Supply Chain Resilience in Diabetes Consumables

Supply Chain Resilience in Diabetes Consumables

A box of test strips or a CGM sensor travels a longer road than most of us picture, and for some products that road starts at a single factory. As of the FDA's June 16, 2026 update, its medical device shortage list named no glucose monitoring devices [1]. The disruptions people with diabetes did feel in 2025 and 2026 came from other directions. There were recalls and planned discontinuations, plus one case of stolen sensors that were resold to pharmacies [2]. We traced each one through FDA records and manufacturer notices.

How a test strip reaches you

The FDA's establishment registration database is a good place to start, because each entry names a site and the job it does for a product [3]. When we looked up OneTouch Verio, the only manufacturing site listed for its test strips was LifeScan Scotland Ltd in Inverness [3]. LifeScan Europe GmbH in Zug, Switzerland is listed as writing specifications without manufacturing anything there. The Verio meters come from somewhere else entirely: a contract manufacturer, Flextronics, in Shenzhen, China [3].

That is a short chain, and a narrow one. (Our article on how electrochemical strips are made covers what happens inside such a plant.) The registration records don't say whether a company keeps backup capacity anywhere, and we didn't find a primary source that does.

Store brands widen the reach of any one production line. Trividia Health's February 2026 recall of its True Metrix labeling listed kits sold under more than two dozen store and distributor names, Walgreens and CVS among them [4]. In that case, two dozen names on the box meant one meter family inside.

How a CGM sensor reaches you

Sensors pass through more hands. The FDA's registration records for the Dexcom G7 list two Dexcom manufacturing plants, one in Arizona and one in Malaysia, plus a contract manufacturer in Mexico [5]. Contract sterilizers in three countries appear too [5]. Dexcom's San Diego site is listed as writing the specifications, and a Dexcom company in Ireland as an exporter [5].

More sites can give a company options when one plant has trouble. Each handoff is also a point where product can go astray, which is exactly what one 2026 recall showed.

Abbott says its FreeStyle Libre 3 Plus and Libre 2 Plus sensors reach patients through retail pharmacies, durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, mail-order companies and government pharmacies [6].

What has actually disrupted supply

A recall that asked people to switch meters

The 2026 test-strip story we found most telling wasn't a shortage. It was a meter recall. The FDA classed Trividia's February 2026 True Metrix recall as Class I, which the agency calls the most serious type of recall [7]. Its April 28, 2026 safety communication covered every True Metrix, True Metrix Air, True Metrix Go and True Metrix Pro system, store-brand versions included [7]. The meters showed the same E-5 error code for two very different situations: a very high blood glucose, or a problem with the test strip [7].

As of January 16, 2026, Trividia had reported 114 serious injuries and one death tied to the issue [7]. The FDA recommended that users move to another way of testing when they could, and keep testing with True Metrix until they had one [7]. Which system to move to is a decision for your care team or pharmacist. Trividia says an upgraded True Metrix meter was expected at most retail pharmacies beginning in September 2026, and that it was still working with the FDA on the other models in the family [8].

Planned discontinuations

Discontinuations move more slowly, and the companies announce dates. Dexcom says it will no longer manufacture the Dexcom G6 after July 1, 2026 [9]. Pharmacies and distributors may hold stock for a while, but Dexcom says it can't guarantee availability, and it points G6 users to the Dexcom G7 or G7 15 Day [9].

Abbott kept its original FreeStyle Libre 2 and Libre 3 sensors available through September 30, 2025, then replaced them with the Libre 2 Plus and Libre 3 Plus sensors, which need a new prescription [6]. For users, a discontinuance comes down to a cutoff date and a new prescription.

Stolen sensors back in the channel

Here's what surprised us most. In May 2026, Dexcom recalled two lots of G7 sensors that had been marked as scrap and sent for destruction [2]. They were stolen during the destruction process and later sold to pharmacies and distributors by a company called Pharmsource, LLC [2]. One lot had been scrapped because the sensors weren't properly sterilized. The other was scrapped because of a higher risk of missing or inaccurate readings [2].

The problem here wasn't too few sensors. It was product that should never have left the plant.

Financial strain at a strip maker

LifeScan, the maker of OneTouch, went through a Chapter 11 restructuring. Its plan of reorganization was approved on October 27, 2025, and it emerged on December 8, 2025, saying it had eliminated more than 75% of its prepetition debt [10]. As of October 2026, LifeScan's US product page still lists OneTouch Verio, OneTouch Ultra and OneTouch Ultra Plus test strips [11].

What the FDA does about it

The FDA keeps two public lists: devices in shortage, and devices whose makers have told it they've permanently stopped making them [1]. Its Office of Supply Chain Resilience manages both and is responsible for anticipating and preventing device supply disruptions [1].

Section 506J of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act adds a reporting duty. During or ahead of a public health emergency, makers of certain devices must tell the FDA about a permanent discontinuance or a manufacturing interruption likely to meaningfully disrupt US supply [12]. The agency also accepts voluntary notices about supply problems at any time [12]. Its 506J device list, which names the product codes that carry the duty, includes laboratory glucose tests under a metabolic panel category [13]. We didn't find the product code for over-the-counter blood glucose meters (NBW) or the one for integrated CGMs (QBJ) on that list [13].

Tracing is the other tool. The FDA built its Unique Device Identification (UDI) system to identify devices sold in the US from manufacturing through distribution to patient use [14]. The G7 recall shows why that matters: its FDA record gave a device identifier and both lot numbers, and Dexcom set up an online serial-number check so people could compare the box in hand [2]. Counterfeit strips raise a related tracing problem, which we cover in Counterfeit Strips and Third-Party Generics.

What we couldn't find

We came up empty on three questions. We found no FDA or manufacturer record of a raw-material shortage affecting test strips. We found no public data on whether strip makers keep a second plant ready, and no primary source that ranks companies on supply resilience. For now, the public record of supply trouble for meters, strips and sensors lives in three places: the FDA's shortage list [1], its recall database [2] and the manufacturers' own notices [9].