In an order issued on October 29, 2018, the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a case involving withdrawal symptoms of Abilify use, stating that the plaintiff failed to prove warnings provided by the drugmaker were inadequate.
The order asserted that the plaintiff did not present sufficient facts to support his claims that the defendants withheld material evidence from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration associated with the hazards of Abilify. The plaintiff started taking the antipsychotic medicine produced by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. in 2011 and discontinued in June 2016. Other than this case, thousands of product liability lawsuits are filed against Abilify makers; all raise similar allegations of failure to warn the patients and health regulators about the adverse effects of the drug to gamble, binge eating, compulsive shopping, and risky sexual activity.
As of September 2018, 1,675 Abilify cases are pending in the Northern District of North Florida, where similar cases are consolidated into a multidistrict litigation MDL No. 2734 (In Re: Abilify Compulsive Behavior Products Liability Litigation) overlooked by U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers.
