Claim: Parkinson’s Drug Causes Gambling Addiction. Discuss.

[WSJ_law_blog]

Joe Neglia was a retired government intelligence worker with Parkinson’s disease when he suddenly developed what he calls a gambling habit from hell. . .After losing thousands of dollars playing slot machines . . . Neglia stumbled across an Internet report linking a popular Parkinson’s drug he used with compulsive gambling. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, this must be it,”’ he said. Three days after stopping the drug, Mirapex, “all desire to gamble just went away completely. I felt like I had my brain back.” — from Associated Press, July 12, 2005.



Do “dopamine agonists” — a class of drug used to stimulate dopamine receptors and treat Parkinson’s disease — also stimulate compulsive gambling? That’s the crux of three lawsuits, filed in Minnesota federal court against Boehringer Ingelheim, the maker of Mirapex.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the first of three trials concerning Mirapex’s alleged link to compulsive gambling is underway before District Judge James Rosenbaum, who will preside over all three so-called bellwether jury trials. The trials, reports the Trib, will be used by the 200+ potential plaintiffs and defendant Boehringer Ingelheim to determine the strengths and weaknesses of their respective cases.
Here’s a complaint that was filed in one of the cases, Hudson v. Boehringer Ingelheim. The 11 causes of action include strict liability for design, manufacturing and warning; breach of warranty; and negligence.

A call to Boehringer Ingelheim was not immediately returned.

LB Readers: Any product liability mavens amongst you? Or betting men? What evidentiary hurdles must these plaintiffs overcome?