An Ohio woman’s lawsuit against Janssen Pharmaceuticals, its parent company Johnson & Johnson as well as Bayer, claims their anticoagulant drug Xarelto is unsuitable for use and that it caused her stroke.

Alison G., a resident of Ohio, was prescribed Xarelto on December 12, 2015, for the treatment and prevention of deep vein thrombosis, or DVT.

DVT is a blood clot that forms in a vein deep in the body, often in the lower leg or thigh. If a DVT breaks loose it can cause life-threatening problems for the patient.

However, just a few weeks later, on Christmas Eve, Alison was admitted to the hospital where she was diagnosed as having a stroke.

She remained in the hospital from December 24, 2015, to December 31, 2015.

Because of her condition, her doctors took her off of Xarelto. Alison believes that her injuries were directly caused by the blood thinner and that Xarelto is unsuitable for not just herself, but for others as well.

She claims she has suffered and will continue to suffer harm and damages including severe pain and suffering, past and future medical expenses and other economic and non-economic damages.

She claims that the defendants have acted in ways that have caused her to suffer severe personal injuries which are permanent and lasting, physical pain and mental anguish which includes the diminished enjoyment of life as well as the need for lifelong medical treatment.

Alison also claims that she will need monitoring and medication in the future.

Xarelto is Unsuitable, Plaintiff Says

Xarelto is unsuitable, Alison claims, because the defendants not only acted in ways that caused her to suffer, but also failed to act and omitted information that could help the public and medical community in making informed medical decisions.

She is naming Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer and other companies as being responsible for her injuries.

According to this lawsuit, Xarelto has only been approved for use for a little over 5 years. It was approved in 2011 for the prevention of DVT and PE (pulmonary embolism) in patients that have undergone hip replacement surgery.

Later that year, it was approved to also reduce the risk of stroke and/or systemic embolism.

By the following summer, the FDA began to wonder if Xarelto is unsuitable because there were over 1,080 serious adverse event reports reported by consumers. All of these adverse event reports had to do with Xarelto bleeding problems.

At the end of 2012, over 2,000 serious adverse event reports had been reported to the FDA regarding Xarelto. Dead had resulted in 151 of those cases.

Alison is raising claims of negligence, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, breach of express and implied warranties and strict products liability.

The Xarelto Lawsuit is filed under MDL No. 2592 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.