The makers of Xarelto are facing $2.5 billion in potential liability from patients who suffered uncontrollable internal bleeding.
Xarelto is a drug designed to thin the blood to prevent clots in patients who have an abnormal heart rhythm, who are at risk of stroke, or who have had hip or knee replacement surgery. However the drug has no antidote and the makers ignored years of danger signals.
There has been an explosion in Xarelto products liability cases against manufacturer Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson and Bayer, which co-markets the blood thinner.
The Xarelto docket in MDL 2592 was created in 2014 with only 21 cases, and by the end of the year, more than 400 cases were filed. By December 2015, it had exploded to 2,400 cases, six months later in April, 4,500 cases. The litigation really took off in 2016 and there are now more than 15,600 cases.
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