Eliquis Lawsuit Filed Over Uncontrollable Hemorrhaging

In a product liability lawsuit filed last week, a Colorado woman who experienced severe bleeding problems on Eliquis alleges that Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer failed to warn users and the medical community about the risk of uncontrollable hemorrhaging associated with the medication.

The complaint (PDF) was filed by Jordana Rhodes in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on August 23, indicating that the drug makers withheld information about the fact that there is no effective means to treat and stabilize individuals who experience uncontrollable bleeding while taking Eliquis.

Rhodes was prescribed the new-generation anticoagulant because of a stroke and blood clots, and subsequently suffered severe hemorrhaging that doctors had a difficult time stopping. As a result of the uncontrollable bleeding allegedly caused by side effects of Eliquis, Rhodes required extensive hospitalization, blood transfusions and has been left with severe physical, economic and emotional injuries, according to the lawsuit.

Eliquis is part of a new crop of oral anticoagulants introduced in recent years, known as factor xa medications, which also include the blockbuster treatments Xarelto and Pradaxa. The drugs have been aggressively marketed as a replacement for Coumadin (warfarin), which has been the go-to anticoagulation treatment for decades.

While the medications have been promoted as easier to use than warfarin, a large number of bleeding problems with Eliquis, Xarelto and Pradaxa have been reported, since there was no safe and effective reversal agent available at the time the drugs were introduced. While the blood thinning effects of warfarin can be quickly reversed if hemorrhaging occurs, there was no antidote for Eliquis available for doctors treatment Jordana Rhodes.

“After the drug was approved by the FDA, Defendants engaged in an aggressive marketing campaign for Eliquis, including extensive marketing directly to the public, via TV and print. The chief promotional aspect of the sales pitch was that, unlike with Coumadin, the blood levels of the patient did not need to be monitored,” the lawsuit states. “In the course of these direct-to-consumer advertisements, Defendants overstated the efficacy of Eliquis with respect to preventing stroke and systemic embolism, failed to adequately disclose to patients that there is no drug, agent, or means to reverse the anticoagulation effects of Eliquis, and that such irreversibility would have life-threatening and fatal consequences.”

While only a handful of similar Eliquis lawsuits have been filed against Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb over bleeding problems among users to the medication, thousands of Xarelto lawsuits and Pradaxa lawsuits have been filed by individuals nationwide who suffered severe, and often fatal, bleeds following use of these other drugs that are part of the same class of anticoagulants.

In 2012, following several years of litigation over failure to warn about the bleeding side effects of Pradaxa, Boehinger Ingelheim agreed to pay $650 million in Pradaxa settlements to resolve about 4,000 cases.

Johnson & Johnson and Bayer, the makers of Xarelto, now face more than 7,200 lawsuits over their anticoagulant, which are centralized in the federal court system as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation. A series of early trial dates are expected to begin next year in the Xarelto litigation, to help the parties gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that may be repeated throughout the cases.

As Pradaxa, Xarelto and Eliquis lawyers review potential cases for individuals who experienced uncontrollable hemorrhaging or bleeding, the number of claims is expected to continue to increase over the coming years.