Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) LifeScan unit reached a settlement banning a South African distributor from buying or selling the company’s OneTouch diabetes test strips, regardless of whether the strips are real or counterfeit.
JNJ claimed the African distributor, Aristides Spanellis, ran a “sophisticated international operation” in which diabetes test strips were purchased in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and repackaged in OneTouch boxes for export to the U.S., Dow Jones news service reported.
The New Brunswick, N.J.-based conglomerate has brought lawsuits against 71 defendants thus far.
JNJ started fighting diabetes test counterfeiting rings in 2006, following the discovery of fakes circulating in the U.S. market. JNJ hasn’t found evidence of any fake strips in the U.S. market in the last three years but the problem persists in other countries, according to Dow Jones.
Just last month federal prosecutors charged Florida man Jacques Duplessis with trafficking counterfeit OneTouch diabetes test strips from China and the U.K. to Canada and the U.S. The feds uncovered his scheme to unload 6,000 boxes of counterfeit strips.