All you have to do is watch primetime television to recognize the fierce competition in the new age blood thinner industry. Bristol Myers Squib’s Eliqis® and Johnson & Johnson’s Xarelto® are dueling it out for market share supremacy in one of the largest pharmaceutical markets in America. It is estimated that Americans spend more than $10 billion per year on blood thinners, or anti-coagulants.
Coumadin®, generically known as Warfarin, still accounts for most prescription sales. However, there are a number of dietary restrictions that come along with taking Warfarin. Specifically, foods rich in vitamin K are to be limited. Why? Vitamin K serves as an antidote to Warfarin, meaning it reduces the anti-coagulant effect of the drug. That means your diet is limited in leafy, green vegetables, basically.
The new age blood thinners, namely Xarelto®, Eliquis®, and Pradaxa®, come without such prohibition against foods with vitamin K. In fact, if you pay close attention to the television ads they run, you will notice that people on the commercials are stuffing their faces with salads and other foods rich in Vitamin K.
The reason you are free to eat what you like on these new age blood thinners is that there is nothing that reduces the anti-coagulant effects of these prescription drugs. Did you catch what I just said? THERE IS NOTHING THAT REDUCES THEIR ANTI-COAGULANT EFFECT.
Suffer an internal bleeding event on Warfarin? Medical personnel can pump you full of vitamin K to stop the bleed.
Suffer an internal bleeding event on Xarelto®, Eliquis®, or Pradaxa®? There is nothing that counteracts the medicines to stop you from bleeding.
Despite the medicines hurting (and in some cases killing) thousands of people, Xarelto®, Eliquis®, or Pradaxa® continue to be some of the biggest marketing engines in the pharmaceutical industry. Their manufacturers know the winner of the new age blood thinner race stands to rope in billions of dollars in profits in the coming years. The biggest expense of these manufacturers is just the lives of the patients prescribed these drugs.
Sickening.
Thousands of people are coming forward with stories of uncontrollable bleeding while on Xarelto®, Eliquis®, or Pradaxa®. These people are not lawsuit happy types of people. They simply want the world to know that the dangers of these drugs are real. Our job, as lawyers representing people injured by dangerous medicines, is to broadcast these stories on behalf of these clients in hopes that others will not suffer the same injuries.
Cade Parian is the founding attorney of The Parian Law Firm.
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