In an August 8 order, issued by U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers, a group of 40 cases has been picked for the second Abilify bellwether trial over gambling risks. Both the parties are supposed to strike off 5 cases each from this pool within 14 days from the date of the order to proceed to early bellwether process.
By October 12, the plaintiffs are required to submit a completed fact sheet as well as medical, financial and gambling record authorizations. Each side should strike of additional 5 cases and reduce the pool again to 20 for a "reasonable scope" of fact discovery.
After the completion of discovery, the parties will choose 5 cases for the final trial. The court plans to do a random replacement for any case subsequently removed from the pool.
More than 1,600 Abilify lawsuits are pending in the federal court against Bristol-Myers Squibb and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, each claiming similar allegation that Abilify makers failed to warn about the gambling effects of the drug. Abilify lawsuits were centralized in October 2016 as a part of multidistrict litigation MDL No. 2734 (In Re: Abilify Compulsive Behavior Products Liability Litigation) for coordinated pretrial proceedings in the Northern District of Florida before Judge M. Casey Rodgers.
