Despite all the heat Johnson & Johnson and Bayer had to face since over 5,000 plaintiffs filed a Xarelto lawsuit, sales of the powerful anticoagulant kept growing even this year. According to a recent forecast, rivaroxaban still stands out from the crowd as one of the best-selling drugs in 2016, easily beating its two blockbuster competitors Pradaxa (manufactured by Boehringer Ingelheim) and Eliquis (manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb). Forcefully grabbing an outstanding 16.9% of the overall market in 5 years since it was approved, Xarelto’s sales grew up more than 25% this year, reaching a new peak of $594 million. Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical’s sales as a whole improved at the same time, reaching a grand total of $8.7 billion, a 9% increase since last year. The currency effect helped the company jack up its sales by almost 4%, even if consumer sales decreased by nearly 2%. The company’s chief executive officer Alex Gorsky said that they want to ride the “good momentum,” and explained that J&J’s strength lies in the continued success of their new products such as the chronic hepatitis C treatment Daklinza, and the blood cancer drug Imbruvica. Even the older drugs seem to quite powerful, though, with the pain reliever Tylenol standing out with the largest worldwide growth (13%). The Listerine oral care line even added some new products to its brand, helping with the $1 billion total sales in over-the-counter (OTC) meds.
Nonetheless, the Big Pharma is still facing a raging storm of litigation filed by disgruntled patients who suffered the grievous side effects of the anticoagulant drug. The over 4,500 lawsuits consolidated in the Eastern District of Louisiana Multidistrict Litigation (MDL n. 2592) keep steadily increasing, just like the medication’s profits. The class action in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, instead, seems more stable, with 600 total claims. Plaintiffs from all over the country accused the pharmaceutical company of releasing a dangerous medication to the market since no antidote was available when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted its approval on 2011. Patients who took the anticoagulant drug experience life-threatening adverse reactions such as uncontrolled bleeding, strokes, and gastrointestinal haemorrhages. According to plaintiffs’ claims, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of J&J, never warned the public about the purported dangers and overhyped the drug’s effectiveness when compared to older anticoagulants such as warfarin.
Article written by: Dr. Claudio Butticè, Pharm.D.
Published: 2016/07/21
