Xarelto (rivaroxaban) Lawsuits Begin

Xarelto is part of the new production of anti-coagulants that have been linked to fatal bleeding with no reversal agent forcing Xarelto Lawyers to file Xarelto lawsuits on behalf of the patients who took the medication. Reversal agents are crucial in emergency situations. Filing a litigation holds the drug companies responsible for manufacturing this dangerous drug and sometimes it is the only way to receive compensation for pain and suffering. The manufacturer’s of Xarelto have been accused of negligence and failure to warn.

xarelto lawsuit

Did you take Xarelto and develop uncontrolled bleeding or another serious complication listed below?

  • Internal Bleeding
  • Blood Clots
  • Embolism
  • Hemorrhaging

Uncontrolled Bleeding Causing Severe Injuries

One of the most dangerous Xarelto adverse reactions is bleeding. There is no antidote to reverse its effects, unlike Warfarin, which makes saving the patient’s lives a challenging effort. Bayer never released information to doctors on how the problem should be treated. Without this critical knowledge, the number of deaths in hospitals will continue to grow.

Rivaroxaban has many other serious side effects. The FDA reports that in some patients the risk of developing blood clots is actually increased. According to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, patients who have undergone knee or hip replacement surgeries are at those who risk the most. Dangerous blood clots can migrate to the brain and heart cause an aneurysm or stroke. Patients who underwent had spinal injections are also at risk of developing bleedings inside the spine, which can lead to permanent paralysis. Many patients also complained about other serious side effects which may have life-threatening consequences such as the risk of liver damage.

Dangerous Blood Clots

Although Xarelto is supposed to prevent blood clots, the FDA reports that some patients may actually develop an increased risk for blood clots when taking the medication. According to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, patients who have undergone hip or knee replacement surgery are at the highest risk for developing blood clots. These blood clots can travel to the brain and cause a heart attack or stroke. Patients that have had spinal injections are also at risk of developing blood clots in the spine, which can lead to permanent paralysis.

Lawyers Discusses Why Patients Are Filing Xarelto Lawsuits

Patients that are prescribed older blood thinners such as Warfarin are required to have routine blood tests done as well as continuous adjustments made to their dosage. This constant interaction with a physician can be costly and time consuming making Xarelto an appealing option because the dose is the same for everyone and routine blood tests are not needed. Unfortunately, the lack of physician involvement makes Xarelto a very dangerous medication. Ellen Relkin, a lawyer representing legal claims against Xarelto, states the problems associated with the medication are due to a low therapeutic index.

Multidistrict Litigation (MDL)

Currently there is no class action suit against rivaroxaban, however, the number of lawsuits against Bayer continues to increase. The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated these cases into the Xarelto Multidistrict Litigation Number 2592 (MDL) in Louisiana and a mass-tort in Philadelphia due to the increase in lawsuits. On April 15, 2015, the MDL contained 400 cases to be heard before Judge Eldon E. Fallon. An MDL is used to streamline the legal process by having the same experienced judge handle all the cases. Those that have had their Xarelto lawsuit become a part of an MDL maintain their personal lawyers, and their lawsuits continue to be treated as individual cases.

McGowan v. Janssen

In 2014, the daughter of Thomas Dunkley filed a lawsuit on behalf of her deceased father. The Xarelto lawsuit claims that Dunkley was prescribed the medication to reduce his risk of stroke. However, after only a month of taking the drug Xarelto he suffered serious bleeding in his brain that was unable to be stopped. The lawsuit claims Janssen and Bayer concealed the severity of the risks associated with Xarelto and did not properly test the drug before distributing it on the market.

Packard v. Janssen

The wife of William Packard filed a lawsuit against Janssen and Bayer on behalf of her deceased husband. The Xarelto lawsuit claims William was prescribed Xarelto for atrial fibrillation and continued to take the drug for six months until he suffered fatal bleeding in his brain. Doctors attempted to alleviate the pressure in his brain by drilling holes into his skull. Unfortunately, they were unable to stop the bleeding and he was pronounced dead. Packard claims the drug manufacturers failed to warn the public that there was no antidote available in cases of emergencies such as this.

