Warning to all Freestyle Libre users

MonsterLC said:

I needed to buy a new sensor in a country I was visiting. I put it on as usual and went to start the sensor with my Freestyle libre reader. The message on the reader was that the sensor was incompatible with the reader. I wondered why this would be as my reader wasn't broken and was relatively new. So now I had a new sensor on my arm which wouldn't work..... and not because the sensor was faulty either.

Now the problem is, it appears, is that both the readers and the sensors are country specific. So if you buy sensors in another country, which you may need to do as the sensors fail sometimes, or you are working in a different country, it will NOT work. I asked Abbott why it has set up like this. No reply.

The blood testing strips are not country specific so why have the sensors been made to work with a specific country reader?

There are no warnings about readers and sensors being country specific so I thought I would make everybody aware of the potential problem.

It would appear if you need to buy a sensor if a different country you have to buy the reader from that country as well, which will be in a different language and have none of your previous results on it.

I am now working in a different country and have 2 UK readers that will probably have to be thrown in the bin.

I got around the problem by using some free apps which work on my smartphone, which I must say is better as the screen is much better than the reader and you only 1 thing carry for your blood monitoring and phone access..

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Maybe it's rigging the market like network locked mobile phones and region specific dvd players and disks.

dbr10 said:

Maybe it's rigging the market like network locked mobile phones and region specific dvd players and disks.

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Or Maybe different countries have different regulations, safety standards, tolerances, etc.

I would think EU sensors would work in the Uk - Ive just received my order from Abbots and the shipping note says they’ve come fron France. Due to change sensor on 15th so lets see what happens!

The sensors are made in ireland. UK ones sent from Madrid warehouse. I'm now in Singapore and have been told they are all location collaborated. So the ones I've purchased here will only work with a reader from here. Same applies to other locations. I'm still waiting for my order in UK placed months ago so bought a new reader and sensors here.

It's all a money making thing I presume. Especially in Singapore. You can't even eat chewing gum here or they'll chop your hands off

helensaramay said:

Or Maybe different countries have different regulations, safety standards, tolerances, etc.

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Maybe

Boo1979 said:

I would think EU sensors would work in the Uk - Ive just received my order from Abbots and the shipping note says they’ve come fron France. Due to change sensor on 15th so lets see what happens!

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UK ones are shipped from France. Be interesting to know if they are just UK specify or could be used EU wide.

Noblecheese said:

The sensors are made in ireland. UK ones sent from Madrid warehouse. I'm now in Singapore and have been told they are all location collaborated. So the ones I've purchased here will only work with a reader from here. Same applies to other locations. I'm still waiting for my order in UK placed months ago so bought a new reader and sensors here.

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Certainly curious

The ones I purchased here still made in Ireland but goes through Abbott laboratories Hong Kong then there is a hand put on sticker saying Abbott laboratories Singapore complies with imda standards. If I am brave enough to waste a sensor it would be interesting to check the UK sensor with the Singapore reader. However, after a bit of reading I don't think it will work as people have had a problem doing so in other countries. The reader incidentally cable and adaptor are made in china. Alcohol wipes made in UK

The strips probably don't cost and make as much money as the sensors Hence why not country specific. Who knows. I'll get on to my aunty when I'm home in UK she is a prof at Nice

The ones I've purchased are supposedly the same settings and in English. I've read somewhere that someone had a German one that was all in German tho. Still going to be able to see what my readings have been on a different reader. Who knows, I hated blood testing so would prefer to have a different reader for a couple of months than prick. If Abbott stopped being so rubbish I wouldn't of bought more while away. It's clearly gonna be cheaper for the NHS long term but until there rolled out as norm initial costs for that are too high. I make presumptions with my limited knowledge. That's what my aunty says any way

Had anyone tried the Andriod App? Does that also need to be country specific?

Not a libre user but could this be down to how different countries measure BS .
mmol/L in UK as opposed to mg/dl in other countries.
Only a thought.

therower said:

Not a libre user but could this be down to how different countries measure BS .
mmol/L in UK as opposed to mg/dl in other countries.
Only a thought.

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If so, that would seem.. silly. Then again, I can't figure out how to change either my TRUEYou or Accu-Chek meters to display mg/dl. But AFAIK, the strips don't care, and the conversion from bioenergy to display value is some simple math:-

mg/dl x 0.0555 = mmol/l
mmol/l x 18.0182 = mg/dl

Which would presumably be true for the Libre sensors. From digging around after the other thread, I suspected it may be a distribution issue, but the pics of the Singapore boxes show Abbott is the distributor. And they also show the CE mark, which is EU conformity. So should meet all the approvals (or most) to be sold in the EU. The radio frequency used is also the standard ISM 13.56Mhz band, adopted (or co-opted) by RFID and near-field devices. That's global, hence why it's used in smart phones for their contactless functions. Except Apple doesn't play nicely with others, so why some stuff doesn't work with iPhones.

But manufacturers also like to complicate globalisation, and make life difficult for consumers. So CE mark means the EU's approved sale/supply in the EU. But doesn't mean Abbott can't restrict sales using DRM. A lot of companies do this to prevent 'grey imports' undercutting official pricing. Or perhaps just to keep finance people happy. If a sensor's sold by Abbott Singapore but refunded by Abbott UK, it may upset their accounting. Or, more often, the sale in Singapore doesn't result in any profits due to licensing and debt structure and revenues move to a conveniently low tax jurisdiction.

But whatever their reason, it's obviously inconvenient and expensive to consumers who travel and might need to pick up a sensor abroad.

The reader is exactly the same and on start up you can choose language as with a phone. It measures the same as UK if you choose English. Obviously I didn't try a foreign language so don't know if it will then read in mg or mmol. Most people in Singapore speak better English than most at home.

Mines in French, with a CE mark and the printed info on the box is also in French . I haven't found any means to change the language or the unit used ( However, I can upload it to the software which I have set to English, and I can also change units if I want to.
It looks though as if I will have 2 redundant monitors when(if) I have to start buying sensors from the UK.

As far as I can tell, the aim for keeping things aligned with country of buying is to manage purchase price arbitrage. Or maybe I'm just cynical.