Louisiana plaintiff William H. is suing two major pharmaceutical companies, Bayer and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, for the injuries he allegedly suffered from their drug Xarelto. William claims that as a direct result of ingesting the blood-thinner Xarelto, he developed severe and almost fatal bleeding injuries.

Typically, Xarelto is prescribed to patients who have recently gone under hip or knee surgery and are at risk for developing blood clots. It is also prescribed to patients with atrial fibrillation who are at high risk for stroke. Like many patients, William was prescribed Xarelto by his doctors to prevent blood clotting in his body, according to his Xarelto lawsuit.

The plaintiff was prescribed Xarelto on May 21, 2014, but did not stay on the medication long due to unforeseen side effects. Despite following all instructions from the drug’s label as well as the advice of his doctor, William allegedly sustained serious bleeding injuries, the Xarelto lawsuit claims. The plaintiff says he knew something was wrong when he started noticing blood in his stool and was experiencing dizziness; he was officially diagnosed with internal bleeding on July 10, 2014 when he was admitted to the hospital.

William is filing the Xarelto lawsuit against Bayer and Janssen because he claims the injuries he suffered were completely avoidable if these Xarelto side effects had been properly disclosed to him. His lawyers argue that because the bleeding side effects of Xarelto were not explained to their client, it made it impossible for him to make a reasonable decision at the time that Xarelto was brought up as a treatment option to decide whether or not he should take the drug.

William’s Xarelto lawyers argue that Janssen and Bayer had the civil responsibility of warning their client and the general public of all possible Xarelto side effects, because they are relying on the accuracy of the given information on the drug’s warning label.

At the time Xarelto had been suggested, William  claims he had not been aware or informed of the fact that Xarelto had no remedy in the case of bleeding injuries. Additionally, he had been attracted to the drug because it required no blood monitoring and dosage adjustment, which is what put William at risk to begin with. William insists that he never would have agreed to take Xarelto if he had known about the possibility of bleeding injuries.

So for being allegedly responsible for manufacturing, selling, distributing, and marketing a dangerous drug, William is suing Janssen and Bayer Pharmaceuticals. The charges include: negligence, false advertising, concealing information, and misrepresenting a product.

This Xarelto lawsuit is Case No. 2:14-cv-02593-LMA-MBN, in the U.S. District of Eastern Louisiana.

Overview of Xarelto Complications

Xarelto is an anticoagulant that was approved by the FDA in 2011. Since Warfarin was approved, only three other anticoagulants have been released into the market with Pradaxa being the first, followed by the release of Xarelto and Eliquis. Unlike their predecessor Warfarin, these new anticoagulants offered faster-acting mechanisms, no blood monitoring, and had uniform dosage levels. Unfortunately, this means that some doctors felt that the newer anticoagulants did not require them to observe the patients.

This led to numerous injury reports by Xarelto users indicating uncontrollable internal bleeding with no way to stop it. Currently, Xarelto and the other new anticoagulants do not have a reversal agent to stop internal bleeding in patients. This also contrasts to Warfarin internal bleeding in Warfarin users can be counteracted by vitamin K. Despite this, Warfarin is not spared the scrutiny of the new anticoagulants because there are still numerous injury reports indicating this drug could cause patients harm.

Warfarin, Pradaxa, and Xarelto are said to be some of the most dangerous drugs in America, based on the number of injury reports submitted to the FDA. In 2012, these three drugs account for 1,734 reports along with 233 patient deaths; over 121 of these cases involved Xarelto. Many of these injuries have led to product liability lawsuits against Xarelto’s manufacturers, Bayer and Janssen Pharmaceuticals.