US Drug Enforcement Administration, Office of Forensic Sciences Selects JEOL Nuclear Magnetic Resonance for Illicit Drug Testing

16 Oct 2018
Finn Price
Administrator / Office Personnel

Industry news

JEOL has announced that is has been awarded a major contract by the US DEA Office of Forensic Sciences for nine JEOL JNM-ECZ500R Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (500 MHz NMR) spectrometers. The purchase was made through a competitive award process and will allow DEA laboratories across the country to utilize the latest NMR technology to combat the proliferation of new and existing illicit drugs. The contract allows for replacement of the existing instruments over the next five years.

"We are very excited to be supporting this Federal Government Agency and are confident the opportunity will recognize the high-performance capability of this new NMR platform which utilizes the JEOL Royal HFX NMR Probe. This probe enables both routine and specialized quantitative NMR experiments," said Michael Frey, JEOL USA Analytical Products Manager. “We believe the specialized fluorine analysis capability of the HFX NMR Probe, along with advances in our instrument technology when combined with a 500 MHz field, will greatly assist the DEA in their efforts to elucidate, quantify, and track illegal drugs as well as new designer drugs.”

NMR analysis is used to characterize the structure of compounds for various purposes in industry and research. The Royal HFX Probe, introduced in 2017, was developed specifically to enhance the NMR analysis of fluorine (19F) which is increasingly being used in many new drugs, including illicit designer drugs, to effect metabolic function and potency.

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NMR and EPR SpectroscopyNuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is used to resolve the local chemical environment of atomic nuclei with spin, revealing information on molecular structure, dynamic processes and chemical reactions of organic molecules, from proteins to synthetics. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) also known as electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy is used to detect and quantify paramagnetic species in a sample, including free radicals as transition metal ions. By immersing the sample in a strong magnetic field, both NMR and EPR spectrometers probe the sample with either radio waves or microwaves respectively. A range of benchtop, solid-state and time domain NMR spectrometers & EPR spectrometers are available, as well as NMR tubes, NMR solvents, software, coils, and magnets. Find the best NMR & EPR equipment in our peer-reviewed product directory: compare products, check customer reviews and receive pricing direct from manufacturers.FDAThe Food and Drug Association (FDA) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Among other things, it is responsible for ensuring the safety, effectiveness and quality of drugs, vaccines and other biological products, and medical devices. Drugs of AbuseA drug of abuse is a drug that has been taken for non-medical purposes. Such drugs can have mind-altering effects, with some causing dependence and addiction.Drug TestingIt is essential to test the efficacy and toxicity of drugs at every stage of their development to ensure that a pharmaceutical product is fit for purpose and safe for use before reaching the stage of mass production and distribution.