The German division of Bayer Pharmaceuticals announces that it will launch three new inquiries into potential uses of Xarelto.

Xarelto is an anticoagulant medication that is meant to prevent blood-clotting in patients, and is one of Bayer’s top five new medications.

Xarelto is co-produced and distributed by Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and is approved to prevent stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation.

Bayer announced that the first of three trials was conducted that involved approximately 7,000 patients, which analyzed whether or not the drug can prevent stroke recurrences in patients who have already suffered them.

“We really have just as many strokes due to undetermined causes as to atrial fibrillation,” Frank Misselwitz, head of the Therapeutic Area Cardiovascular and Coagulation at Bayer HealthCare said.

Bayer announced the next trial on Friday, and said that it will be conducted to examine the potential benefits Xarelto may have in reducing thrombotic vascular complications. More than 5,000 patients with peripheral artery disease will be examined for this study. Finally, the third study in the series will be centered on evaluated long-term Xarelto use of preventing acute coronary syndrome in patients. This study is to include between 2,000 and 3,000 patients.

Bayer also indicated that if the third study was successful, another inquiry will follow to further investigate the risks and benefits of Xarelto. Misselwitz did not indicate whether or not expanding the use of Xarelto would cause Bayer to increase its estimates of the drug’s sales potential.

Xarelto is currently competing with Eliquis, Pradaxa, and Warfarin in the anticoagulant market. While the number of competitors is limited, Xarelto still faces stiff competition as Pradaxa and Warfarin were approved before it, and Eliquis is proving to be a strong rival. In the intense race of the patient medication market, any advantage or study could help.

Overview of Xarelto Complications

Xarelto (rivaroxaban) is a blood-thinning medication that was recently approved in 2011. It is prescribed to patients with atrial fibrillation and similar conditions to prevent blood clots.

Typically, patients who have recently gone under hip or knee replacement surgery are prescribed this medication because blood clots commonly form after those procedures. While Xarelto has been a marketing success for the most part, it has been indicated to cause severe complications in patients. Like other anticoagulants, Xarelto has been reported to be linked to serious internal bleeding injuries that required emergency medical intervention.

Hundreds of adverse event reports have been submitted to the FDA concerning these Xarelto side effects, with more than 121 Xarelto bleeding cases reported in the first quarter of 2012.

Along with its competitors, Warfarin and Pradaxa, Xarelto is ranked as one of the most dangerous medications in America, according to the FDA. All three anticoagulants account for 1,734 adverse event reports submitted to the FDA in 2012, which included 233 patient deaths.

Warfarin has an advantage over Pradaxa and Xarelto because there is a reversal agent to stop adverse bleeding events. As of now, neither Pradaxa or Xarelto have remedy solutions for their bleeding side effects.