Jan 05, 2007

More Counterfeit OneTouch Test Strips Found

Tara Dairman

As we reported in a previous post, several lots of fake test strips meant for use with LifeScan’s OneTouch blood glucose meters were found in October 2006. Recently, LifeScan and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have updated their alerts to include two more counterfeit lot numbers.

These lot numbers are 227078A and 2662169, both indicated for use with the OneTouch Basic/Ultra system.

The phony strips are dangerous because they can provide inaccurate results when monitoring blood glucose levels, possibly leading people to take too much or too little of their diabetes drugs or insulin.

In addition to lot number, both new counterfeit lots can be identified by the following characteristics:

• English text on the outer carton
• Limited to 50-Count OneTouch Basic/Profile Test Strip packages
• Test strips labeled as plasma-calibrated (vertical text on side of vial)
• A picture of a hand appearing on the test strip shown on the outer carton

(For more information about how to identify the other six counterfeit lots, please see our original post, "Public Warned About Fake OneTouch Test Strips".)

You can visit http://www.lifescan.com/company/about/press/counterfeit for an updated press release about the counterfeit strips with links to identifying information for and pictures of the counterfeit products.

If you discover that you are in possession of counterfeit strips, stop using them immediately and replace them. Any adverse reactions or quality problems can be reported to the FDA's MedWatch Program at (800) FDA-1088. The MedWatch Program can also be contacted online at at www.fda.gov/medwatch.

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