Plaintiffs by the Dozen Step Up to the Xarelto Lawsuit Plate

March 31, 2015, 8:00AM. By Gordon Gibb

Los Angeles, CAA dozen plaintiffs suing the manufacturers of Xarelto are accusing Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a unit of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Bayer Corp., of putting the health of Americans at risk from Xarelto side effects while continuing to market their blockbuster drug for significant profit.

What’s more, the Xarelto lawsuit notes that unlike Coumadin (warfarin) - until recently the gold standard of blood thinners - Xarelto requires none of the rigorous and ongoing testing required of warfarin. The plaintiffs hold that Xarelto manufacturers were misguided when making such a claim.

The plaintiffs filed their Xarelto lawsuit in California federal court March 20, alleging that Xarelto caused Xarelto bleeding events and, in one case, a stroke.

For years, doctors and their patients have been searching for an anticoagulant, or blood thinner, that didn’t require the stringent monitoring required of warfarin use. The latter has proven effective and reliable provided careful dietary restrictions and ongoing monitoring is followed. When Xarelto and one other new-age competitor appeared on the scene - both claiming stringent monitoring was no longer required - doctors and their patients snapped them up.

It should be noted that Coumadin is not infallible. Even with the careful monitoring in place, bleeding events can occur. However, doctors could rely on the application of vitamin K, which serves as a reversing agent to swiftly counteract the thinning properties of warfarin. An antidote, if you will.

There is no such tool in the Xarelto tool kit. Plaintiffs assert that using Xarelto puts patient lives at risk, and assert in their Xarelto lawsuit that product labeling may not have sufficiently warned about the possibility of Xarelto uncontrollable hemorrhaging. Plaintiffs also assert that those involved in the manufacturing and marketing of Xarelto wrongly communicated to health care providers that follow-up testing was not necessary.

All the plaintiffs in the present suit were prescribed Xarelto for “atrial fibrillation and/or the prevention of potentially dangerous blood clots,” according to court documents, and allegedly suffered either gastrointestinal or rectal bleeding as a result. Some of them were hospitalized, including one man who had a stroke.



There is an increasing level of activity on the Xarelto lawsuit front. In December, the US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated nearly two dozen lawsuits at federal court in Louisiana involving similar claims. That was followed in January by the creation of a new mass tort in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. As of mid-January there were 73 cases alleging Xarelto bleeding events.

Plaintiffs allege Janssen and Bayer could have been more forthcoming with warnings about the possibility of Xarelto side effects, including the possibility of Xarelto irreversible brain bleeding and other occasions of Xarelto uncontrollable hemorrhaging that cannot be reversed due to the lack of an effective antidote.

The plaintiffs hold they never would have used Xarelto had they known the risks, and reference the “fervent marketing of Xarelto,” that misinformed patients and doctors as to the necessary monitoring precautions required for patients taking blood thinners.

The California Xarelto lawsuit suit is Walker et al v. Janssen Research & Development LLC et al, Case No. 2:15-vc-01971, in the US District Court for the Central District of California.

The MDL is In re: Xarelto Products Liability Litigation, Case No. 2592, before the US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.