Eliquis is a blood thinning medication that helps prevent stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. It also prevents blood clots in patients undergoing hip or knee replacement surgery. The Eliquis class action links the drug to bleeding complications including bleeding in the brain, intestinal bleeding, kidney bleeding, uncontrolled bleeding, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and death. The drug has been on the market since 2012, and is manufactured by Pfizer and Bristol-Meyers Squibb.
The benefit of taking Eliquis and other apixaban-based drugs is that unlike other blood thinning medications like Warfarin (Coumadin), these drugs do not require drastic dietary changes or regular blood monitoring. However, the issue in the Eliquis class action and other similar drugs is that they lack an antidote to stop internal bleeding should it occur.
Pfizer and Bristol-Meyers Squibb await lawsuits against them related to Eliquis. The manufacturers of other apixaban-based drugs, such as Pradaxa and Xarelto, are already facing a plethora of litigation against them. There are currently over 2,000 lawsuits against Pradaxa. A year after its manufacturer, Boehringer Ingelheim, settled 4,000 similar cases for a total of $650 million. The plaintiffs in this case were represented by Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine PC, Douglas & London PC, and Schlichter Bogard & Denton LLP.
A multidistrict litigation also formed in the Eastern District of Louisiana in December 2014 after the consolidation of 50 federal lawsuits against Xarelto’s manufacturers, Johnson & Johnson and Bayer. The causes of action against the manufacturers involved have been for negligently manufacturing and for failing to warn doctors and patients of potential side effects. More specifically, the Xarelto case suggests that Johnson & Johnson and Bayer failed to fully study and research Xarelto’s safety, provide adequate warnings about safety risks, warn that the blood thinning effect is different in each patient, warn that there is no antidote, or include a boxed warning about uncontrollable bleeding.
The question of law in the Eliquis class action is whether the manufacturers had a duty to exercise reasonable care in assuring the product would not cause unreasonable, dangerous side effects. Experts in drug manufacturing and marketing will be able to provide clarity on industry standards of marketing to and warning consumers. Additionally, pharmacological experts will be able to testify as to how and why these drugs are causing uncontrollable bleeding. As well as, whether these risks outweigh the benefits of taking this drug as opposed to Warfarin.
