On Tuesday, March 26, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld the dismissal of 60 Eliquis lawsuits targeted at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer Inc., related to the dangers of their blood thinner drug.
According to the federal court of appeals, a lower court was not wrong in refusing to send 45 cases back to Delaware state court and ruling that all of the plaintiffs' state law claims raised in the 60 cases were preempted by federal law. The companies named in the lawsuits are blamed over the drug labels requiring warnings about internal bleeding and correction in dosages to minimize those risks.
Another popular blood thinner drug, Xarelto has been blamed for causing gastrointestinal bleeding, hemorrhagic stroke, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and other serious complications. Defendants Bayer AG and Janssen Pharmaceuticals recently announced the $775 million settlement which will be resolving more than 25,000 Xarelto lawsuits consolidated in the federal multidistrict litigation (MDL No.2592; In Re: Xarelto (Rivaroxaban) Products Liability Litigation) in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
