Pa. Jury Awards Plaintiff $27.8 Million at Conclusion of Bellwether Xarelto Trial

PHILADELPHIA — A jury in Pennsylvania has awarded a plaintiff $27.8 million in damages in the first bellwether Xarelto trial to take place in state court, after determining that Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Bayer AG failed to warn of the risk of uncontrollable bleeding posed by the anticoagulant drug.

In a Dec. 5 verdict, the jury, sitting in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, awarded plaintiff Lynn Hartman $1.8 million in compensatory damages, and $26 million in punitive damages. Judge Michael Erdos presided over the trial.

Hartman, an Indiana resident, was prescribed Xarelto in 2013, and took the drug for a …