Bayer HealthCare and Johnson & Johnson recently reached a $775 million settlement agreement to resolve 25,000 Xarelto blood thinner lawsuits. According to the Star Tribune, each of these claims alleges the claimants were not properly warned against the potentially fatal internal bleeding complications the companies’ new generation anticoagulant presented.

The massive settlement is set to be split evenly between the companies, resolving state and federal Xarelto blood thinner lawsuits alleging potentially fatal internal bleeding injuries that occurred while taking the medication.

While neither company has admitted liability, Johnson & Johnson and Bayer are reportedly anxious to get this litigation resolved. According to the New York Times, one Johnson & Johnson representative pointed out that the Xarelto litigation “demands an enormous amount of time and resources.”

According to an email statement from Bayer representatives, this settlement “allows the company to avoid the distraction and significant cost of continued litigation.”

The Xarelto blood thinner lawsuits involved in this settlement were consolidated in federal court in New Orleans in 2014, each of which alleges Bayer and Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals failed to warn patients against life threatening bleeding complications during the drug’s aggressive marketing campaign.

Overview of Xarelto Bleeding Complications

Xarelto was approved by the FDA in 2011 and is the second medication to be released for anticoagulant purposes, after Pradaxa was released in 2010.

Like other anticoagulants, Xarelto works by shutting down the body’s clotting ability and improves circulation. This makes Xarelto and other anticoagulants good treatment options for patients suffering from atrial fibrillation and are at high risk for stroke. However, this treatment mechanism inhibits the body’s self recovery ability and can result in uncontrollable internal bleeding injuries. It was not until 2018 that the FDA approved a bleeding antidote for Xarelto, and is expected to be generally available in 2019.

According to the Mayo Clinic, Xarelto internal bleeding symptoms include:

• Bleeding Gums
• Black, Red, or Tarry Stools
• Read or Brown Urine
• Nosebleeds
• Coughing up Blood
• Prolonged Bleeding from Cuts
• Vomiting Blood (vomit looks like coffee grinds)

Even though internal bleeding complications can be potentially fatal to Xarelto patients, many of them claim Johnson & Johnson and Bayer allegedly failed to disclose this information to the public.

Johnson & Johnson and Bayer reportedly spent millions on advertising Xarelto, with the medication seen on television more than comedian Kevin Nealon and NASCAR diver Brian Vickers in 2015. Xarelto has been on a massive success for the pharmaceutical giants, earning $2.5 billion in revenue in 2018, which was slightly lower than the revenue earnings in 2017.

According to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, the settlement amount is a “fair and just resolution” and that after your years and six separate trials, litigation like this can be “an important way for consumers to a voice in matters of drug safety.” United States District Judge Eldon Fallon presided over these lawsuits, with a detailed settlement document yet to be filed.

According to plaintiff statements, this settlement not only resolves claims already part of the multidistrict litigation but also new Xarelto lawsuits filed by individual plaintiffs that retained their layers on March 11, 2019, registered their claim by March 28, 2019, and file their claim by April 4, 2019. As of now, neither side has an estimate on how much money each plaintiff might get.