- Messages
- 4
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Insulin
I have been diagnosed as T1 nearly four weeks ago. I'm considering the Freestyle Libre - is it worth the money?
If you go to a pharmacy they will be able to order one in for you. The order went through the pharmacy order system so I assume it was in stock and came in this afternoon. the lady said she had been buying them through the pharmacy for the past few months. I saw this yesterday I was working (in a pharmacy).View attachment 26147 I’m a type 2 and have never used one. However I read a post recently about demand outstripping supply. I just went to the Website and this is what pops up when you click buy
I have been diagnosed as T1 nearly four weeks ago. I'm considering the Freestyle Libre - is it worth the money?
Abbott must be making a fortune.....
My son used to work there (London?). They were making 40 odd thousand a day. They recently opened a new line to double production! And that is the London site. Ireland are making 80 thousand a day as well..... What with the FDA approving them not so long ago as well. Its a huge money making company
I have no issue with company recouping money on its investment in time, product development, trials, approvals, because it takes an awful lot of money to get a product to market.
What I do object to is where they manipulate the market for profits - e.g. limit supplies, keep prices high due to demand. That way will lead to short term gains only, as customers will consider alternatives, and have their eyes opened as to other possibilities from other manufactures and potential future products.
I am not affiliated with Abbott at all !I have no issue with company recouping money on its investment in time, product development, trials, approvals, because it takes an awful lot of money to get a product to market.
What I do object to is where they manipulate the market for profits - e.g. limit supplies, keep prices high due to demand. That way will lead to short term gains only, as customers will consider alternatives, and have their eyes opened as to other possibilities from other manufactures and potential future products.
Please offer some credit to Abbott where due.Totally agree with you. There are a fair few other companies with products being tested at the moment. As soon as they are approved I can see Abbotts loosing a lot of there customers. They have been so unfair on the people that have been self funding for soo long
Ideally they or someone else comes up with something like ARM did which would enable companies to build their own products using the same core techniques but allow for variation in adhesive and size and so on.I am not affiliated with Abbott at all !
(actually as it is, working for one of their worst competitors. , but we don't do diabetes related stuff at all though, so I can speak freely here)
But I can assure you that Abbott is doing everything possible to scale up their production of Libre Sensors for the UK market!
For all the many good reasons that you even list yourself there. Because if they don't, alternative products from competitors comes in and take over the patient preferences. And due to human nature, changing brand/material from something you already started to use is a big step and delayed to be last option for any patient, even despite some patients have different adverse opinion about the material they use. Change is always hard.
The market uptake for Libre has been a fantastic success and gone beyond wildest expectations and therefor also beyond their demand planning etc at Abbott. But its a very professional company with many good people, so they are working on it 24/7 to catch up with that fast accelerating market. I can btw say it was close to same market development patterns in some of the other European markets they released it to. And lets not forget that the restrictions in the regulatory system which is different from one European country to the next is playing a major role here, in which a company like Abbott has only limited to actually absolute no say in. And changes to this also have a major impact in how a medical device is being utilized/promoted/wanted/pushed out of any given market.
But back to answer the question asked by the OP to this thread:
Yes, to me the Freestyle Libre has been worth it - down to every single penny!
And I paid for it out of my own pocket the first 2 years or so.