Pradaxa reemerges as top mass tort ad target

Following months of declining advertising, spending on ads soliciting plaintiffs for lawsuits targeting the blood thinner Pradaxa jumped by over 7,000% in March. The increase launched the drug into the top ten of all drugs and devices featured in mass tort ads that March.

The surprising ad push comes ten months after Pradaxa manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim agreed to pay $650 million to settle the majority of lawsuits filed over the drug which has been linked to more than 500 patient deaths. 

Prior to the settlement announcement, Pradaxa was one of the top drugs targeted in mass tort advertising as measured by ad spending.  Advertising volumes peaked in May 2014 - the month the settlement was announced.

Since then, ad volumes had largely declined until March.

Only four firms sponsored Pradaxa ads in March. The Goldwater Law Firm accounted for nearly three-quarters of all Pradaxa mass tort ad spending and over half of that expenditure was devoted to a single ad that ran on the nationally syndicated program "Inside Edition."

The Pradaxa ad spike follows a trend of greater interest among mass tort advertisers in ads featuring various blood thinners.  Johnson & Johnson and Bayer's Xarelto became the most targeted drug in mass tort ads last summer weeks after the Pradaxa settlement.  

The Goldwater ad below also mentions blood thinners generally -- presumably including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer's Eliquis in addition to Xarelto and Pradaxa -- and ran 14 times in March.

Sales of Pradaxa have stagnated following the litigation settlement and in the face of competition from Xarelto and Eliquis.