Eliquis Side Effects Blamed In Wrongful Death Lawsuit

According to allegations raised in a recently filed wrongful death lawsuit, side effects of Eliquis caused the bleeding death of a Pennsylvania woman, alleging that Bristol Myers-Squibb and Pfizer failed to provide adequate warnings for consumers and the medical community. 

The complaint (PDF) was filed by Daniel Matrazzo in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on October 22, indicating that his wife, Judith Matrazzo, died of an irreversible bleeding event from Eliquis in October 2014.

Judith Matrazzo began taking Eliquis in August 2014 for the treatment of atrial fibrillation, according to the lawsuit. She developed a severe gastrointestinal bleeding event on October 1, just two months after beginning treatment. The lawsuit indicates that the bleeding was uncontrollable, and resulted in her death on October 23, 2014.

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 treating Matrazzo.

The lawsuit indicates that the Bristol Myers-Squibb and Pfizer failed to adequately test Eliquis or warn the medical community about the risk bleeding events.

“Despite life-threatening bleeding findings in a clinical trial and other clinical evidence, Defendants failed to adequately conduct complete and proper testing of Eliquis prior to filing their New Drug Application for Eliquis,” the lawsuit states. “From the date Defendants received FDA approval to market Eliquis, Defendants made, distributed, marketed, and sold Eliquis without adequate warning to Decedent’s prescribing physicians or Decedent that Eliquise was associates with and could cause life threatening bleeding, presented a risk of life-threatening bleeding in patients who used it, and that Defendants had not adequately conducted complete and proper testing and studies of Eliquis with regard to severe side effects, specifically life threatening bleeding.”

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.

The Xarelto litigation is currently centralized in the federal court system, where more than 11,000 complaints are pending before U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Since each of the claims raise similar allegations that Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals subsidiary failed to adequately warn about the bleeding risk with Xarelto, a small group of “bellwether” trials are expected to begin early next year.

While the outcomes of these trials will not be binding on other claims, they will be closely watched by those involved in the litigation as they may help gauge how juries will respond to certain evidence and testimony that is likely to be repeated throughout the Xarelto and Eliquis litigation.