Another Xarelto user is suing Bayer and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, alleging he suffered severe bleeding injuries caused by the blood thinning medication.

Illinois plaintiff Larry M. alleges in the Xarelto lawsuit that the drug manufacturers “concealed their knowledge of Xarelto’s defects” from not only him, but also from “the FDA, the public in general and/or the medical community.” His case joins dozens of Xarelto lawsuits involving injuries or deaths associated with the drug’s ability to cause uncontrollable bleeding.

Xarelto is typically prescribed to patients who suffer from non-valvular atrial fibrillation and to prevent blood-clotting after hip or knee replacement surgery. Xarelto was designed and approved to prevent stroke and systemic embolism in these patients.

Larry alleges in the Xarelto lawsuit that he was prescribed the anticoagulant to treat his deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, but his prescription period ended almost as soon as it begun when he began suffering internal bleeding.

The Xarelto lawsuit states the plaintiff began taking Xarelto on Jan. 07, 2014. Despite following all prescription instructions and additional medical advice, the plaintiff had to be taken off the medication almost 10 days later on Jan. 16 when he was hospitalized for internal bleeding in his right lower extremity.

While Larry survived the ordeal, he suffered a great amount of physical pain and emotional trauma and is still contending with the medical bills, his Xarelto lawsuit claims. Additionally, he is now at a higher risk for the recurrence of stroke and is still continuing to discover the full extent of the damage allegedly caused by Xarelto.

The plaintiff took legal action against the pharmaceutical giants after discovering there is no antidote for Xarelto bleeding should it occur, despite the known risks. The only way to stop internal bleeding in Xarelto users is emergency medical intervention. In some cases patients have died from these injuries. Despite the severity of these Xarelto side effects, the defendants failed to notify the plaintiff of this potential event and did not mention it on the drug’s label, the lawsuit claims.

Larry’s lawyers state that Bayer and Janssen had the civil responsibility to warn him and other patients of all Xarelto side effects, because they rely on the accuracy of the given information on the drug warning label. The plaintiff insists he never would have taken Xarelto if he had known about the risk of uncontrollable internal bleeding.

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

This Xarelto lawsuit is Case No. 3:14-cv-01295-DRH, in the U.S. District Court of Southern Illinois.

Overview of Xarelto Complications

Xarelto was first approved by the FDA in 2011 in an effort to compete against America’s traditional anticoagulant, Warfarin (coumadin). Recently, several pharmaceutical companies have tried to break into the lucrative anticoagulant market with considerable success. A year previous to Xarelto, Pradaxa had been approved for the same purpose from the German pharmaceutical giant, Boehringer Ingelheim.

As a result of Bayer and Janssen’s combined efforts, Xarelto was met with almost immediate success making approximately $582 million in sales globally, with 7 million worldwide prescribers. As of 2013, Xarelto surpassed Pradaxa as the best-selling anticoagulant after exceeding $1 billion in sales. Many experts believe that the market success of the drug was due to the companies’ aggressive advertising campaign, paying millions to medical journals to mention the drug in a positive light.

However, in lieu of the drug’s rising popularity, it has been discovered that Xarelto had a major design flaw. Similar to Pradaxa, Xarelto lacked a reversal agent to stop internal bleeding. Patients who take Warfarin can stop internal bleeds with a dose of vitamin K. This has led to a growing number of injury reports and Xarelto lawsuits by patients who claim they were not adequately warned about these risks.