Dabigatran is an oral

Route of administration

A route of administration in pharmacology and toxicology is the path by which a drug, fluid, poison, or other substance is taken into the body.-Classification:Routes of administration are usually classified by application location...

 anticoagulant

Anticoagulant

An anticoagulant is a substance that prevents coagulation of blood. A group of pharmaceuticals called anticoagulants can be used in vivo as a medication for thrombotic disorders. Some anticoagulants are used in medical equipment, such as test tubes, blood transfusion bags, and renal dialysis...

 from the class of the direct thrombin inhibitor

Direct thrombin inhibitor

Direct thrombin inhibitors are a class of medication that act as anticoagulants by directly inhibiting the enzyme thrombin. Some are in clinical use, while others are undergoing clinical development...

s. It is being studied for various clinical indications and in some cases it offers an alternative to warfarin

Warfarin

Warfarin is an anticoagulant. It is most likely to be the drug popularly referred to as a "blood thinner," yet this is a misnomer, since it does not affect the thickness or viscosity of blood...

 as the preferred orally administered anticoagulant ("blood thinner") since it does not require frequent blood tests for international normalized ratio

Prothrombin time

The prothrombin time and its derived measures of prothrombin ratio and international normalized ratio are measures of the extrinsic pathway of coagulation. This test is also called "ProTime INR" and "INR PT". They are used to determine the clotting tendency of blood, in the measure of warfarin...

 (INR) monitoring while offering similar results in terms of efficacy. There is no specific way to reverse the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran in the event of a major bleeding event, unlike warfarin.