As the wheels of Justice for Xarelto victims slowly grinds forward, comes news that the federal court overseeing the multidistrict litigation has selected the bellwether trial cases.
There are currently over 5,250 similar injury claims pending in the Xarelto MDL as of May 16, alleging that Bayer and Janssen knew or should have known about the uncontrollable bleeding or hemorrhage risks with Xarelto, but hid the critical information from patients and their doctors. The plaintiffs also claim that Bayer and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen subsidiary failed to warn that Xarelto had no reversal agent in an emergency.
Federal Xarelto Multidistrict Litigation
All Xarelto product liability and personal injury lawsuits filed in U.S. District Courts nationwide have been consolidated in the Eastern District of Louisiana as part of a federal MDL, or multidistrict litigation, since December 2014. The Xarelto litigation is centralized before U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings, as is common in mass tort pharmaceutical and medical device litigation.
Xarelto Uncontrollable Bleeding Hemorrhage Side Effect Risk
Xarelto (rivaroxoaban) was released in 2011 as a replacement for Coumadin (warfarin), which has been the gold standard anticoagulant treatment for the past 60 years. Xarelto was approved by the FDA as a new generation treatment for prevention of blood clots among patients at risk for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism after major hip and knee surgeries and to prevent strokes in folks with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.
Xarelto is a new-generation of blood thinner, heavily promoted and touted as being easier to use than warfarin. But, an onslaught of adverse events were reported shortly after Xarelto hit the market, usually involving uncontrollable bleeds.
Unfortunately, all blood thinners have hemorrhage side effects, and the side effects of warfarin can be quickly reversed if bleeding occurs. There was no Xarelto reversal agent when the medication was released.
Xarelto MDL Bellwether Trials Pending
Judge Fallon has set a “bellwether” program, where a small group of Xarelto injury cases are being prepared for early trial dates. The Xarelto bellwether trials are set to go from February 2017 to May 2017.
Pradaxa Bleeding MDL Litigation
The Xarelto uncontrollable bleeding lawsuits involve similar claims to thousands of Pradaxa lawsuits. Pradaxa was the first new anticoagulant to be launched as a warfarin replacement, and was made by Boehringer Ingelheim based in Germany. Boehringer Ingelheim capitulated after several years of litigation, and agreed to pay $650 million in Pradaxa settlements in 2014, with an average of about $150,000 per claim. There were more than 4,000 Pradaxa uncontrollable bleeding injury and wrongful death lawsuits filed.
One Comment
Clay Steres
My mother was on Xarelto and lost 4 units of blood in December, taken off meds she healed but now is having same issue again while dealing with a heart attack aamd kidney issues 6 months later
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