Xarelto (Rivaroxaban) Products Liability Litigation MDL Transferred to Eastern District of Louisiana

NEW ORLEANS, December 16, 2014 – Lawsuits pending in district courts across the country have been transferred to the Eastern District of Louisiana for centralized litigation of claims arising from the development, manufacture, regulatory approval, labeling, marketing, and use of the blood thinner Xarelto (rivaroxaban). The proceedings will take the form of multidistrict litigation, consisting of twenty-one cases transferred from district courts in Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New York, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia, over thirty potentially related actions in eleven other districts, and other claims filed in the future. Judge Eldon E. Fallon has been selected to manage the litigation, and will preside over common issues including allegations of injuries resulting from use of Xarelto and the failure to adequately warn of risks associated with Xarelto.

Multidistrict litigation (MDL) is a separate federal legal procedure designed to streamline the litigation process in cases that involve common questions of fact and may involve thousands of plaintiffs in a number of different states. Individual cases in an MDL are sent from one federal court to another federal court for all pretrial proceedings and discovery.

Xarelto is manufactured by Janssen Pharmaceutica, N.V., a division of Johnson & Johnson, which developed the medication in partnership with Bayer. The blood thinner is marketed as a replacement for warfarin, but has no antidote to flush a patient’s system of the drug and restore the blood’s clotting ability. Consequently, patients taking Xarelto have suffered adverse effects including uncontrolled bleeding, strokes, bleeding ulcers, and other harmful side effects that may have resulted from exposure to Xarelto. The now-centralized lawsuits allege that the defendant companies, including Janssen and Bayer, downplayed to physicians and consumers the risks associated with the drug, failed to properly test the drug before placing it on the market, overstated the drug’s effectiveness, and otherwise caused harm to patients and their loved ones.

Our attorneys have important leadership roles in class actions and MDLs all over the country. Our firm’s experience with these types of claims led the courts overseeing the following MDLs to select HHK partners as members of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee and other leading roles for the plaintiffs: Propulsid, Russ Herman selected as Liaison Counsel; Vioxx, Russ Herman selected as Liaison Counsel and member of the Plaintiff Executive Committee; Chinese Drywall, Russ Herman selected as Liaison Counsel; Deepwater Horizon, Steve Herman selected as Co-Liaison Counsel; DePuy, Leonard Davis selected as member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee; Granuflo, James Klick selected as member of the Plaintiff Executive Committee; Testosterone Replacement Therapy, Maury Herman selected as member of Plaintiff Executive Committee.

If you or a loved one has been injured by Xarelto, please feel free to contact our firm with any question you may have regarding your rights. Learn about your legal rights from an experienced class action lawyer by calling 504-581-4892 or by filling out our free, no obligation case review form.