Recently, the newer anticoagulants (blood thinners) Pradaxa and Xarelto have made news because many folks have filed lawsuits alleging that the drugs can cause uncontrollable internal bleeding and hemorrhaging.

The latest blood thinner to enter the market, Eliquis, is also known to carry a high risk of internal bleeding, which could prove fatal to patients.

What is Eliquis?

Eliquis (apixaban) was developed jointly by Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb and is an anticoagulant, or blood thinner, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2012. Originally, Eliquis was approved for stroke prevention in patients who have a heartbeat irregularity known as atrial fibrillation. Use was later expanded to patients at risk for pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis, conditions also caused by blood clots.

Eliquis is in the same family of anticoagulants as Pradaxa and Xarelto. These medications were widely proclaimed to be far superior to the previous blood thinning medication, warfarin (Coumadin), because they reportedly don’t require patient blood monitoring and have fewer dietary restrictions.

Eliquis Internal Bleeding

All anticoagulants are designed to reduce the likelihood of dangerous blood clots. However, this also means that it is more difficult for blood to clot in necessary situations.

When a patient develops internal bleeding or hemorrhaging while taking warfarin, the bleeding event can be stopped with a dose of Vitamin K. What the makers of Eliquis were not perhaps forthcoming about is that at this time there is no such reversal agent for Eliquis internal bleeding, an Eliquis side effect which may be fatal.

Like all anticoagulants, there is a risk that Eliquis will produce internal bleeding. Since Eliquis is just entering the market, there is no way to know whether Eliquis will cause fewer problems than Pradaxa and Xarelto.

Patients should bear in mind, however, that Eliquis shares the most serious problem associated with the other two drugs: the lack of an antidote that will reverse its anticoagulant effects. An article in the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine places Eliquis in the same risk category as Pradaxa and Xarelto, noting that doctors have serious difficulty managing the internal bleeding that the three drugs produce.

Eliquis Lawsuits

In Eliquis lawsuits, multiple injured patients and grieving loved ones are now claiming that the makers of this drug, Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb, did not provide sufficient information about the risk of Eliquis internal bleeding or the lack of an antidote to this dangerous drug side effect.

In fact, many go beyond this to claim that these companies put their own profits before the safety of patients with this failure to warn. Damages from an Eliquis lawsuit may include compensation for medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, wrongful death, and more.