Revisiting ‘The Big Pain’

During the pandemic, drug testing facilities were overwhelmed with COVID-19 testing, which caused other types of testing, such as drug screenings, to be deprioritized. As a result, routine employee drug testing was put on the back burner for many organizations. Unfortunately, drug use continued to rise during this time, and post-accident positive tests were higher than usual. Now, as society returns to pre-pandemic norms, drug testing is making a comeback.

Drug testing is not only essential in workplaces, sports, and probationary or parole settings, but clinicians also frequently request drug and metabolite tests for their patients to ensure adherence to prescribed pain management plans and to identify any abuse or diversion of medications. This has led to an increased demand for analytical methods that can deliver precise results across comprehensive drug panels while maintaining reasonable analysis times.

Analytical Methods for Drug Testing

LC-MS/MS is an excellent technique due to the greater sensitivity and specificity than immunoassay. The Raptor Biphenyl column can provide definitive results for a wide range of compounds. It has been used to develop LC-MS/MS methodology for 231 drugs and drug metabolites because it has the retention required for the wide range of compound classes tested. Typically, forensic and pain management drug testing consists of an initial quick, qualitative screening requiring minimal sample preparation. Then samples that test positive during the screening are subjected to a quantitative, targeted analysis.

The Raptor Biphenyl also provides improved selectivity for over 40 structurally similar drugs and metabolites, even those not normally resolved by a C18 column. C18 columns are commonly used and generally work well for hydrophobic compounds that separate using dispersive retention. However, not all compounds exhibit this type of interaction and many of today’s complex mixtures and difficult matrices require more advanced retention mechanisms. Raptor Biphenyl columns exploit the pi-pi (π ‐π) interactions of fused ring compounds with substituted electron withdrawing groups that are typical of many medications, which results in improved retention for a wider range of structurally diverse drugs and metabolites.

More Information

Chrom Tech is committed to providing the latest innovations in chromatography and mass spectrometry to the market by recommending and supplying high quality, state of the art products at a superior value to its customers. For more information regarding the Restek Raptor Biphenyl column and drug testing applications, visit the app note our resources page or reach out to our product specialists.