Abbott’s new FreeStyle InsuLinx Blood Glucose Monitoring System with insulin calculator has received CE Mark (Conformité Européenne).The InsuLinx System is the first blood glucose monitoring device from Abbott that includes a mealtime (bolus) insulin calculator for calculating suggested insulin doses. The new system also offers several additional features, including a touch screen interface, automated logbook, personalization preferences and USB connectivity for plug-and-play reports via the new FreeStyle Auto-Assist...

Abbott has announced positive results from a Phase 2, 8-week dose-ranging study using low doses of atrasentan in patients with diabetic kidney disease. The results suggest that atrasentan, used in conjunction with renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors, may reduce albuminuria (presence of protein in urine) for patients with type 2 diabetes. Current standard of care modestly slows the progression of the disease and previous studies with standard of care have shown an association with albuminuria reduction and a slowing of...

Abbott Diabetes Care and the FDA have recalled 359 different lots of glucose test strips marketed under the following brand names: Precision Xceed Pro, Precision Xtra, Medisense Optium, Optium, OptiumEZ and ReliOn Ultima. The problem with these strips relates to a defect that inhibits sufficient absorption of blood into the test strip. Strips exposed to warm weather or prolonged storage may be more likely to provide a false result. Test strips with lot numbers that have been recalled may give falsely low blood glucose results,...

Data from a Phase 2b study suggests that bardoxolone methyl, an investigational treatment for chronic kidney disease (CKD), may reduce the stage of CKD and improve estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and other measures of kidney function in the majority of patients receiving the drug. Reata Pharmaceuticals and Abbott presented the new findings at the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Renal Week Conference in Denver, Colorado. Bardoxolone methyl is an antioxidant inflammation modulator (AIM) that activates Nrf2, thereby...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned Abbott Laboratories’ (ABT) diabetes unit about manufacturing violations involving the company’s blood-glucose-monitoring systems, according to a report published on NASDAQ.com. The July 2 letter stemmed from a March inspection of an Abbott Diabetes Care Inc. facility in Alameda, Calif., that makes the FreeStyle glucose-monitoring and the Navigator continuous-monitoring systems. The devices are used by people with diabetes to monitor their blood-glucose, or blood-sugar...

Following the recent clearance of its FreeStyle Lite® blood glucose test strips, Abbott announced that it has also received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its new FreeStyle blood glucose test strips. The new FreeStyle test strips minimize interference during blood glucose testing and are designed to offer a better testing experience. In a similar fashion to the FreeStyle Lite blood glucose test strips, the new FreeStyle test strips do not use the GDH-PQQ(1) enzyme, which can be affected...

Abbott announced that it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its new FreeStyle Lite blood glucose test strips. The new FreeStyle Lite test strips minimize interference during blood glucose testing and are designed to offer a better testing experience, meaning they will ensure faster blood application and reduce the number of error messages and wasted test strips. The new FreeStyle Lite test strips do not use the GDH-PQQ enzyme, which can be affected by common non-glucose sugars,...

I’m immensely interested in cosmology.  Headlines like this one, “The Circular Logic of The Unvierse,” in the NYT are sure to pull me in.   I won’t claim to really understand anything about the universe, though.  I mean, I learned a few things in college, like, despite the claims of Akkadian poetry, Babylon was not – in fact – the center of the universe.  And I know that Aristotle was wrong too; the universe is not geocentric. Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris Vasily Kandinsky, “Several...

I love my CGM, don’t get me wrong. But there are times when I run into problems with my continuous glucometer, like when it falls off during exercise, or when I rupture a blood vessel and bleed all over the floor (see here – but watch out; there are photographs). Perhaps unsurprisingly, Abbott — the maker of my CGM — got word of my bloody thigh, and sent me a note asking if they could put a customer service representative in touch with me before I lost any more blood — let alone blogged about it. I bring...

If you’ve clicked on this post, it’s probably too late to warn you — but I’ll try anyway: this post contains blood. If you don’t enjoy the idea of a dripping wound on your thigh, you might want to click back to the recipe section. It all started when I went to replace my continuous glucometer sensor last night (the same sensor to which I just declared my undying love). Yes, I know that the user manual for my Abbott Freestyle Navigator CGM says that you’re only supposed to wear the sensor on your...