Roche settles lawsuit with former supplier
By HME News Staff
Updated Thu March 31, 2005
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Roche Diagnostics, a company specializing in blood glucose meters and test strips, in February dropped its lawsuit against Access Diabetic Supply after the two parties reached a settlement agreement.
In exchange, Pompano Beach, Fla.-based Access Diabetic agreed to contact all consumers who may have received false information from the company about a Roche product, the ACCU-CHEK Compact blood glucose meter, according to a Roche spokesperson.
Roche's complaint stems from a letter that was sent by Access in March 2004 to about 1,000 customers. Roche said its former supplier made false and misleading statements about the ACCU-CHEK.
Specifically, Roche pointed to the first sentence of the letter in its complaint. It reads: "Recently we have been receiving a high rate of complaints and product returns related to the Compact meter system. Since we are concerned with quality control and customer satisfaction, we are issuing a Voluntary Recall on this meter."
The letter offered to replace the ACCU-CHEK with a competitor's model.
Access Diabetic is a former supplier of Roche products. The companies entered a three-year agreement in July 2002, but Roche terminated it in January 2004. Roche started received calls from patients who had received Access's letter starting in March 2004, and the lawsuit was filed in July 2004.
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