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What you Need to know about the Xarelto Litigation

Health complications caused by a bad drug can be emotional and exhausting. Increasing medical bills can destroy a family’s finances and an unplanned funeral expense can add an extra dimension of financial stress and depression. Working with a Xarelto Attorney to file a lawsuit is sometimes the only way to obtain compensation for pain and suffering or mounting medical bills you have occurred do to no fault of your own.

Xarelto has injured many and caused severe bleeding, you have legal options. Let us guide you through the process and find a qualified Xarelto attorney to assist you. A qualified Xarelto lawyer can help you get you the financial compensation you deserve. These Xarelto attorneys specialize in dealing with Big Pharma and understand exactly what it takes to stand up against major drug companies in court and win your case.

On Sept. 17, Judge Eldon E. Fallon signed the case management order establishing bellwether trial choice dates for autumn 2016. The four trials will take place across Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, and certainly will hear specific cases chosen to accelerate the litigation of the large number of suits now pending against Bayer Healthcare and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, makers of Xarelto.

Michael Goetz, a lawyer at the Sophisticated litigation group of Morgan & Morgan, is playing a leadership role in the multi-district litigation. He’s an associate of the plaintiff’s steering committee, composed of multiple lawyers to arrange plaintiff claims.

“Our plaintiffs have endured life-transforming or stopping harms as an outcome of the dangerous effects of the drug, and we’re steadfastly committed to bringing them justice,” Goetz said.

The Xarelto multi-district litigation was formed due to the increasing amount of cases against the defendant in December 2014. The cases, which all made similar accusations against the drug supplier, allege Xarelto causes uncontrollable and serious internal bleeding, in a few cases leading to death.

In addition, the Xarelto lawsuits says the manufaturer failed to warn consumers and were conscious of these effects.

Xarelto side effects reads, “Xarelto can cause bleeding, which may be serious, and infrequently can lead to death.”

“All anticoagulants, or blood thinners, carry the danger of bleeding,” the defendant said. “The prescribing information for Xarelto has consistently warned of this danger.”

But, the plaintiffs allege that unlike conventional anticoagulants, whose effects could be reversed through common drugs like Vitamin K, Xarelto does not have any antidote.

The federal multi-district class action lawsuit keeps growing as people who suffered injuries caused by the side effects of Xarelto file new personal lawsuits every day.

In order to manage the large number of cases of injured patients that filed a litigation against Xarelto’s manufacturers (Bayer Healthcare and Janssen Pharmaceuticals), the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) on December 2014, consolidated all federal Xarelto lawsuits in one single court who will be held by the Honorable Judge Fallon in the Eastern District of Louisiana. More than 400 total cases have been collected by the Xarelto attorney, who is accusing the pharmaceutical companies of alleged negligence in checking the medication’s safety, citing several irregularities in the studies used to support the documentation presented by the firms to bid for Food and Drugs Administration’s (FDA) approval. A total of four trials will be held in the first months of 207. The first two will be held on February 6 and March 13, 2017in the Eastern District of Louisiana. The third trial will be held on April 24, 2017 in Mississippi and the fourth trial will be held on May 30, 2017 in Texas.

Xarelto side effects include a risk for internal hemorrhages, severe bleeding and gastrointestinal bleeding, which can pose a serious threat to the patient’s life. Due to the lack of an antidote available on the market, the side effects of Xarelto cannot be promptly reversed, even though the drug was marketed as safer and superior than its counterparts (as claimed in the RECORD study). Other blood-thinners adverse reactions can be in fact rapidly reversed by immediate administration of fresh platelets or Vitamin K.

The FDA itself had found many serious protocol violations and flaws during both the RECORD and the ROCKET-AF studies, including malicious falsifications, and “systemic discarding of medical records” that describe the dangerous adverse reactions of this medication such as blood clots and heart strokes. The studies demonstrated the alleged superiority of Xarelto (Rivaroxaban) to its counterpart warfarin only because this last medication was used in a largely improper way. As the studies were performed in several regions in the world, most Indian hospitals and clinics violated standard medication protocols when using warfarin, actually reducing its real effectiveness.

