated progress about the settlement negotiations, a final settlement program has not been submitted to the court yet. Plaintiffs are required to submit a Supplemental Plaintiff Profile Form by October 31, which can provide insights into the questions about their Abilify use, gambling addiction diagnosis, and other details related to their case. Judge Rogers indicated, “the Supplemental PPF must be signed by each plaintiff under penalty of perjury; failure to timely submit a completed Supplemental PPF will result in sanctions, up to and including dismissal of a case.”
The next case management conference in the Abilify litigation has been scheduled for September 13, 2018. As of August 2018, more than 1,660 Abilify lawsuits are pending in the federal court against Bristol-Myers Squibb and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, related to the allegation that Abilify makers failed to warn about the gambling effects of the drug. Abilify lawsuits were centralized for coordinated pretrial proceedings in October 2016 as a part of multidistrict litigation MDL No. 2734 (In Re: Abilify Compulsive Behavior Products Liability Litigation) in the Northern District of Florida before Judge M. Casey Rodgers.
