Xarelto (rivaroxaban), a prescription blood thinner produced by Bayer Healthcare, is facing approximately 1,200 Xarelto lawsuits filed by patients who, after taking Xarelto, have experienced gastrointestinal bleeding, hemorrhaging, or other adverse events.

Many of the Xarelto lawsuits have been coordinated in federal court before U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon of the Eastern District of Louisiana. The first Xarelto trials may begin by August 2016, and will help facilitate potential Xarelto settlements. The early settlements may resolve many cases without the need for each case to be tried individually.

Plaintiffs filing Xarelto lawsuits allege that the drug’s manufacturers failed to provide adequate warnings and were not transparent about possible Xarelto bleeding side effects. These cases also allege that the drug’s maker should be held accountable for not providing an approved antidote that could reverse the medication’s effects, given the uncontrollable bleeding many claim to have suffered.

Xarelto Uncontrollable Bleeding Allegations

Xarelto is a relatively new drug, introduced in 2011 to replace Coumadin (warfarin) as the go-to anticoagulant. The blood thinner is designed to help individuals at risk for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism by reducing the potential for blood clotting. Many of Xarelto’s problems spring from the fact that, unlike warfarin, Xarelto does not have an antidote available to reverse or reduce its sometimes dangerous effects. Due to aggressive marketing tactics, Xarelto has quickly become one of the top selling medications in the United States. One of Xarelto’s marketed advantages is that patients taking the drug do not need regular blood monitoring, which is required for users of warfarin. However, recent studies and allegations have suggested that Xarelto blood monitoring may significantly improve doctors’ abilities to identify and help patients who are at great risk of excessive bleeding from the drug. Not all side effects of Xarelto are severe or dangerous, and not all users of Xarelto experience any side effects. Those who do, however, can be subject to extremely severe and dangerous bleeding issues that cannot be controlled or reversed. Plaintiffs claim that the drug manufacturers did not clearly portray the drug’s potentially damaging side effects on their packaging, in their advertising, or to the medical community as a whole. Plaintiffs further allege that drug makers had a responsibility to provide blood level monitoring for users of their drug, especially after recent studies which have suggested blood level monitoring might significantly assist doctors in caring for patients who use Xarelto. While Xarelto does not have a reversal agent for excessive bleeding side effects, plaintiffs allege that the drug makers withheld this information from the public and the medical community, and thus did not reveal fully accurate information to compare their product to others on the market, such as Coumadin, a drug whose effects can be reversed quickly in a bleeding emergency. Similar allegations have been brought up against Pradaxa, created by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals. Plaintiffs have won $650 million total in Pradaxa settlements after several years in court. If you or someone you know has experienced Xarelto side effects such as Xarelto bleeding, you may be able to file a Xarelto lawsuit.