Quest Diagnostics releases new data on oral fluid testing system

OraSure Technologies, Inc., the market leader in oral fluid diagnostics, announced today that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated released new data indicating that oral fluid revealed approximately five times more heroin use in the general U.S. workforce than previously believed.

In the Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index special report, with more than 320,000 oral-fluid samples analyzed from the general U.S. workforce from January-June 2010, data revealed that oral fluid testing detected a marker for heroin use at a rate of 0.04% compared to the 0.008% positivity rate in urine testing. The oral fluid specimens were collected and tested using OraSure's Intercept^® Drug Testing System.

"Oral fluid testing is helping employers find more heroin users," said Dr. Barry Sample, Director of Science and Technology for Quest Diagnostics Employer Solutions in the Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index report.

According to the report, oral fluid testing offers the advantage of an observed collection and is easily administered by the hiring manager. There also are no known adulterants that can be used to tamper with oral-fluid testing.

Developed and manufactured by OraSure Technologies, the Intercept^® Drug Testing System is the only FDA-cleared in vitro diagnostic laboratory-based oral fluid testing system used for detecting commonly abused drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, opiates, PCP, amphetamines (including methamphetamine and ecstasy), barbiturates, methadone and benzodiazepines. Intercept^® is currently being used in workplace, drug treatment and criminal justice testing markets.

"This new data certainly validates our Intercept Oral Fluid Drug Test as a highly effective system in identifying drug use," added Stephen R. Lee, Chief Science Officer, OraSure Technologies.

The Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index is published as a public service for government, media and industry and has been considered a benchmark for national trends since its inception in 1988. It examines positivity rates — the proportion of positive results for each drug to all such drug tests performed — among three major testing populations: federally mandated, safety-sensitive workers; the general workforce; and the combined U.S. workforce.