Pradaxa Legal Information Center
Number of Pradaxa Lawsuits Rises as Result of Recent Study
The legal community’s interest in Pradaxa’s potential side effects has recently surged due to study results presented on May 4, 2012, at the Thrombosis and Hemostasis Summit of North America. Those results showed that complications requiring drug discontinuation occurred more frequently with the blood thinner dabigatran (Pradaxa) than with a much older blood thinner, warfarin (Coumadin).
The study was performed by Dr. Mark Wurster, an anticoagulation expert employed by the health care product manufacturer Alere. From a group of 113 patients who had once been on warfarin but had more recently been taking dabigatran instead, Dr. Wurster and his team identified only one event that was serious enough to require that a patient be withdrawn from warfarin. That’s compared to the 13 adverse events that required drug cessation—including one treatment-related death—that took place when the patients were on dabigatran.
Federal Pradaxa lawsuits nationwide have been consolidated into a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. This allows for streamlined pretrial proceedings, but unlike a class-action suit cases in an MDL are each tried separately. The bellwether trials for the MDL are scheduled to begin on Aug. 11, 2014.
Highly Publicized Death Fuels Concerns Over Pradaxa Bleeding Risks
In March 2012, just a couple of months before Dr. Wurster’s study results were publicized, another event put Pradaxa in the media spotlight: The online edition of the Journal of Neurosurgery reported circumstances surrounding the death of an elderly male Pradaxa patient from a massive brain hemorrhage after a routine fall. Fox News picked up the story.
In the medical journal’s report, three doctors from the University of Utah‘s medical center, where the Pradaxa patient was treated for the fall, described the progression of his brain hemorrhage, which initial CT scans showed as having started out in small, superficial areas. According to the doctors, the 84-year-old patient‘s hemorrhage progressed extensively within two hours of his arrival at the hospital.
“Efforts to stop the hemorrhaging… proved ineffective and the patient fell into a deep coma and died soon afterward,” the report said, according to FoxNews.com.
The report’s bottom line was essentially this: Clinical trials have shown that Pradaxa patients have a lower incidence of stroke than Coumadin patients and face a similar overall rate of brain hemorrhage, but there is not an effective reversal agent to neutralize either drug. In other words, Pradaxa patients and Coumadin patients face equal risk of hemorrhage, and there currently isn’t a way to get either drug out of a hemorrhaging patient’s system.
FDA Has Announced Intention To Study Pradaxa Bleeding Risks
After the FDA approved Pradaxa, there were post-marketing reports of serious bleeds in patients who took the drug, and in December 2011, the agency announced plans to look into whether Pradaxa bleeding injuries are more likely than clinical trials have led everyone to believe.
RLG’s Pradaxa Lawyers Will Make Things Easier
If you or a loved one hemorrhaged or suffered some other injury as a result of taking Pradaxa, you may have a case against Boehringer Ingelheim AG, Pradaxa’s manufacturer. Call the Rottenstein Law Group to evaluate your case.
The Pradaxa lawyers at the Rottenstein Law Group believe that obtaining legal satisfaction from those who harmed you shouldn’t require more hardship. That’s why we do everything we can to streamline the process, and we will file a Pradaxa lawsuit on your behalf if necessary.
RLG will also keep you up to date on any Pradaxa class action lawsuits, FDA Pradaxa warnings, and Pradaxa FDA recall announcements.
If you or a loved one has taken Pradaxa and you believe it caused injuries or death, contact RLG today.
