approval at the end of 2012, about 18 months after Xarelto. But major bleeding remains the most worrisome risk of all anti-coagulant therapy as it can be fatal or cause debilitating, long-term problems.īristol-Myers reported $466 million in global third-quarter sales of Eliquis, which won U.S. The new drugs cause fewer major bleeding episodes than warfarin and do not require dietary restrictions or constant monitoring as with the decades-old medicine. They’re frightened of them because they’ve had to deal with the consequences of somebody coming in with trauma,” while using the new blood thinners.

“I have many physicians, particularly surgeons, who hate these drugs. Mariell Jessup, a cardiologist at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. “It will make a big difference,” said Dr. It is expected to enter the market in 2016. approval of a drug called andexanet alfa that rapidly reverses the effect of Xarelto and Eliquis. Small drugmaker Portola Pharmaceuticals this month applied for U.S. “We didn’t have a specific reversal strategy for these drugs, and I think that left people feeling a bit insecure,” added Pollack, who has done clinical work on a recently approved antidote to Boehringer Ingelheim’s rival blood clot preventer Pradaxa. Charles Pollack, an emergency physician at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, said of major bleeding events. “It may be uncommon, but they’re memorable when they happen,” Dr. Xarelto, from Bayer AG and Johnson & Johnson, and Eliquis, sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer, were approved as safer and more convenient alternatives for preventing blood clots and strokes than warfarin.īut there was one hitch: there was no way to quickly restore normal clotting for patients in need of emergency surgery or to stop a major bleeding episode, leading many doctors to hold off on prescribing the drugs.

NEW YORK, Dec 23 (Reuters) - A new class of blood thinners that competes with widely used warfarin should get a boost next year when an “antidote” that can reverse the medications’ effects in an emergency is expected to enter the market, according to top U.S.

Antidote to warfarin overdose