The blood thinner medication known as Pradaxa is currently under scrutiny, as the drug has been known to cause severe bleeding, sometimes resulting in death. Pradaxa is a drug manufactured by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Germany.
Originally, Pradaxa was developed in an effort to find a better and safer alternative to the generic blood thinner drug first introduced in the 1950s known as warfarin. The blood thinning drug warfarin, since its introduction, has developed a reputation for being unsafe in the treatment of atrial fibrillation.
Patients are prescribed a blood thinning medication, such as warfarin or Pradaxa, the latter drug having been approved for distribution and patient use in October 2010 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in order to treat a heart condition known as atrial fibrillation.
Patients with this heart condition demonstrate an irregular heart beat, inhibiting the flow of blood, and essentially causing blood to accumulate in one of the heart’s chambers. The accumulation of blood in a chamber can lead to the formation of blood clots, which can migrate towards the brain, resulting in a stroke.
Pradaxa is a drug that works to thin the blood in order to prevent blood clots, and ultimately, to prevent a stroke in the patient suffering from atrial fibrillation.
Unfortunately, Pradaxa does not work as intended. It has been known to cause excessive bleeding, causing death in quite a large number of cases, especially in patients with severe kidney dysfunction and overall poor kidney health. Some important data points have been released by the nonprofit medical organization known as the Institute for Safe Medication Practices.
In their research on the drug Pradaxa, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices noted that in 2011, 542 patients died from taking Pradaxa compared to 72 patients dying from warfarin use.
As a result of the high number of deaths resulting from Pradaxa use, the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim is currently facing over two dozen U.S. Federal lawsuits citing Pradaxa’s excessive bleeding risk and negligence to warn atrial fibrillation patients and doctors about the risks involved in taking the drug.
If you have experienced a severe injustice and undue amount of suffering through the use of Pradaxa yourself or have a loved one who has suffered or died as a result of using Pradaxa, expert Pharmaceutical litigation attorneys at Carey Danis & Lowe can provide you first-rate legal counsel to get you the justice and compensation you deserve.
Pharmaceutical company negligence is not acceptable, and attorneys at Carey Danis & Lowe are incredibly skilled in representing clients in cases filed against some of the largest pharmaceutical corporations in the world.
