New data suggests that Xarelto has increased both its market share and the number of serious medical complaints over competitor Pradaxa, possibly leading to Xarelto bleeding side effects lawsuits.

Both Xarelto and Pradaxa are blood thinners. Blood thinners are drugs designed to decrease a person’s ability to form blood clots. While the clotting process is important for healing and preventing excessive blood loss, it can misfire, and cause blood clots to form in a patient’s body. When this happens, the blood clot can get stuck in important blood vessels, blocking the blood supply to the brain, heart or lungs, causing stroke, heart attack, or pulmonary embolism respectively. Drugs like Xarelto and Pradaxa can help reduce this risk. Unfortunately, anticoagulants carry certain risks.

Anytime a person’s taking an anticoagulant, there is a risk of uncontrollable bleeding. In this situation, a person can suffer a life-threatening bleeding event from a very minor injury. This can include internal injuries, which can initially hide the emergency. In older anticoagulants there are reversal agents available. For example, if a patient taking Warfarin or related drugs, a high dose of vitamin K can deactivate the drug and allow the patient to clot again. However, it has been alleged that as drug patents expire, drug makers have reason to develop new anticoagulants with new patents and promote them over older drugs. However, there is no known reversal agent for these newer drugs, making it much more difficult to treat uncontrollable bleeding.

The latest study was published in May by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). The ISMP report used data from the FDA’s MedWatch program, which collects reports of drug complications. This study contained an entire section entitled “Anticoagulant Update.” The report classifies all anticoagulants as a high-risk treatment, with as many as 15%  of users suffering from bleeding events. The report also found a new trend in Pradaxa and Xarelto. The paper found that there was a massive increase in prescriptions for these newer drugs, with Xarelto becoming more common, with Pradaxa prescriptions declining after peaking in 2012. The report recommends a two-pronged strategy for reducing the risk of bleeding. First, it recommends reducing the dosage. Second, the ISMP report recommends routine laboratory testing to monitor patients’ reactions to drugs like Xarelto and Pradaxa.

A Pradaxa Internal Bleeding Class Action Lawsuit Investigation is underway, and the possibility also exists for a Xarelto bleeding class action lawsuit.