The jury awarded Lynn Hartman $1.8 million in compensation, plus $26 million in punitive damages. The 1-month trial was overseen by Judge Michael Erdos in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
Hartman said she took Xarelto for more than 1 year before being hospitalized in 2014 with gastrointestinal bleeding.
Bayer and Johnson & Johnson are facing another 18,000 federal lawsuits from people who suffered similar injuries from Xarelto. Earlier this year, the drug-makers won all 3 trials in the consolidated litigation.
Another 1,500 Xarelto lawsuits are pending in Philadelphia, where a jury decided that drug-makers failed to adequately warn Hartman about the risk of severe uncontrollable bleeding — especially when Xarelto is taken in combination with aspirin.
Xarelto has been linked to at least 370 deaths, according to the FDA. It is also Bayer’s top-selling medication, generating $3.2 billion in sales last year alone.
The problem is that Xarelto does not have a reversal agent, unlike blood-thinners such as Pradaxa (dabigatran) and Coumadin (warfarin). Bleeding is the most common severe side effect of Xarelto, but doctors may struggle to stop bleeding in an emergency.
Hartman had to have 4 blood transfusions to counteract Xarelto’s blood-thinning effects. After switching to another blood-thinner, she says she hasn’t experienced similar bleeding problems.
Source: J&J, Bayer Ordered to Pay $28 Million in First Xarelto Loss