Articles Posted in Xarelto

Xarelto uncontrolled bleeding continues to wreak havoc as more and more families are filing wrongful death actions in federal court. Michael Baseluos is a blood thinner lawyer who is well versed in xarelto bleeding problems. The pattern is all too familiar. Uncontrolled bleeding leads to death. The defendant manufacturers are alleged to have engaged in scheme to defraud the public by intentionally misleading the public and doctors about the inherent defects of xarelto, which include lack of an antidote to rivaroxaban, the technical name for xarelto. Xarelto hemorrhages are on the rise along with uncontrolled internal bleeding due to the lack of an antidote. The original FDA approved warnings did not contain any mention of the lack of an antidote.

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Rather than being upfront about the lack of an ability to reverse a xarelto bleedout, defendants such as  Jannsen Pharmaceuticals, Bayer, and Johnson & Johnson chose instead to hide this very important fact in the overdose section of the label. The unsuspecting Xarelto user is then subject to the blood thinner side effects that lead to life-threatening complications which lead to death.

The defendants, who are currently facing lawsuits in the Eastern District of Louisiana and Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, are also alleged to have duped medical personnel including ER doctors and surgeons, as well as hematology and cardiac specialists.  There are over fourteen thousand (14,000) lawsuits in the federal courts alone, and over one thousand (1,000) cases in the Philadelphia Court alone. One of the key differences between whether to file in the federal courts in Louisiana versus the Philadelphia Court of Common Please is the issue of ischemic strokes. This is a new condition in addition to the uncontrolled bleeding found in those injured from xarelto. An ischemic stroke is the result of a blood clot that clogs an artery leading to the brain. Such blood clots are often associated with the buildup of plaque in the arteries, a condition we often refer to as atherosclerosis. Ischemic strokes can be caused by clots in the neck (carotid artery) and other major arteries. While the Eastern District of Louisanca is not accepting xarelto stroke lawsuits, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas is accepting claims of stroke caused by rivaroxaban.

Xarelto case filings are skyrocketing as over 3300 cases have now been filed in Louisiana under Multi District Litgation No. 2592 headed by Judge Fallon  or the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, overseen by Judge New. Acute and deadly bleeding events have affected thousands of individuals and their families as new information reveals that the manufacturers engaged in deceptive marketing while concealing evidence of xarelto bleeding problems.

Recently Drs. Hwang and Hun concluded studies of senior citizens who switched from traditional warfarin to the blood thinner rivaroxaban (pharmaceutical name for Xarelto). The researchers discovered the patients were at increased risk of vitreous hemorrhage or eye bleeds. In June 2015, a leading medical journal, JAMA Ophthalmology   published their research detailing xarelto side effects of eye bleed injuries shortly after transitioning from Warfarin to Xarelto. eye-1542065

Scientists and professors from John Hopkins published a study in the April 2015 issue of BMJ (originally known as the British Medical Journal) in which they  investigated the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding associated with anticoagulants. The researchers concluded that there could be a “more than twofold higher risk of bleeding with rivaroxaban compared with warfarin.”

One of the most vital aspects of the xarelto class action is the application of the “learned intermediary doctrine”. A common misperception by the public is that a pharmaceutical manufacturer like Bayer or Janssen Pharmaceuticals (the current defendants in the multidistrict litigations in Pennsylvania and Louisiana) has a duty to warn xarelto users regarding the risks hemorrhages, strokes, and bleedouts. This is a misconception.

In reality, if pharmaceutical manufacturers can show that they adequately informed the doctor of the risks of their drugs, then the manufacturers can shield themselves from product liability suits, even if ultimately patients do not receive any warnings. In reviewing manufacturer warnings, it is tempting to analyze the FDA Black Box Warnings and the Medication guide, both of which the FDA approves. A Black box warning appears on a prescription drug label and highlights life threatening or serious adverse effects for the consumer. Medication Guides are paper copies that accompany prescription medicines which deal with both general and specific information on harmful or threatening drug effects. However, a Xarelto lawsuit lawyer is more interested in the FDA approved prescribing information ie. Determining what manufacturers provided to the prescribing doctors.

Xarelto / Rivaroxaban belongs to a class of drugs known as NOACs – Non Vitamin K Dependent Anticoagulants. Other drugs in this class include Pradaxa and Eliquis. These specific NOACs were all evaluated against warfarin, a traditional anticoagulant, and underwent clinical trials and obtained FDA approval. Moreover, Xarelto defendants like Bayer AG and Janssen Pharmaceuticals touted NOACs and being more effective and safer than Warfarin, employing direct to consumer advertising (DTC). Interestingly, only the USA and New Zealand permit DTC advertising of prescription drugs.

The number of cases of people injured by the prescription drug Xarelto is steadily increasing as the blood thinner has been linked to gastrointestinal bleeding and strokes. There is currently a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, where Judge New has categorized the plaintiffs injured from xarelto into three major categories.

The first category consists of plaintiffs who suffered a gastrointestinal or rectal bleed after taking the drug known as rivaroxaban (Xarelto) to reduce the risk of stroke or embolism (an obstruction in a blood vessel due to a clot or foreign matter that becomes stuck in the blood stream).

The second category of plaintiffs are those individuals who took the blood thinner to treat deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a blood clot formed in a vein. If the clot travels through the bloodstream, it can eventually block an artery in the lungs, leading to pulmonary embolism (PE). The most common scenario for this category are plaintiffs who underwent hip or knee replacement surgery. Those plaintiffs using xarelto to treat DVT or PE and who thereafter suffer uncontrolled bleeding from gastrointestinal or rectal internal bleeding are part of this second category.

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