Bayer HealthCare and Johnson & Johnson are facing growing litigation pressure from the mounting multidistrict litigation (MDL) in Eastern Louisiana, consisting of Xarelto lawsuits.

Each of these product liability claims allege the anticoagulant Xarelto caused numerous internal bleeding injuries, with one of the latest additions to the MDL being filed by a Massachusetts woman.

Plaintiff Marilyn H. is filing this Xarelto lawsuit after experiencing her own internal bleeding incident, and is alleging the pharmaceutical companies knew the risks but failed to warn her.

Marilyn was prescribed the anticoagulant Xarelto on June 2, 2014, only to suffer a gastrointestinal bleeding event within the same month.

Like other bleeding incidents associated with the anticoagulant Xarelto, Marilyn needed emergency medical treatment and has incurred a variety of damages from her internal bleeding injuries.

Xarelto is often prescribed to patients suffering from atrial fibrillation and who are at a high risk for stroke, with the drug meant to reduce the overall risk of blood clot injuries. Instead of improving the health of her circulation system, however, Marilyn suffered near fatal gastrointestinal bleeding injuries.

Overview of Xarelto Bleeding Complications

The anticoagulant Xarelto is the second in a series of new generation blood thinners, which was approved by the FDA on July 1, 2011. The line of new generation anticoagulants were meant to directly compete against each other and original blood thinner Warfarin.

Pradaxa was the first anticoagulant to be approved for blood thinning purposes since the release of Warfarin in the 1950s.

Since its release, the anticoagulant Xarelto has become the second most prescribed treatment medication for atrial fibrillation.

This medication was released as a joint effort between Bayer and Johnson & Johnson, and has proven to be widely successful as it achieved blockbuster status in the past several years.

However numerous patients have alleged the anticoagulant Xarelto has caused internal bleeding injuries.

Anticoagulants work by inhibiting the body’s natural clotting ability, which allows for optimal blood flow circulation. However this mechanism also prevents the body’s ability to recover from internal bleeding incidents, resulting in potentially fatal consequences.

At this time, only Warfarin has a widely available reversal agent in the case of internal bleeding injuries. Even though these are potentially fatal complications, Johnson & Johnson and Bayer HealthCare allegedly failed to warn patients against this possibility.

Marilyn’s Xarelto lawsuit will stand alongside similar product liability claims, each of which allege the companies failed to warn them against risks of internal bleeding complications.

The Xarelto Lawsuit is Case No. 2:16-cv-14783, in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Louisiana.