A Georgia resident has filed a Xarelto lawsuit against Janssen Research & Development, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson.

The plaintiff, Addis J., began taking Xarelto in 2013, as prescribed by his physician as an anticoagulant or blood thinner. Addis’ Xarelto lawsuit alleges that his ingestion of Xarelto directly led to severe bleeding that required medical attention in May 2013.

The plaintiff claims that he suffered from this gastrointestinal bleeding because of Xarelto, and was landed with significant physical damages. The Xarelto lawsuit claims that, had the plaintiff been properly informed of the medication’s potential dangers and side effects, he would not have taken Xarelto.

Addis filed this Xarelto bleeding lawsuit on multiple counts, including failure to warn, defective design, negligence, breach of express and implied warranties, and fraudulent concealment, among several others.

Addis seeks punitive damages against Janssen for their allegedly deceptive and harmful practices regarding the manufacture and marketing of Xarelto.

Xarelto Basics

Xarelto (rivaroxaban) is a popular anticoagulant medication. Janssen, the developer, manufacturer, and marketer of Xarelto, claims that Xarelto has been prescribed to over seven million people across the world, helping prevent dangerous blood clots.

Despite Janssen’s claims that Xarelto is capable of preventing dangerous clotting complications, Addis’ lawsuit – and others like it – allege that the company’s fervent marketing misinformed patients and the medical community.

According to these Xarelto lawsuits, Janssen deliberately underplayed the drug’s safety and efficacy. Rather than being superior to warfarin (an anticoagulant staple drug), Xarelto is allegedly no safer to use, and like warfarin, should require routine blood monitoring to be safe.

Xarelto Bleeding Side Effects

Not all side effects of Xarelto are severe or dangerous, and not all users of Xarelto experience side effects. Those who do, however, can be subject to extremely severe and dangerous bleeding issues that cannot be controlled or reversed, given that there is no antidote to counteract Xarelto’s effects.

Addis’ Xarelto bleeding lawsuit and others like it allege that a series of clinical trials well known in the medical community has revealed a link between Xarelto and major bleeding events, such as gastrointestinal bleeding. The studies indicated that Xarelto had an even higher rate of major bleeding complications than other, similar drugs, including  warfarin.

“Major bleeding” indicates that the bleeding involved a critical organ, led to reoperation, or led to fatalities.

Xarelto bleeding lawsuits claim that Janssen was not only aware of these studies and the bleeding risks of Xarelto, but failed to report these major bleeding complications as significant adverse effects. On top of this, the lawsuits allege that Janssen failed to adequately warn consumers and the medical community about the major bleeding risk associated with Xarelto.

Despite the manufacturer’s alleged knowledge of these risks, lawsuits claim, the company continued to market Xarelto in a manner that plaintiffs describe as negligent and misleading, diminishing the concern for the serious risks of the drug.

Xarelto Bleeding Lawsuits

Xarelto is currently facing hundreds of Xarelto bleeding lawsuits filed for patients who, after taking the dug, have experienced gastrointestinal bleeding, hemorrhaging, or other adverse events.

These Xarelto lawsuits claim that the drug makers failed to be completely transparent in the warnings for their product and the Xarelto bleeding side effects. These cases also allege that the drug maker should be held accountable for not providing an approved antidote that could reverse the medication’s effects, given the potentially damaging Xarelto side effects many claim to have suffered.

Plaintiffs claim that the drug manufacturers did not clearly portray the drug’s potentially damaging side effects on their packaging, in their advertising, or to the medical community as a whole.

Plaintiffs further allege that drug makers had a responsibility to provide blood level monitoring for users of their drug, especially after recent studies which have suggested blood level monitoring might significantly assist doctors to care for patients who use Xarelto.

If you or someone you know has experienced Xarelto side effects such as Xarelto bleeding, you may be able to join a class action Xarelto bleeding lawsuit or file an individual lawsuit against the manufactuurer.

The Xarelto Bleeding Lawsuit is Case No. 3:15-cv-00858-JLS-RBB, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.