The 2014 Pradaxa settlement of $650 million was arrived at just before the first of numerous outstanding lawsuits was set to go to trial. This figure resulted in an average Pradaxa settlement amount of $162,000 per claim.

Pradaxa is part of the newest family of anticoagulant medications that were ostensibly better than warfarin, a blood-thinning medication that had successfully been in use for decades.

The developer and maker of Pradaxa, Boehringer Ingelheim, settled approximately 4,000 lawsuits with the 2014 Pradaxa settlement. Settling allowed the company to keep the details of each case under wraps, instead of allowing negative evidence to be put on the public record at trial.

How Did Pradaxa Harm?

Pradaxa was approved to market by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2010. Despite the massive Pradaxa settlement, Boehringer Ingelheim still has the drug actively in commerce and it is used to treat atrial fibrillation, deep vein thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism.

These are all conditions in which blood clots can form and travel throughout the human anatomy causing heart attack, respiratory arrest, and stroke.

Pradaxa works as it was supposed to work on the human body. The anticoagulant inhibits thrombin, one of the main clotting agents in the human body.

The problem at the time it was released to market was that there was no companion antidote for its blood-thinning attributes. With warfarin, it was well-known that a rapid infusion of vitamin K could stop any situations of uncontrolled bleeding that might occur. This was not so with Pradaxa.

It was not until after several people presented with uncontrolled bleeding and died or nearly died that the lack of a viable antidote became more widely known. Plaintiffs say Boehringer Ingelheim advertised their new blood-thinning medication as better than warfarin while dangerously downplaying Pradaxa’s lack of an antidote.

Warfarin did require blood monitoring and diet restrictions during treatment which supposedly made it inferior, according to the marketing promotions of Boehringer Ingelheim.

It was not until five years after Pradaxa’s approval by the FDA that the same drug oversight agency approved Praxbind, a specific reversal agent for Pradaxa in the event of uncontrolled bleeding. The first Pradaxa settlement was testimony to the fact that that was five years too late for some patients.

If you are taking Pradaxa and are concerned about its risks, do not stop taking the drug without consulting your doctor. The FDA has also warned that suddenly stopping Pradaxa or intentionally omitting doses may increase the risk of blood clots.

Patients who have since suffered from Pradaxa bleeding side effects but were not included in the 2014 Pradaxa settlement can still seek compensation through a Pradaxa lawsuit of their own. If you or a loved one has been hurt by taking this newer generation anticoagulant drug, you may benefit from a consultation with a knowledgeable products liability lawyer.