Articles Posted in Xarelto

The first lawsuit against Bayer AG and Janssen involving the drug Xarelto has started in a state court.  Most products liability cases involving dangerous or defective drugs are filed in federal district courts.  These cases can however, be filed in state courts across the county so long as jurisdiction is proper.  The cases do not usually end up going to trial in state court even if they commence there, because pursuant to 28 U.S. Code § 1446, a defendant may remove a case to federal court as long there is proper subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction.

Personal Jurisdiction in Federal Court 

Personal jurisdiction, also known as in personam jurisdiction means that the parties have some ties to the forum state making the action proper within the context of Due Process. This is usually not hard to satisfy as long as the case is removed to the a federal court that sits in the same jurisdiction in which the state court action was originally filed.  For example, if a plaintiff was injured by Xarelto in Boston and filed a case in the Suffolk County Superior Court, the case could removed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts which is also located in Boston.  Continue reading

Xarelto is a member of a class of blood thinners known as new oral anticoagulants. It was primarily developed by German pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG as a drug that could compete with Warfarin (Coumadin) that has been the gold standard of blood thinners for many years. Bayer partnered with a division of Johnson & Johnson to market the drug in the United States.

Xarelto has several competitors in the NOAC class of drugs including Eliquis, Pradaxa, and Savaysa. All of these drugs were supposed to be a one dose fits all alternative to Warfarin that is known too need careful monitoring of dosage and frequent alterations to keep patients from developing a serious, but reversible internal bleeding disorder.  It is reversible by  giving a bleeding victim an injection of potassium. For this reason, patients must closely monitor their diets and avoid leafy vegetables like kale, and go to the doctor for frequent blood tests. Xarelto and the other NOACs were supposed to be one dose fits all so there was no need for frequent checks and to stay away from leafy vegetables. Continue reading

Xaretlto and its competitors were manufactured and marketed as anticoagulant medications that were a one-dose-fits-all solution.  This defectively designed medication with insufficient warnings turned out be a very dangerous option for many patients and turned out not to be that perfect one-dose solution it was heralded to be for those patients who needed an anticoagulant. There are many patients in Boston and across the United States who need to take some type of anticoagulation medicine.  There are various medical conditions that require the use of use of an anticoagulant or blood thinner, such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), atrial fibrillation (Afib), pulmonary embolism (PE), and even someone suffering from a stroke.

For many years, Coumadin (Warfarin) was the gold standard in treatment options for people in need of blood thinner. However, the drug companies were not happy with a generic medication holding such a high position and developed what are now known as new oral anticoagulants (NOACs).  This started with Xarelto, which is made by the German pharmaceutical giant, Bayer AG and its U.S. marketing partner Janssen (a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary) and then competitors Pradaxa, Eliquis, and eventually Savaysa. Continue reading

Xarelto is a member of a class of drugs known as New Oral Anticoagulants (NOACs). This class of drugs also includes several competitors to Xaretlo, including Eliquis, Pradaxa, and Savaysa, which is the newest class member. These medications are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to treat two serious medical conditions, but there are other approvals in the pipeline as we will discuss in this blog post.

The first, and most common medical condition treatable by Xarelto (according to their marketing) is a serious condition known as atrial fibrillation (Afib).  Afib, as you may have heard Saturday Night Live alum or legendary golfer Arnold Palmer tell you on the seemingly nonstop barrage of Xarelto commercials, is an irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve defect.  This medical condition can cause blood clots to form in a patient, and these clots can travel though the circulatory system and into the lungs.  If they enter the lungs, they can puncture the tissue causing the lungs to fill with blood.  This is an often-deadly complication of the clotting disorder known as a pulmonary embolism, or PE as it often called.  The clots can also reach the brain, where they can block the flow of oxygen-rich blood, which can cause a stroke. Continue reading

There is no question that millions of Americans are in need of potentially life-saving medications to prevent strokes from occurring.  In fact, as discussed in a recent Bio Pharma Dive article, strokes are up in the U.S.

The conventional treatment for strokes for decades was Warfarin (Coumadin), which is a blood thinning medication.  In 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first of a new class of drugs to compete against Warfarin.  This new class of drugs was labeled new or novel anticoagulants (NAOCs) and works in a different way that Warfarin.  This new drug was called Xarelto, and when it came on the market, many patients started taking it instead of Warfarin. Continue reading

According to a recent news article from the Madison St. Clair Record, a plaintiff has just filed a products liability lawsuit against the makers of Xarelto, Bayer Pharmaceuticals and Janssen Research and Development.  Janssen Research and Development was formerly known as Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceuticals Research and is still a wholly owned subsidiary of the pharmaceutical giant.  There were various other subsidiaries of both companies, such as Ortho and Bayer Healthcare AG, that were also named as defendants in this matter, which is common practice in these types of cases.

In his recent claim, plaintiff says that he took Xarelto because it was a new drug, and his doctor told him he needed a blood thinner or an oral anticoagulant.  Xarelto is a member of a relatively new class of drugs known as new Oral Anticoagulants (NOACs).  This class also included Eliquis, Savaysa, and Pradaxa. Continue reading

Last year, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) became aware that a device used to monitor a patient’s blood in Xarelto clinical trials had problems.  Now it has been reported by British Medical Journal, and via FiercePharma, that the two major drug companies (Janssen/Johnson & Johnson and Bayer A.G.) were well aware of this faulty blood monitor during the time it was being used and did not notify any of the study monitors or the FDA.

The device in question is known as the INRatio device, and it was designed to monitor how much Xarelto was being absorbed by patients on a single dose as compared to those who were taking Warfarin (Coumadin).  The reason this is very important has to do with why drug makers claim Xarelto and the other New Oral Anticoagulants (NOACs) are safer and more effective than traditional blood thinning medications like Warfarin. Continue reading