
Hopefully, the FDA will choose not to approve future anticoagulants without antidotes, because such drugs put patients at potentially unnecessary risk. Despite similar verdicts in other cases, Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals announced a $775 million settlement to resolve the remaining 25,000+ Xarelto lawsuits in March 2019. He suffered substantial internal bleeding while taking Xarelto but ultimately lost his case. In a notable Xarelto lawsuit, plaintiff Kevin Cooney claimed he did not receive adequate warning of the bleeding possible with the drug. They especially don't anticipate needing to read the fine print in order to learn that fact. When physicians and regulators know that anticoagulants cause serious bleeding events, no regular citizen expects these drugs to gain FDA approval without a way to restore normal clotting. Thousands of patients and their family members have filed Xarelto and Pradaxa lawsuits, claiming they weren't adequately informed of the risks prior to taking the drug. Patients Should Be Clearly Informed If Anticoagulants Lack Antidotes In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of patients experienced dangerous bleeding events without a way to treat them. Instead, small company Portola Pharmaceuticals took almost seven years to gain approval for its Xarelto antidote, Andexanet. On the other hand, Xarelto's manufacturer Janssen Pharmaceuticals never developed an anticoagulant antidote. It was on the market for less than five years before the antidote was introduced.

It would have required more effort, but emergency room physicians would have been able to reverse it in the event of serious bleeding.Īccording to the United States Food and Drug Administration, adverse event reports for Pradaxa declined by almost 50% year over year after the launch of the blood thinner's antidote, Idarucizumab. Patients could have opted for the less convenient option of warfarin. Neither had an antidote at the time of initial drug approval, and both quickly racked up thousands of serious adverse event reports, including patient deaths. Pradaxa was launched in 2010, followed just shy of a year later by Xarelto.

Pradaxa and Xarelto Were Launched Without Antidotes These positives seemed substantial enough for the FDA to initially approve the new generation of anticoagulants without antidotes. Patients could take them less frequently, and that would improve the rates of prescription compliance. They would not require constant monitoring and adjustment of dosages, nor would they have such a narrow effective range. Many regulators and physicians believed these newer drugs represented an overall improved safety profile. But newer drugs like Pradaxa and Xarelto were initially launched without antidotes, causing a number of serious bleeding events and deaths. Reversal agents for old-style blood thinners like warfarin and heparin have existed since the early 1900s. Current Anticoagulants Didn't Always Have Antidotesīlood thinners currently available in the United States have antidotes, but that wasn't always the case. They would have to weigh the advantages of decreased clotting and stroke with the small but real risk of experiencing a life-threatening bleeding event with no available remedy. Without a way to reverse the effects of anticoagulants, patients using the therapy would be left in a very precarious position.

Though they can and do help many patients, anticoagulants can cause serious bleeding. Boarding & Prep School Sexual Abuse Lawsuitīlood thinners, or anticoagulants, interfere with the body's clotting mechanisms in an effort to decrease the risks of clot, stroke, embolism and deep vein thrombosis.
