On September 21, 2016, Honorable Judge E. Fallon postponed by 90 days the deadline to file a Xarelto lawsuit in the current multidistrict litigation (MDL Number 2592). The number of new cases increased so steadily over the course of last few months, that the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana received almost 7,000 total new claims filed by patients who suffered serious injuries after taking the controversial blood thinner. In the meanwhile, the mass tort class action in Philadelphia reached an outstanding total of 1,000 cases waiting to be heard in court. The latest update on the current status of the Xarelto Liability Litigation gave some more time to file a claim for all the potential plaintiffs who want to participate in the MDL. Attorneys for the victims who suffered an uncontrolled bleeding, stroke, internal hemorrhage or other damages are still running out of time, however, as the new deadline to avoid having one own’s case barred because of the statute of limitations has been set for February 2017.
In addition, the parties requested the Court to reschedule the dates of the upcoming bellwether trial dates to avoid logistical complications caused by the NBA All-Star game. The Judge agreed to amend the Case Management Order (CMO) No. 2 and re-set those dates to March 13, April 24, and May 30, 2017. The fourth trial is still to be set, however. The plaintiffs must conclude the discovery phase of defendants by October 3, 2016. The purpose of the MDL is to consolidate all litigations and select some of them as the most representative ones to speed up legal proceedings.
Xarelto (rivaroxaban) is a dangerous anticoagulant drug that recently raised several controversies due to increasing amount of patients who got injured after taking it. The new drug was, in fact, advertised as safer and more effective than its older, more established counterpart Warfarin, but in just a few years since it was approved, thousands of victims reported that its side effects threatened their lives. Many people did, in fact, die since no antidote is available to reverse its effects, and doctors had no way to stop a bleeding once it starts. In just about one year, almost ten thousands of claims have been submitted to courts all across the country by plaintiffs who held Bayer and Janssen, the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture this drug, responsible for the damage they sustained. Many families are asking to be financially compensated for medical expenses since the drugmakers never appropriately warned them of the alleged dangerous adverse reactions of rivaroxaban.
Article by Dr. Claudio Butticè, Pharm.D.
