Pradaxa is prescribed to prevent blood clots and stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation or who have recently undergone surgery. Unfortunately, repeated incidences have now associated this popular blood thinner with severe internal bleeding.

The FDA approved Pradaxa in 2010, and within six months, patients were reporting serious bleeding events. Although the agency has received over 4,000 reports of Pradaxa side effects and 542 deaths among users, they have not issued a recall. The maker of the drug, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, also reportedly failed to warn of these potential Pradaxa complications and the fact that no antidote exists to stop them.

In recent years, thousands of Pradaxa internal bleeding victims and their loved ones have filed Pradaxa lawsuits. Due to the number of Pradaxa bleeding claims filed, cases were consolidated in a special federal multidistrict litigation under U.S. District Judge David Herndon.

During the course of litigation, plaintiffs presented evidence to show that Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals knew of the Pradaxa internal bleeding risks, concealed internal studies rather than warn patients, and even destroyed evidence requested by the court.

In May of 2014, as Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals faced the start of trials over Pradaxa internal bleeding, the company opted to pay approximately $650 million to settle all pending Pradaxa lawsuits. The administration of this Pradaxa settlement was completed in the Spring of 2015.

That initial litigation is now closed. However, a new round of Pradaxa internal bleeding lawsuits for those not included in the first settlement has now commenced.

The Pradaxa MDL is known as In re: Pradaxa Product Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2385, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.

New Round Of Pradaxa Internal Bleeding Lawsuits

The first Pradaxa settlement only covered the approximately 4,000 Pradaxa internal bleeding lawsuits filed by May of 2014. At the conclusion of the settlement proceedings, the federal Pradaxa MDL court stopped accepting new cases and most lawyers were not able to file new claims for more recent internal bleeding victims.

However, thousands more patients have experienced Pradaxa internal bleeding since that time, or were not able to file a claim for a previous injury before the settlement date, leaving Pradaxa internal bleeding victims without proper legal recourse.

In March of 2015, a new round of Pradaxa lawsuits were filed for victims that were closed out of the initial settlement. These new Pradaxa lawsuits will be filed in a special state court with the intention of seeking equal or greater compensation for new victims. However, Judge Herndon has ruled that plaintiffs in these new Pradaxa lawsuits will not be able to use discovery from the Pradaxa MDL to prepare for these cases.

New Pradaxa internal bleeding lawsuits continue to allege that Boehringer Ingleheim Pharmaceuticals did not adequately warn patients of the alleged risk of severe internal bleeding linked to the drug. To date, no antidote has been found to stop or reverse Pradaxa internal bleeding incidents.