Makers of Abilify drug settle with 43 states, including Nevada, for $19.5M

Nevada is expected to receive nearly $300,000 in a multistate settlement with a pharmaceutical company accused of marketing a drug to patient groups for which they didn’t have federal approval and mischaracterizing the drug’s risks.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, which partnered with Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. to market antipsychotic drug Abilify, settled with 43 states for $19.5 million, according to an announcement Thursday by the office of Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt.

The company was accused of marketing the drug to seniors with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia despite the fact the drug wasn’t approved for those purposes by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Officials also say the company promoted the drug for unapproved uses in children and didn’t halt promotion of the drug for unapproved uses, despite a warning that “elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis who are treated with antipsychotic drugs have an increased risk of death,” according to a news release from Laxalt’s office.

The company has denied wrongdoing, according to the Associated Press.

Among other conditions, the settlement limits the company’s future marketing of drugs containing Abilify’s active ingredient, aripiprazole.

Contact Pashtana Usufzy at pusufzy@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563. Follow @pashtana_u on Twitter.