The Associated Press is covering the release of counterfeit blood glucose test strips, used with the LifeScan OneTouch blood glucose monitor. LifeScan is a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, Inc.
The counterfeit test strips could give incorrect blood glucose values, leading patients to take too little or too much insulin and suffer injury or death, the FDA said. The agency said it hasn’t received any such reports.
Diabetics who purchased the counterfeit test strips should stop using them, replace them immediately and call a doctor, the FDA said.
The counterfeits are:
* OneTouch Basic/Profile, lot numbers 272894A, 2619932 and 2606340.
*OneTouch Ultra, lot number 2691191.
The FDA is investigating but did not know how many of the counterfeits were sold, an agency spokeswoman said. They were distributed nationwide but primarily in Ohio, New York, Florida, Maryland and Missouri by Medical Plastic Devices Inc., of Quebec, Canada, and Champion Sales Inc., of Brooklyn, N.Y., the FDA said.
It’s unclear from the original article how the strips were identified as counterfeit, rather than just faulty, although most large-scale manufacturers have rather complicated identification schemes on their products, allowing for easy spotting of a fake. We can hope that’s the case here; either that, or JnJ stumbled across a great recall loophole: “These parts aren’t faulty, they’re counterfeit!.”