Pradaxa Products Liability Litigation MDL #2385
May 28, 2014OUTCOME: Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH has agreed to pay roughly $650 million to settle claims.
The FDA approved Pradaxa in 2010, and within six months, patients were reporting serious bleeding events. Although the agency has received over 4,000 reports of side effects and 542 deaths among users, ... they have not issued a recall. The maker of the drug, Boehringer Ingelheim, also failed to warn of these potential dangers and the fact that no antidote existed to stop them. In recent years, thousands of bleeding victims and their loved ones filed Pradaxa lawsuits. Due to the number of claims filed, cases were consolidated to a special federal Multi-District Litigation court in Illinois. The case was known as MDL No. 2385, IN RE: Pradaxa Product Liability Litigation, Southern District of Illinois. During the course of litigation, evidence was presented to show that Boehringer Ingelheim knew of the internal bleeding risks of the drug, concealed internal studies rather than warn patients, and even destroyed evidence requested by the court. In May of 2014, as Boehringer faced the start of trials over Pradaxa internal bleeding, they opted to pay approximately $650 million to settle all pending cases. The administration of this settlement was completed in the Spring of 2015.
