Dec 27, 2007

Bayer Recalls Faulty Test Strips

Tara Dairman

Bayer Diabetes Care has issued a voluntary recall on certain lots of test strips designed for use with its Contour TS blood glucose meter. Blood glucose monitoring performed with the faulty test strips may produce readings that are 5% to 17% higher than actual blood glucose levels.

The recall is effective in the seven countries where the Contour TS meter is marketed: France, Turkey, Austria, India, Korea, Mexico, and the United States (where, according to Bayer, it is sold mostly by mail order). Strips that are used with other Bayer meters, such as the Ascensia Contour and the Ascensia Breeze 2 systems, are not affected.

If you use the Contour TS blood glucose meter, you can find out if your test strips are affected by the recall by checking the lot numbers on your bottles of strips. Lot numbers can be found on the side of the bottle containing the strips as well as on the bottom of the box that the bottles come in. The lot numbers of affected strips start with the letters WK, are followed by the characters 7D, 7E, 7F, or 7G, and are then followed by a series of other numbers and letters. (According to Bayer, an example of an affected lot number would be WK7ED3E52C.) Bottles with lot numbers beginning with WK followed by 7J through 7M are not affected and do not need to be returned. In all, 53 production lots of strips are being recalled, with a total of 230,000 bottles of strips affected.

If your test strips match any of the recalled lot numbers, you can call Bayer customer service at (800) 348-8100 to return affected bottles and get replacements. You can also visit www.bayerdiabetes.com/us/news/contourtsrecall.asp for more information about the recall. According to the company, the manufacturing problem that caused faulty test strips to be produced has been fixed and additional quality control measures are in place to prevent such a mistake from occurring again.

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