Xarelto Bellwether Pushed Back by NBA All-Star Game

New Orleans, LAThe maiden bellwether Xarelto lawsuit was originally scheduled to commence this month, an important event given that the number of Xarelto Bleeding Issue cases now exceeds 10,000.

However, the important work of establishing potential liability and proving, or disproving allegations of Xarelto side effects and other claims will have to wait until March, due to a sporting event.

That event is the NBA All Star game, which this year is being held under the auspices of the National Basketball Association in New Orleans. With the event falling in the middle of the month – February 17 through 19 – it was decided to push the start of the first Xarelto bellwether lawsuit to March.

All parties were in agreement, however given the fact scheduling for the bellwether trial was the same week as the NBA All Star event. While specific concerns or details were not revealed, it is assumed there would be some difficulty in focusing on the task at hand – together with getting around in a city overrun with NBA players, support staff, fans and the media – while an event of such magnitude was to occur at the same time.

All Xarelto cases are consolidated before US District Judge Eldon Fallon in US District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana.

Xarelto is a new-age anti-coagulant, and one of two blood thinners that were brought to market in recent years touting a less-involved regimen of monitoring than the existing gold-standard at the time, Coumadin (warfarin). All blood thinners run the risk of bleeding events if blood is thinned too much; thus, strict monitoring of diet and other blood factors has been required to ensure that anti-coagulants are maintained at optimum levels to help mitigate stroke risk and the formation of blood clots, without pushing the blood thinning needle too far into the thinning scale that it increases the risk for a patient.

Patients and their caregivers had been pining for years for an easier way. Xarelto is one of two modern-day blood thinners to do just that – effect anti-coagulation without the need for the degree of monitoring that has been the bastion of warfarin.

Xarelto bleeding complication plaintiffs, however, allege they were not aware that Xarelto was brought to market without an effective antidote, or reversing agent, which can help a physician or clinician stem an Xarelto bleeding issue that could risk Xarelto death. The blood thinning properties of warfarin, in contrast, can be reversed through the application of Vitamin K. Further, plaintiffs maintain it was irresponsible for the manufacturers of Xarelto, Janssen Pharmaceuticals (a division of Johnson & Johnson) and Bayer to claim less monitoring of the patient was needed when, in the absence of an antidote, more monitoring would be prudent.

The first Xarelto bellwether is now scheduled for March 13 in the Eastern District of Louisiana. The second bellwether trial is now scheduled for April 24.