The Pradaxa lawsuits described below have all been resolved, and no attorneys are accepting new Pradaxa claims. This post reports a past matter and stays online as a record of it, followed by what happened afterward and how Illinois law treats drug and defective-product injuries generally.
What Was Reported at the Time
Pradaxa is an anticoagulant, a blood thinner used to prevent clots, and it had been linked to a range of serious health risks nationwide, including death. Nearly two years after a first wave of lawsuits against its manufacturer, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, the company was facing a second wave of suits from Pradaxa users in a number of state courts around the country.
In May 2014, Boehringer Ingelheim reached a settlement worth $650 million covering about 4,000 state and federal product liability lawsuits over Pradaxa, an average of roughly $162,000 per claim. With a high volume of new cases pending, many of them involving internal bleeding and death, the U.S. District Judge handling the multidistrict litigation (MDL) then relieved the attorneys involved of their obligations for the time being.
The newer claims largely repeated the earlier allegations, particularly that the company continued to provide inadequate warning labels regarding the risk of serious bleeding. One complaint filed in Connecticut alleged that the defendants failed to adequately disclose that Pradaxa’s anticoagulant effects could not be reversed, and that this irreversibility could have life-threatening and fatal consequences. That complaint cited the state’s Product Liability Act.
Pradaxa is FDA-approved to treat deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism and to reduce the risk of stroke in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. At the time of that reporting, the FDA had received thousands of reports of adverse side effects and at least five hundred deaths.
Where the Litigation Ended Up
The federal cases had been centralized before a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, and that MDL was terminated in December 2017 once the last cases on its docket were resolved. The second wave of Connecticut state-court cases went to trial in a series of bellwether trials in 2018 and 2019, with verdicts going both ways, and the remaining Connecticut cases were reported settled in November 2020. The litigation is closed. Nothing here is an invitation to bring a Pradaxa claim.
One Thing That Changed
The allegation at the center of the second wave was that Pradaxa had no antidote. That is no longer the case. In October 2015 the FDA approved Praxbind (idarucizumab), a specific reversal agent for patients on Pradaxa who need emergency surgery or who are bleeding uncontrollably. If you take an anticoagulant and the bleeding risk worries you, raise it with the doctor who prescribed it rather than stopping the medication on your own.
How Illinois Handles Drug and Product Injuries
A person hurt by a defective product in Illinois can sue on more than one theory. Strict liability asks whether the product was unreasonably dangerous when it left the manufacturer. Negligence asks whether the company failed to use reasonable care in designing, testing, or marketing it. A failure-to-warn claim asks whether known risks made it into the labeling. Prescription drugs add a wrinkle: the manufacturer’s duty to warn generally runs to the prescribing physician rather than to the patient, which is why an Illinois product liability lawyer starts with the prescribing records.
Deadlines are the first hurdle. Most Illinois personal injury claims carry a two-year limitations period from the date the claim accrued (735 ILCS 5/13-202), and a wrongful death claim generally must be filed within two years of the death (740 ILCS 180/2). Strict product-liability claims face a second clock, a statute of repose running 12 years from the product’s first sale by a seller or 10 years from first delivery to the initial user, whichever expires earlier (735 ILCS 5/13-213(b)). Where an injury occurs inside those windows but is not discovered right away, a claimant may file within two years of learning of it, and never more than eight years after the injury (735 ILCS 5/13-213(d)).
Fault is shared here. Your own share reduces what you recover, and recovery is barred only if you are found more than 50% at fault (735 ILCS 5/2-1116). Manufacturers defend these cases on the adequacy of the label, on whether the doctor would have prescribed the drug anyway, and on whether the drug caused the injury at all. That is why a Chicago product liability attorney builds a case out of medical records, prescribing history, and expert testimony rather than out of the existence of a side effect.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still file a Pradaxa lawsuit?
No. The federal multidistrict litigation was terminated in December 2017 and the remaining Connecticut state-court cases were reported settled in November 2020. The litigation is closed and no attorneys are accepting new Pradaxa claims.
Was Pradaxa taken off the market?
Pradaxa was not withdrawn from the U.S. market during the litigation. Whether it is the right medication for you is a question for your prescribing doctor, not for a law firm.
Is there a reversal agent for Pradaxa now?
Yes. The FDA approved Praxbind (idarucizumab) in October 2015 for patients on Pradaxa who need emergency surgery or who have life-threatening or uncontrolled bleeding.
How long do I have to file a defective drug claim in Illinois?
Generally two years from when the claim accrued (735 ILCS 5/13-202), or two years from the death in a wrongful death case (740 ILCS 180/2). Strict product-liability claims also face a statute of repose under 735 ILCS 5/13-213, so the dates are worth reviewing early.
Who can be sued in an Illinois product liability case?
Illinois defines a seller broadly enough to reach manufacturers, distributors, and others who put a product into the stream of commerce, though who is properly a defendant depends on the facts and on how the product reached you.
If a defective product or a prescription drug injured you or someone in your family in Illinois, having the situation reviewed costs nothing, and you pay no fee unless there is a recovery. We are not accepting Pradaxa claims. Contact 844-SEE-MIKE for a free, no-pressure consultation. This post is general information about Illinois law, not legal advice.
