01 Mar Aegis Sciences Announces Latest Innovation to Detect Patient Urine Substitution
Nashville, Tennessee (March 1, 2021) – Aegis Sciences Corporation, a leading healthcare company that provides clinically innovative medication compliance testing and consulting services, is pleased to announce the rollout of BioDetect™ to Aegis clients on March 1, 2021. Aegis’ dedication to the development of clinically innovative testing solutions led to the creation of BioDetect™, a method designed to enhance healthcare providers’ abilities to identify patient specimens that have been substituted using synthetic urine. Through the identification of unique markers expected to be present in routinely analyzed human urine, providers will have greater insight into patient’s medication adherence.
“Aegis is committed to continuously innovating our products so that providers have greater insight to make better treatment decisions. Having clarity mitigates risk and leads to improvements in medication adherence and patient care outcomes,” said Mike Ziegler, Aegis’s Chief Sales Officer.
Sales of synthetic urine have soared in recent years, approaching over $1 billion in revenue annually for manufacturers. Though some may believe that the practice of urine substitution may be limited to use in overcoming a positive workplace drug test, practices treating individuals for chronic pain, opioid and/or substance use disorder, or other behavioral health conditions also encounter substitution of specimens with synthetic urine to “beat” a urine drug test. The decision to substitute a specimen with synthetic urine is driven by many factors, from attempting to mask the use of a non-prescribed substance from a provider to “spiking” synthetic urine with a medication to appear compliant with a prescription regimen. These practices may go unrecognized when relying on routine specimen validity measures, as synthetic urine specimens are now often manufactured to contain levels of creatinine, pH, specific gravity, chromates, and nitrates that are consistent with human urine. Substitution attempts that go unnoticed by providers allow for controlled substance diversion to go on unchecked and puts patients that are using non-prescribed substances at risk for overdose.
“Although specimen validity testing has been a longstanding practice in toxicology, manufacturers of synthetic urine have become wise to the measures used to identify substituted specimens,” said Dr. Rebecca Heltsley, Aegis’s Senior Vice President, Research and Development. “With non-prescription substance use and medication diversion on the rise amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, it is extremely important that healthcare providers are better equipped to identify specimen substitution through the use of expanded measures for establishing specimen validity. We see this as a great new tool that can be used to improve patient care.”
For more information please visit: www.aegislabs.com/our-services/biodetect
About Aegis Sciences Corporation
Founded in 1990, Aegis Sciences Corporation is a laboratory sciences company based in Nashville, Tenn., that provides science-driven testing and consulting services for customers such as healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, professional and amateur sports organizations, leading college and university athletic programs, Fortune 500 corporations, and government agencies throughout the United States. For more information, please visit https://www.aegislabs.com/.