Yesterday we received a letter from Abbott Diabetes Care via certified mail. My husband even had to sign for it. What could it be? Did I win a prize? Owe them money? Were they offering me a job?
BEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPP… none of the above. It appears that several batches of FreeStyle and FreeStyle Lite test strips have been inadvertently shipped out to customers before being approved for external distribution.
Seven different lots “have the potential to generate an Error 3 (Er3) message or fail to start
a test” while being used with a FreeStyle, FreeStyle Flash, FreeStyle Freedom, FreeStyle Lite or FreeStyle Navigator blood glucuse meters.
The company urges you to please check the lot numbers on your test strip vials. Affected lots include –
FreeStyle: 0803221, 0802523, 0802832, 0802823, 0802422, 0718730, and
FreeStyle Lite: 0817617 and 0812304
If you have any further questions, you can call the company’s hotline at 800-310-1500. Representatives will explain the procedure for returning the bad strips will arrange to ship out replacements to you at no charge. (Funny, I didn’t find any mention of the company’s website?)
I just received a big shipment from my mail order pharmacy, and thankfully all mine appear fine. My main question is, how does this sort of thing happen — having seen the stringent quality control measures these companies apply? But when you manufacture millions upon millions of test strips per yer, I guess $#@% is bound to happen now and then.
I received the same letter, by normal mail. It was dated March 18. Near as I can tell, I believe these strips hit the retail markets about three months ago…
At least this was a bit more timely than Lifescan’s recall of One Touch strips — dated mid-September, I got the first letter (for one meter) in November, and the second (for another meter) in January. Lifescan’s response was that we should have been watching their website for press releases surrounding the recall (said press release was apparently dated about 12 days after the letter was written, but well before the letters were mailed).
Yes, $#@% happens. I too have, over the years, received 2 or 3 of these recall notices (from Lifescan too) and have been lucky enough never to have had the bad batch numbers.
You would think that with the actual cost of these test strips to the manufacturer of about a couple of dollars per hundred, the QC would be a little bit better, but humans are everywhere so it happens.
Now, if you think that the margin for “name-brand” strips is high (I always have a “store-brand” meter around for when my insurance won’t cover enough strips for me to test properly, the strips are at least half the price), ask me about the vials of Lilly insulin (Humalog) I bought in australia for full-price last year (no discount), they were about $23 dollars (US) a bottle compared to the $80 a bottle I pay here for the absolute same thing.
I guess somebody has yo pay for all the lawyers…..
this information very important…..thanks, very appreciate
my mom is using freestyle lite test strips. its lot # is 0832716.. but when i used it and my dad’s one touch ultra test strip on my mom, the results were quite different. the freestyle result was 127 and the one touch ultra was 110. now im confused on which gave the more accurate result..
I received a letter regarding the Freestyle test strips yesterday 4/20/09. I would think pharmacies would have been notified much quicker than the general public and would stop distributing bad batches. Or is it all about the money one is getting? Not willing to loose money due to the error of the pharmaceutical company.
Jr, according to my Dr. and Pharamcist, you can test your blood sugar in the same exact spot, one right after the other, and get a 20 pt difference. This is because the level of sugar can vary while the blood is pumping. Both results were probably accurate.
My wife uses a freestyle flash for past four years never had a problem but now getting a error4 on test strips with code13. lot number 0819034. So they need to extra double check cause theres more recall on more than seven lot numbers.