A man from Michigan has filed a Xarelto lawsuit blaming the drug’s manufacturers for his episodes of bleeding and need for additional medical care.

Plaintiff Richard P. says he took Xarelto from April 2013 to the following August. He claims he suffered an episode of life-threatening bleeding that itself led to other personal injuries, physical pain and mental anguish.

Treatment for these injuries required hospitalization and additional medical care, he says.

In his Xarelto lawsuit, Richard now argues his bleeding was a direct result of the Xarelto he took and of the failure of the drug’s manufacturers to properly address the side effects of Xarelto.

He alleges defendants Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals and their related companies failed to properly evaluate Xarelto’s safety profile.

He also claims the defendants failed to provide adequate warnings and instructions for the use of Xarelto, and he alleges the defendants should have disclosed that Xarelto requires dosage adjustments.

Litigating a Xarelto Lawsuit

Richard’s Xarelto lawsuit is one among thousands of similar claims in an enormous multidistrict litigation, or MDL, that is still proceeding in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

As of May of this year, there are over 5,200 Xarelto lawsuits like Richards pending in the MDL. Attorneys involved in the MDL say they expect even more cases to be filed.

The first four of these cases selected to go to trial, known as “bellwether” cases, have been scheduled to begin between February and April 2017. The four bellwether cases were selected from a pool of 40 assembled in January 2016.

The results from bellwether cases can give the parties an idea about how other, similar trials might play out.

Another group of Xarelto lawsuits is pending in a Pennsylvania state court in Philadelphia. Trials in that group of cases may not begin until after the first trials in the federal MDL.

According to clinical studies and aftermarket reports, an increased likelihood of internal bleeding is one of the side effects of Xarelto.

Compounding that risk is the fact that Xarelto was introduced to the market without any available antidote that could be used to stop its anticoagulant effect in case of emergency.

Without an antidote, Xarelto patients who have experienced internal bleeding have had to simply wait for their body to finish metabolizing the drug. How long that takes is different for different patients.

The same goes for patients who need to undergo surgery. Surgical patients have had to stop taking Xarelto at least 24 hours before surgery to avoid a risk of excessive bleeding during the procedure.

Plaintiffs in the Xarelto lawsuits argue that the unavailability of an antidote puts patients at too great a risk, making the drug a defective product.

They say that manufacturers Janssen and Bayer had no business promoting Xarelto as a safe and effective alternative to the older anticoagulant warfarin, which does have an available and effective antidote.

These plaintiffs argue that Janssen and Bayer knew for years about the increased risk of internal bleeding associated with Xarelto, yet failed to issue an adequate warning that would allow patients and their doctors to make an informed choice about whether or not to use Xarelto.

The Xarelto Lawsuit is Case No. 2:16-cv-03045 filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.