A claim filed by a Seattle man takes Janssen Pharmaceuticals to task over Xarelto life-threatening side effects.

Plaintiff Roland H. says he was prescribed Xarelto in July 2012 and took it as directed until around July 2013, when he suffered a life-threatening intracranial hemorrhage and stroke.

Roland now argues he could have avoided these Xarelto life-threatening side effects if the defendants had issued a proper warning about them.

He is suing Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., its parent company Johnson & Johnson, Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Inc. and their related companies, all of whom are allegedly involved in the development, manufacture or marketing of Xarelto.

Plaintiff: Companies Failed to Address Xarelto Life-Threatening Side Effects

Xarelto is an anticoagulant medication. Among other applications, it’s frequently used to control the risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation.

According to this Xarelto lawsuit, the clinical trials on which the FDA based its approval of Xarelto were flawed and unreliable.

The defendants either knew or had reason to know about the dangers associated with the drug, he says. Yet he claims labeling and instructions published for the drug’s users were inadequate to alert them to those risks.

Roland says the defendants failed to issue a proper warning about the risks of catastrophic bleeding injuries associated with Xarelto.

Neither the public nor the medical community was ever alerted to the risk of major bleeding events or the fact that there was no antidote available to control such bleeding, he claims.

In fact, Roland says, the defendants affirmatively understated the danger of Xarelto life-threatening side effects while simultaneously overstating the drug’s efficacy.

Because the defendants actively concealed information about Xarelto side effects, Roland says, they prevented patients like himself from discovering the link between Xarelto and his bleeding injuries until much later.

Roland also alleges his injuries have impaired his ability to understand the nature of legal proceedings. On those grounds, he argues, any applicable statute of limitations should be tolled.

Roland is raising claims for strict liability, manufacturing defects, design defect, failure to warn, negligence, breaches of express and implied warranty, negligent misrepresentation, fraud, and violation of the Washington State Consumer Protection Act.

This Xarelto lawsuit also includes a claim on behalf of the estate of Roland’s late wife Mary. Plaintiff Heather H., Roland and Mary’s daughter and the representative of Mary’s estate, is raising a claim for loss of consortium on behalf of the estate.

Heather alleges that while Mary was still alive, she suffered “the loss of her spouse’s companionship, services, society, love and affection” because of Roland’s alleged Xarelto life-threatening side effects.

Those losses gave Mary grounds for a loss of consortium claim, a claim that now survives her and may be brought by her estate, Heather says.

Roland and Heather seek an award of compensatory, economic and punitive damages, plus reimbursement of court costs and attorneys’ fees, all with pre- and post-judgment interest.

The Xarelto Lawsuit is Case No. 2:16-cv-01643, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.