Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Boehringer settles US Pradaxa lawsuits for $650M:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/business/international/german-drug-company-to-pay-650-million-to-settle-blood-thinner-lawsuits.html

The settlement will most likely resolve most of the 4,000 cases in state and federal courts filed by patients and their families who claimed that Boehringer failed to properly warn them that the drug…caused serious and sometimes fatal bleeding that could not easily be reversed. The first case was set to go to trial in September.

…Company documents, made public earlier this year by the judge overseeing most of the lawsuits, showed that Boehringer employees argued for revising — and even quashing — an internal research paper because they feared it would lead some to conclude that patients on Pradaxa would benefit from taking blood tests. That could undercut a major selling point of the drug, the employees warned.

Pradaxa, which has annualized US sales of about $2B, has no approved antidote for major bleeding, although Boehringer claims to be working on one. PTLA’s Andexanet Alfa (PRT4445), which is being tested as an antidote to FXa inhibitors such as Xarelto and Eliquis, doesn’t work on Pradaxa, which is a direct thrombin inhibitor.

All told, $650M isn’t a bad settlement for 4,000 lawsuits that include 1,000 deaths; it works out to $163K per lawsuit.