The blood thinner Pradaxa is prescribed to prevent blood clots and stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation or who have undergone surgery.

Unfortunately, repeated warnings have now associated the blood thinner with severe internal bleeding.

About Pradaxa

Doctors prescribe Pradaxa for patients diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat problems such as atrial fibrillation. An irregular heartbeat can cause patients to develop blood clots, resulting in diminished or disrupted blood flow to key parts of the body such as the brain, the heart, and the lungs.

This can potentially cause patients to suffer strokes, heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms, and similar blood clot related complications.

Blood-thinning drugs like Pradaxa are designed to reduce the risk of these problems. While blood-thinning drugs are essential for many patients, the tradeoff is that patients are at a higher risk of internal bleeding related injuries.

Pradaxa is often compared with its rival Warfarin, another anticoagulant. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals designed Pradaxa to compete with Warfarin, which has been regularly prescribed to patients since the 1950s. Pradaxa was designed as a more convenient, hassle-free alternative.

While patients taking Warfarin must follow special dietary restrictions and undergo continuous blood monitoring to ensure patient safety, Pradaxa patients are generally free of these restrictions.

However, one of the primary differences is that Warfarin has an antidote (Vitamin K) should an internal bleeding event occur.  There is no antidote for Pradaxa bleeding events, leaving doctors with limited options to treat patients and putting patients at risk for serious injury and even death.

Pradaxa Bleeding

Pradaxa is a controversial blood-thinning drug. Approved by the FDA in 2010, Pradaxa has become associated with serious bleeding related injuries. Within six months of FDA approval, the agency received over 4,000 reports of serious side effects and 542 deaths among users.

Many patients reported experiencing gastrointestinal bleeding, severe hemorrhaging, strokes, heart attacks, and other serious complications and injuries. These reports have prompted multiple government reviews, numerous medical studies evaluating the drug’s safety and effectiveness, and thousands of Pradaxa lawsuits.

These Pradaxa lawsuits filed by thousands of bleeding victims and their loved ones allege that the maker of the drug, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, also failed to warn of these potential dangers and the fact that no Pradaxa antidote existed to stop them.

Due to the number of claims filed, cases were consolidated to a special federal Multidistrict Litigation court in Illinois. The case was known as MDL No. 2385, In Re: Pradaxa Product Liability Litigation, Southern District of Illinois.

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

In May 2014, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals agreed to settle around 4,000 claims regarding Pradaxa for a total of approximately $650 million. The Pradaxa settlement covers claims in both state and federal courts. In agreeing to the settlement, Boehringer Ingelheim did not admit to any liability.

New Pradaxa Litigation

Although Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals agreed to settle thousands of Pradaxa lawsuits, the drug maker is still facing thousands more claims in federal court.

These new Pradaxa internal bleeding lawsuits continue to allege that Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals did not adequately warn patients of the alleged risk of severe internal bleeding linked to the drug, according to court documents.

Over 2,600 new Pradaxa lawsuits are currently consolidated in a multidistrict litigation known as In Re: Pradaxa (Dabigatran Etexilate) Products Liability Litigation, MDL 2385, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.

If you or someone you love has suffered from adverse and life-threatening Pradaxa complications such as internal bleeding, you may be able to file a Pradaxa lawsuit to recover damages for your suffering.