Several consumers and patients have suffered from severe adverse effects and complications from them taking Pradaxa. This medicine is also known as dabigatran and is an anticoagulant medication prescribed to prevent blood clots and reduce the risk of strokes.

Pradaxa was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2010. It was quickly found to cause serious adverse effects and complications.

Some of the reported Pradaxa adverse side effects include gastrointestinal bleeding, heart attack, stroke, brain hemorrhage, death, kidney bleeding, and internal bleeding.

Due to increased Pradaxa adverse side effects suffered by patients, a Pradaxa internal bleeding class action lawsuit investigation has been initiated. Lawyers are currently looking for patients and consumers who have suffered from these adverse effects and complications.

Pradaxa Adverse Side Effects Drug Facts

Pradaxa is also known as dabigatran and is manufactured by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals. It is considered a relatively new anticoagulant medication.

Pradaxa was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2010. It is part of a class of drugs known as direct thrombin inhibitors. These class of drugs work and act as anticoagulants specifically by inhibiting the thrombin enzyme.

Pradaxa was initially approved by the FDA because it was thought to be superior to another anticoagulant drug, Coumadin, also known as warfarin. The reason why developers thought Pradaxa was a more superior drug was that it did not require as much monitoring of the patient taking the medication. Additionally, it required little or no change in the patient’s diet.

However, with patients who were taking warfarin, there was a drug that could counteract the side effects that the drug caused in those who were taking the medication. Specifically, a patient taking warfarin could ingest or flush their body with vitamin K so as to counteract a severe abdominal bleeding side effect that may occur with the medication. The flushing of vitamin K allows the patient’s body to stop the anticoagulant effects of the drug, thereby allowing their body to stop any internal bleeding occurring.

However, in patients who have been prescribed Pradaxa, there was no counteracting medication until Oct. 16, 2015, when the FDA approved the reversal agent for Pradaxa known as Praxbind.

Praxbind, also known as idarucizumab, is a reversal agent specific to Pradaxa. Between Pradaxa’s approval in 2010 and Praxbind’s approval in 2015, there had been no counteracting medication to stop Pradaxa’s adverse side effects and internal bleeding complications.

Within the first three months of Pradaxa’s approval, the FDA received roughly 307 adverse reports filed by patients who have suffered from the drug’s adverse side effects and complications.

Additionally, 260 deaths had also occurred in patients who have taken Pradaxa within the drug’s first year on the market. These deaths, according to reports, were due to Pradaxa adverse side effects including hemorrhage, stroke, internal bleeding, and gastrointestinal bleeding.

The FDA also notified patients taking the anticoagulant medication of Pradaxa adverse side effects that could occur from taking the medication in December 2011.

If you or someone you know has been affected by adverse side effects with Pradaxa, you  may qualify to joint a Pradaxa lawsuit investigation.