Though Pradaxa is one of the most popular blood thinning drugs available, Pradaxa bleeding risk may make the drug more trouble than it’s worth.

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Pradaxa’s manufacturer, has been slammed with thousands of products liability lawsuits over Pradaxa bleeding risk.

The number of Pradaxa lawsuits is only expected to increase, given Pradaxa’s widespread popularity.

Pradaxa Background

Pradaxa (also known by its generic name, dabigatran) was first approved as a blood thinner by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2010.

Pradaxa was intended to be an updated replacement for the old staple anticoagulant, warfarin, used to prevent dangerous blood clot conditions.

After its release, Pradaxa quickly caught up to warfarin in terms of popularity. However, despite its sudden widespread use, Pradaxa was actually associated with a more extreme risk of excessive bleeding than many are aware of.

Pradaxa Bleeding Risk

It is not uncommon for a blood thinning drug to cause excessive bruising and bleeding. This effect is actually to be expected from a medication that prevents blood clotting. When the body is unable to form blood clots, bruising and bleeding tend to be more extreme.

In most cases, this doesn’t become too much of an issue. However, in emergency situations, the body’s ability to form blood clots can actually save a person’s life. Blood clotting can help slow bleeding in an emergency, but for patients on blood thinner, life-saving clots cannot effectively form.

In such situations, patients taking warfarin can administer vitamin K, which acts as a warfarin antidote, or “reversal agent.”

However, for the first several years it was on the market, Pradaxa did not have any kind of reversal agent, making Pradaxa bleeding risk much more substantial.

Besides Pradaxa bleeding risk, other possible side effects include heart attacks, liver failure, and death. A total of 3,781 Pradaxa adverse events were reported in 2011, over 500 of which were fatal.

Considering the popularity and widespread usage of Pradaxa, this drug has the potential to affect millions. Indeed, after less than two years on the market, sales of Pradaxa had already skyrocketed, and 3.7 million U.S. patients had chosen to use Pradaxa.

Pradaxa also does not require frequent blood monitoring, as warfarin does. For many patients, this is a huge selling point, meaning that they do not need to make constant trips to the doctor for testing.

However, because of the risk of bleeding associated with Pradaxa, some physicians have suggested that frequent blood monitoring may be in order to prevent these side effects from developing.

The fact that monitoring is not specifically recommended for Pradaxa patients may put them at even greater risk.

Pradaxa Lawsuits

Despite these reports, Pradaxa’s manufacturer still does not require the drug to be monitored during use. The pharmaceutical company has stated since this information was released that Pradaxa still offers more benefits than risks.

Many Pradaxa users disagree, and have since decided to file Pradaxa lawsuits.

Pradaxa lawsuits allege that Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals failed to adequately warn the public and the medical community about the risk of bleeding linked to Pradaxa.

If you or someone you know has taken Pradaxa and has subsequently experienced side effects of Pradaxa such as excessive bleeding or hemorrhaging, you may have cause for filing a Pradaxa lawsuit.