JACKSON, Miss., July 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- As the number
of lawsuits against the blood thinner Xarelto continues to climb,
so do reports of injuries and deaths caused by the controversial
anticoagulant, according to a recent study by the Institute for
Safe Medication Practices (ISMP).
According to ISMP, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
received 15,043 reports of serious injury or death linked to
Xarelto last year — a 41 percent increase over the previous
year.
ISMP, a non-profit organization that monitors and analyzes
adverse drug events reported to the government, published the
findings in its annual edition of QuarterWatch.
Oral blood thinners such as Xarelto caused more emergency room
visits in 2016 than any other class of drugs, ISMP found. The group
said it identified nearly 22,000 reports of severe injury,
including 3,018 deaths. Nearly all of the injuries were from
internal bleeding, the report states. Of the five anticoagulants
implicated, rivaroxaban, sold under the brand name Xarelto,
accounted for 68.4 percent of all adverse events in 2016, according
to ISMP.
The report comes as the first trials in litigation against
Xarelto get underway. More than 18,000 lawsuits against the makers
of Xarelto have been centralized under the federal multidistrict
litigation (MDL) process that uses "bellwether" trials to establish
evidence and determine any settlement value for similar plaintiff
claims.
"These injury findings are disheartening, but unfortunately not
all that surprising," said Andy
Birchfield of the Beasley Allen law firm and co-lead counsel
of the plaintiffs' steering committee for the Xarelto MDL. "The
statistics are testament that Xarelto is one of the most high-risk
drug treatments in medicine today, and the reason we are pursuing
justice for the victims of this potentially deadly medication."
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Janssen Pharmaceuticals and
Bayer Healthcare (OTC: BAYRY) are accused of downplaying the risks
of taking Xarelto and aggressively marketing the drug as an
alternative for warfarin in patients needing blood thinners to
reduce the risk of dangerous clots. The companies positioned the
drug as more convenient, calling for a once-a-day dose and
eliminating the need for regular monitoring of a patient's blood.
However, the lawsuits charge that doctors and patients were not
fully informed of the risks.
The next bellwether trial is scheduled to begin August 7 in Jackson,
Mississippi. The case is In re: Xarelto (Rivaroxaban)
Products Liability Litigation, case number 2:14-md-02592 in the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
For more information, please contact Mark Annick at 214-559-4630 or
mark@androvett.com, or Mike Androvett at 214-559-4630 or
mike@androvett.com.
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SOURCE Beasley Allen