A Lousiana woman has filed a Xarelto lawsuit against Janssen, the makers of the anticoagulant, claiming she has suffered permanent physical injuries as a result of taking Xarelto.

Plaintiff Helen C., according to her Xarelto lawsuit, claims she took Xarelto between Sept. 2012 to Aug. 27, 2013. On Aug. 27, 2013, Helen experienced “severe adverse bleeding” because of taking Xarelto, she alleges.

Helen’s Xarelto lawsuit states that “as a direct and proximate result of her use of Xarelto, [she] suffered serious and dangerous side effects including but not limited to adverse bleeding, as well as other severe and personal injuries which are permanent and lasting in nature, physical pain and mental anguish, diminished enjoyment of life, and financial expenses for medical treatment.”

Overview of Xarelto

Xarelto is a blood thinning medication that was approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November 2011.

At this time, Xarelto, generically known as rivaroxaban, was approved to treat atrial fibrillation, or a-fib. A-fib is a condition in which one of the chambers of the heart does not pump blood as it should, making the patient vulnerable to blood clots. Xarelto and other anticoagulants combat blood clots in a patient.

One year after its initial approval, in November 2012, Xarelto was also approved by the FDA to treat deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Blood thinning medication, like Xarelto, helps keep a patient who is prone to blood clots safer from stroke or other life threatening conditions.

Xarelto is a part of a new generation of anticoagulants that have been designed to directly compete with warfarin, the standard of blood thinning medication that has been in use since the 1950s.

Some reports say that more than 13 million Xarelto prescriptions have been written since it was approved in 2010, which makes Xarelto the most popular and most prescribed anticoagulant in the same class in the United States.

Unfortunately, the nature of a blood thinner means that it makes it difficult for the blood to clot. When the body needs blood to clot to stop dangerous bleeding, those who are on anticoagulants are in extreme danger of hemorrhage.

Warfarin, an older anticoagulant medication, has a reversal agent for such an occurrence. Administration of Vitamin K reverses the effects of warfarin in patients and can help the patient’s blood to clot. Xarelto, on the other hand, does not have an approved reversal agent.

Essentially, when a Xarelto patient needs their blood to clot in an emergency situation, there is nothing that a physician can administer to help that patient. Many Xarelto patients have died as a result of Xarelto bleeding.

Those who file a Xarelto lawsuit, like Helen, claim they were not adequately warned of the possibility of hemorrhage or adverse bleeding events, or of the lack of an approved reversal agent.

Xarelto lawsuit plaintiffs also claim that Xarelto has been “overmarketed” to both doctors and patients, allegedly exaggerating the benefits of Xarelto.

Helen is filing this Xarelto lawsuit on claims of strict liability, design defect, manufacturing defect, failure to warn, negligence, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty, negligent misrepresentation and fraud.

This Xarelto Lawsuit is Case No. 2:17-cv-07128-EEF-MBN in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.