Xarelto is a blood thinner that is sold on the promise of simplifying the oversight procedures that doctors and patients are forced to go through. Unfortunately, the purportedly lower need for testing may not be so as a number of lawsuits have been filed across the country as a result of injuries after Xarelto use.
“Individuals taking Xarelto are at an increased risk of injury from bleeding,” commented Ned McWilliams, a partner with the Levin, Papantonio law firm who practices in the areas of mass torts, bad drug and product liability litigation. “It is critical that patients be closely monitored when they are taking these potentially life-altering drugs.”
Xarelto was marketed as a replacement for the decades old drug Warfarin. Unlike Warfarin, though, Xarelto has no antidote. Patients on warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven) needed only to have a dose of Vitamin K to restore the blood’s clotting ability.
Adverse side effects of Xarelto are associated with this propensity for uncontrolled bleeding.
To date, the manufacturer of Xarelto has yet to publish or distribute any instruction to physicians as to how to respond to the problems associated with this uncontrolled bleeding.
Yet, despite the dangers associated with the drug and the possibility that complications arising from the use may be life threatening, the companies marketing it still claim that the drug requires less marketing than the drug it was designed to replace in the market, warfarin.
“It simply isn’t the case that a drug with these potentially disastrous side effects requires less testing than warfarin,” Mr. McWilliams added. “What is more likely is that the manufacturers see an opportunity and are trying to exploit it to their financial advantage.”
Joshua is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. You can follow him on Twitter @Joshual33.
