Millennium Laboratories, a leading provider of therapeutic drug monitoring and education to physicians and staff treating chronic pain patients, announced today the company’s development and validation of a clinical quantitative assay for the new drug tapentadol (Nucynta™) by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).
In addition, the company now offers drug screening tests for heroin metabolite 6-Monoacetylmorphine, alcohol biomarkers ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and ethyl sulfate (EtS), and meperidine (Demerol®).
Nucynta is the first new centrally-acting analgesic approved in the United States in 25 years. It is considered to have the potency of morphine with reduced side effects. The drug’s presence or absence in a patient can now be detected by LC-MS/MS technology, providing a tool to pain physicians for optimal prescribing.
National pain management expert Dr. Joseph Shurman, Chairman of Pain Management at Scripps Memorial Hospital, La Jolla, California, commented, “With new opioids like tapentadol being introduced, pain physicians need to avail themselves of the latest cutting-edge technology for routine drug screening of their patients. The DEA has mandated that physicians must do their best to demonstrate that their patients are compliant, that they are taking what they are prescribed and are not diverting the drugs. For the health of the patient and for the safety of the patient and the physician’s practice, fast and accurate drug screening results are critical.”
6-Monoacetylmorphine (6-MAM, heroin metabolite), has been added to Millennium Laboratories’ offering due to the increase in the US population’s use of heroin. Due to the epidemic of non-medical use of Oxycontin®, heroin use has increased dramatically even though it has no medical utility. Oxycontin can be powerfully addictive because the body quickly develops a tolerance to it. Oxycontin abusers soon gravitate to heroin for its similar high but much lower price tag. Recent research has shown that 6-MAM can be present in urine when morphine, the traditional metabolite looked for in the urine screening process, is absent. By adding the 6-MAM assay, a higher percentage of heroin users can be detected.