The pharmaceutical company behind the anticoagulant drug Xarelto is facing a blood thinner lawsuit from a Florida woman who claims that her loved one suffered serious injuries, including a stroke, as a result of using the drug.

Plaintiff Mily V. brings this blood thinner lawsuit as the personal representative of the estate of Libby V. for damages associated with the ingestion of the pharmaceutical drug Xarelto (generic rivaroxaban).

The blood thinner lawsuit claims that in December 2014, Libby was first prescribed and began taking Xarelto for clot prevention.

Libby suffered internal bleeding and was admitted the same month, suffering significant injuries, including a stroke.

Approved in 2011, Xarelto (rivaroxaban) is one of the newest blood thinners on the market and is manufactured by Bayer and marketed in the U.S. by Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

Mily charges that Janssen and Bayer acted negligently in “fervently” marketing Xarelto “with no regard to the accuracy and misrepresentations of their misleading advertisement,” citing reports implicating the blood thinner in hundreds of cases of serious or fatal injuries.

The blood thinner lawsuit, filed in the larger multidistrict litigation against the drug companies, seeks punitive damages for fraud, failure to warn, and unreasonable marketing of a dangerous drug.

“As a result of Defendants’ intense marketing, ‘[a]bout 130,000 U.S. prescriptions were written for Xarelto in the first three months of 2012,’ resulting in large profits,” the complaint states. “Due to the defective nature of Xarelto, persons who were prescribed and ingested Xarelto, for even a brief period of time, including the Ingesting Plaintiff herein, were at increased risk for developing life-threatening bleeds.”

The claim also cites figures from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a nonprofit devoted to medication error prevention and safe medication use.

“[ISMP] ‘identified 356 reports of serious, disabling, or fatal injury in which rivaroxaban was the primary suspect drug. The report more than doubled from the previous quarter total of 128 cases,'” the complaint states.

Xarelto Bleeding Risks

Xarelto is the first of a new generation of anticoagulant medications that have been advertised as being superior to warfarin, a drug that has been in use for 60 years.

It is prescribed for the treatment and prevention of blood clots in patients going through hip and knee replacement surgery and for the prevention of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation and for the prevention of deep vein thrombosis.

People taking warfarin must have regular blood monitoring and the drug carries dietary restrictions; Xarelto does not. But there is no known antidote for Xarelto risks such as internal bleeding, while there is an antidote for warfarin.

The lack of an antidote is a serious concern: when a patient taking Xarelto experiences excessive bleeding, the person simply has to wait for the drug to clears from the system, which can make a bleeding episode dangerous and possibly even deadly.

Filing a Xarelto Blood Thinner Lawsuit

Xarelto lawsuits accuse Janssen and Bayer of concealing important safety information and not thoroughly testing the blood thinner before it was put on the market.

In addition to death, plaintiffs who filed lawsuits suffered from a number of serious bleeding injuries, including fatal brain bleeds or strokes. These injuries caused them to incur financial and emotional hardship as well as additional health problems. Many of these people required emergency hospital visits and treatment.

If you or a loved one suffered from Xarelto bleeding side effects, legal options may be available to you.  A specialized Xarelto attorney can provide you with a free, no obligation consultation and help you determine if filing a blood thinner lawsuit is right for you.

Mily’s Xarelto Blood Thinner Lawsuit is Case No. 2:17-cv-00162 and is filed within the larger Xarelto consolidated multidistrict litigation In Re: Xarelto Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2592, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.