Field Safety Notices about FreeStyle Mini® and FreeStyle® Blood Glucose Monitoring Systems

According to Health Products Regulatory Authority, this field safety notices involved a device in Ireland that was produced by Abbott Diabetes Care.

What is this?

Field safety notices are communications sent out by medical device manufacturers or their representatives in relation to actions that they may be taking in relation to their product that is on the market. These are mainly for health workers, but also for users. They can include recalls and alerts.

Learn more about the data here
  • Type of Event
    Field Safety Notice
  • Event Number
    SN2014(06)
  • Date
    2014-02-21
  • Event Country
  • Event Source
    HPRA
  • Event Source URL
  • Notes / Alerts
    "Irish data is current through April 2019. All of the data comes from the Health Products Regulatory Authority (Ireland), except for the categories Manufacturer Parent Company and Product Classification.
    The Parent Company and the Product Classification were added by ICIJ.
    The parent company information is based on 2017 public records. The device classification information comes from FDA’s Product Classification by Review Panel, based on matches of data from the U.S. and Ireland."
  • Extra notes in the data
  • Reason
    The irish medicines board (imb) has been notified that freestyle mini® blood glucose meters and freestyle® blood glucose meters may give erroneously low blood glucose results and may produce out of range control solution results when using freestyle lite® and freestyle® blood glucose test strips.
  • Action
    Advice for End Users / Patients:  1. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions outlined in the attached FSN and contact Abbott Diabetes Care Customer Service on 1800 776633 for a replacement meter. 2. Ensure that you can continue to monitor your blood glucose appropriately. This should be done in consultation with your healthcare professional.  3. Pay special attention to signs and symptoms of high blood sugar (hyperglycemia). Symptoms may include excessive thirst, excessive urination, blurred vision, weakness, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. If you are  experiencing any of these symptoms or are not feeling well, contact your healthcare professional immediately.  Advice for Healthcare Professionals / Pharmacists / Distributors:  1. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions outlined in the attached FSN and contact Abbott Diabetes Care Customer Service on 1800 776633 for replacement meters.  2. Ensure that end users who dispose of affected blood glucose meters can continue to appropriately monitor their blood glucose.  3. Ensure that the appropriate personnel are made aware of this notice and the attached FSN. Please also pass this notice and the attached FSN on to any end user or organisation where the potentially affected blood glucose meters have been transferred.

Device

Manufacturer

  • Manufacturer Parent Company (2017)
  • Manufacturer comment
    “We are in constant communication with regulatory agencies and competent authorities worldwide which allows us to implement global recalls or in-country communication quickly and effectively,” Abbott, which now owns St. Jude Medical told ICIJ in a statement. In addition to sending global notices to physicians worldwide, we also make sure that product advisories are available online and classification of product recalls and product advisories are determined by global regulatory bodies which can impact the timing in any given country. MD companies follow varying regulations in different countries. In come countries software is not regulated so a recall in one country related to software would not be classified as a recall or field action in another. In addition, review cycles within the regulatory process can be different in each country which can impact communication and recall timing.
  • Source
    HPRA