Xarelto was approved by the FDA for the prevention and treatment of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), and in November 2001, also to reduce the risk of stroke and embolism in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AFib) thanks to the results of these studies. In order to prove how fraudulent was the approval of Xarelto lawyers are now accusing Bayer Healthcare and Janssen Pharmaceuticals of failure to warn of known risks, breach of express and implied warranties, negligent misrepresentation and violation of consumer protection laws. The Xarelto lawsuit 2015 alleges that even if this blood-thinner was advertised as safe to use even without blood monitoring, the use of this medication without proper dose adjustment can result in major, life-threatening bleeding events and harmful accidents, and that its dangerous side effects were purposely omitted by the makers of the drug. The attorney that will lead the litigation will be Michael Goetz a specialist lawyer from the Morgan & Morgan’s Sophisticated litigation group.

A medication that heals or a drug that kills?

Of all the 400+ Xarelto class action lawsuits presented to the court, only a handful of most representative cases will be selected for hearing, in order to speed up the trial. Among these, the first one is a plaintiff from Georgia, whose father allegedly died because of the mortal side effects of Xarelto. The decedent suffered from atrial fibrillation, and received his first Xarelto prescription in November 2012, to reduce the risk for blood clots and stroke. Just a few months later, on March 27, 2013, the father of the plaintiff died for a serious internal bleeding accident that doctors weren’t able to stop due to the absence of a proper antidote. The plaintiff claims that had his father known that taking Xarelto could endanger his life, he would never have taken it, choosing other safer medications such as Warfarin, and is accusing the pharmaceutical companies Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson and Bayer AG of misleading advertisement. In his Xarelto lawsuit the plaintiff also indicates that in the advertisements aired on January and February 2013, the drug was falsely purported as “safe” as it does not require dietary restrictions or blood monitoring, causing the FDA to issue a warning letter against the manufacturers that accused them of misleading claims. In his complaint the plaintiff accuses defendants of “merely indicating that there was a risk for bleeding and side-stepped the important issue of reversing the effects of Xarelto should a bleed occur”.

Xarelto side effects can ruin a patient’s life for the time being

Another plaintiff, Molly Harr from Ohio, has filed a personal injury and product liability lawsuit claiming that the medication caused her to suffer from permanent damage. The woman, suffering from atrial fibrillation, was prescribed the medication in September 2013, but the side effects of Xarelto caused her to develop a severe form of gastrointestinal bleeding within 2 months, irreversibly harming her health. Two other plaintiffs, Thomas Homco from Indiana and Bertha P. Valk of Jackson County, Oregon suffered similar consequences after ingesting Xarelto for a short period. The former one developed a serious gastrointestinal bleeding after just 20 days of using the medication (from August 7, 2013 to August 27, 2013), while the latter suffered a gastrointestinal bleeding after using Xarelto from March of 2012 through September 2013. A plaintiff from Kentucky, Sharon K. Bradshaw instead, suffered a stroke on August 12, 2014, just a month after she started taking Xarelto in July, 2014.

All Novel Anticoagulants (NOACs) could be equally dangerous

In the recent past, plaintiffs already fought for their rights in another class action that was very similar to the Xarelto lawsuit 2015. Another NOAC, Boehringer Ingelheim’s Pradaxa (dabigatran), was in fact deemed responsible of at least 3,592 serious adverse event reports in 2014, with a total of 752 deaths associated with the use of this medication. Pradaxa dangerousness is in fact identical to Xarelto’s one, and its mainly generate by the lack of an antidote. More than4,000 Pradaxa lawsuits were filed, leading the manufacturer to pay $650 million in settlements, averaging about $150,000 per claim.

 

References

  1. Neale, T. (2014, January 16). Third strike for Xarelto for ACS. Retrieved from http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/AcuteCoronarySyndrome/43845
  2. NPS Medicinewise. (2013). Side effects of rivaroxaban, Retrieved from http://www.nps.org.au/medicines/heart-blood-and-blood-vessels/anti-clotting-medicines/for-individuals/anticoagulant-medicines/for-individuals/active-ingredients/rivaroxaban/for-individuals/side-effects
  3. National Library of Medicine. (2014). XARELTO (rivaroxaban) tablet, film coated. DailyMed. Retrieved from http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/lookup.cfm?setid=10db92f9-2300-4a80-836b-673e1ae91610