Pharma firm agrees $650m deal to settle lawsuits

A German pharmaceutical firm has agreed to pay $650m (€478m) to settle the majority of lawsuits filed over its blood thinner Pradaxa, which has been linked to more than 500 patient deaths.

Boehringer Ingelheim, slated to face the first US trial in September of claims there was no antidote to stop bleed-out deaths among Pradaxa patients, is seeking to resolve about 4,000 suits, company officials said yesterday. That would provide an average per-case payout of $162,500.

The settlement comes about a week after the firm said a new analysis of a company-funded study used to win approval of the Pradaxa found 22 serious bleeding events that weren’t included in the original report.