The Xarelto Lawsuit – Are Claims Still Being Filed?

The lawyers are Morgan and Morgan have filed a mass tort lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies. This lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the patients who have taken Xarelto which is a blood thinner and since suffered serious bleeding events. The Pharmaceutical companies who are being sued, including the makers of the drug, have a duty to ensure that any medication released for public use is safe and the failure to do so could be ground for compensation.

Why Are Lawsuits Being Filed?

There are several lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies Janssen Pharmaceuticals which state that the drug Xarelto is defective and dangerous to those taking it. The plaintiffs have claimed that the blood thinning effects of the drug cannot be reversed which is the case with many other blood thinning medications. The other blood thinning medications on the market such as warfarin can be reversed using vitamin K.

With this being the case, it is impossible for doctors to stop patients who have used Xarelto from bleeding out. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit have stated that serious and fatal injuries have been sustained directly caused by the use of this medication. Some of the injuries listed include gastrointestinal bleeds and cerebral hemorrhaging.

Other than these risks there are a number of other issues that have been highlighted in the lawsuit. One of these additional issues is the fact that the drug manufacturer has marketed Xarelto as being superior to the competition in the field of anticoagulants, but there have been many studies which found that the drug has a higher rate of gastrointestinal bleeding than certain competitors. Another issue is that the manufacturers still market the drug as being safe for people to use.

Medical staff and doctors have also not been made properly aware of methods which can be used to treat and stabilize someone using the drug in an emergency. The users also state that they have not been properly warned of the serious health risks that come from using the medication and what could happen if they suffer a bleeding event.

Xarelto has also been linked to a number of serious bleeding complications. These complications include intracranial hemorrhaging, stomach bleeding, excessive blood loss and wound infections from an inability to clot. There is also a lack of effectiveness in the prevention of dangerous blood clots.

The Litigation Trial Dates

The lawyers are Morgan & Morgan filed the lawsuit on behalf of patients who have taken the medication. The lawsuit will proceed through multidistrict litigation which currently entails 4 trials which are scheduled to start at the end of 2016. During these trials, random groups of the plaintiffs will be chosen to represent the group.

One of the benefits of this type of trail is that they are more efficient and address the individual needs of the clients. This is something that a class action lawsuit will do as all the plaintiffs are grouped into the same class.

The lawyer at the head of the steering committee is Michael Goetz who works for Morgan & Morgan. The steering committee is in charge of going through all of the documentation that the defendants have provided. However, Goetz has stated that he believes that the documents provided will support the plaintiff’s case that the risks of a major bleeding event are higher than the manufacturer warned about.

The lawsuit against Janssen Pharmaceuticals should start at the end of 2016, but could be pushed into 2017. There are still new plaintiffs filing lawsuits, but the statute of limitations will soon run out as there is a small amount of time between the injury and the lawsuit.