Deputy Prime Minister Highlights Trimega Laboratories’ Investment in Brazil
By Trimega Laboratories, PRNETuesday, June 21, 2011
LONDON, June 22, 2011 -
- Trimega Partners With Brazil‘s
Laboratório Sodré to Test Hair Samples of
Brazilian Police for Evidence of
Drug Abuse
- Trimega Plans to Open “Super
Laboratory“ in Brazil for Hair Drug
Tests
Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, today highlighted Trimega
Laboratories’ investment in Brazil during a keynote speech in
Brasilia during the UK trade delegation’s visit to the country.
Trimega, one of the world’s leading companies for testing
hair for substance abuse, has signed a partnership with Laboratório
Sodré of São Paulo, Brazil, to conduct tests on Brazilian hair
samples for evidence of drug misuse. Trimega also plans to
open a Brazilian “Super Laboratory” for hair drug and alcohol
testing in the next 18 months.
Initially, Trimega will test hair samples for the Brazilian
police force at its state-of-the art laboratory in Manchester,
which was opened in February, following a £1m (R$2.6m) investment
by the company. Trimega will review the hair for a
comprehensive range of drugs, including amphetamines, crack,
cocaine, marijuana and other opiates.
UK Trade Investment, the UK’s leading body for promoting UK
exports, introduced Trimega to Laboratório Sodré.
John Doddrell, Director of UK Trade & Investment in Brazil,
said: “Trimega is an established UK leader for drug and alcohol
testing of hair. We are very pleased to have helped a British
company with such cutting edge capacity to find a valuable
Brazilian partner, and to develop bilateral cooperation in science
and business between the two countries.”
Avi Lasarow, CEO of Trimega Laboratories, said: “We are
delighted to partner with Laboratório Sodré and that the Deputy
Prime Minister spoke about our investment in Brazil during his
speech in Brasilia. We look forward to the first samples from
Brazil arriving in our Manchester laboratory, developing Brazil’s
first superlab for drug and alcohol testing compliance, and
creating jobs for the local economy.”
Mr.Sodré, CEO of Laboratório Sodré, said: ”Trimega
Laboratories is one of the most advanced laboratories of its kind
in the world, with a proven track record of working with
governments, the police, the aviation industry and other sectors.
The company’s experience and its willingness to work closely with
us, together with its vision of transferring its knowledge to us,
made Trimega the natural partner.”
Hair drug testing is a revolutionary method of testing for drugs
using hair strands. It not only determines the presence of an
illegal substance, but can also provide an accurate historical
record of substance misuse. This helps in differentiating between a
one-off user and a chronic substance abuser. Hair drug
testing covers up to 12 months depending on the type and length of
hair of the donor. More traditional forms of testing, such as
analysis of urine and blood, can provide a record of consumption of
only the previous three days and four to six weeks, respectively.
Approximately 1.3cm of hair is required for one month of
results.
Trimega has the latest mass spectrometry techniques to
accurately determine drug usage to very small detectable levels,
including High Performance Liquid Chromatography tandem mass
spectrometry (HPLC/MS/MS) and the gas chromatographic equivalent
(GC/MS/MS). These techniques are often referred to as the ‘Platinum
Standard’ when compared with traditional GC/MS analysis, and enable
analysis of positive and negative results. Most laboratories
in the USA do not combine both testing techniques.
Trimega already tests for nearly half of the UK market for hair
tests, working mostly with the legal sector and social services,
and is growing rapidly.
The Cabinet Office’s announcement about the Deputy Prime
Minister’s speech can be seen at the following link:
www.dpm.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/new-era-uk-brazil-relations.
About Laboratório Sodré (
)
Established in 1985 by bio physician Claudio Ariano Sodré,
Laboratório Sodré was founded with the aim of providing accurate
clinical analysis to clients across the medical establishment.
The company aims to provide high levels of technical, ethical
and moral service to clients, in accordance with the standards
established by the Brazilian Clinical Pathology Society.
The business has steadily grown to its current size of eight
service units and offers over 3,000 tests in the clinical analysis
field, as well as other divisions that work in the fields of
toxicological testing, occupational medicine, and DNA testing.
The company uses state-of-the-art technology to provide
efficiency and efficacy. It provides results via e-mail and offers
individualised access via the internet to clients and
physicians.
Investment in human capital is extremely important to
Laboratório Sodré, and it invests in continual professional
development - there are now more than 40 professionals employed by
Laboratório Sodré: bio physicians, biologists, nurses and nursing
technicians, all trained to deliver excellent results to clients
and physicians.
About Trimega Laboratories
(www.trimegalabs.co.uk)
Established in London in 2005, Trimega Laboratories is well
recognised for being a leader in the development of innovative
techniques for testing for substances of abuse. Its core business
is laboratory-based analysis of hair samples that provide accurate
historical records of alcohol or drugs dependency over a one to 12
month period. In the UK, Trimega’s core clients include: family law
specialists, law courts, and social services.
Trimega was the first to market with dual marker hair alcohol
testing (FAEE and EtG). Dual hair testing provides very accurate
results: at its annual conference in March 2011, the Society of
Hair Testing (SoHT) confirmed that dual testing on hair for alcohol
misuse provides accuracy rates of over 94% for false negatives and
over 99% for false positives. The SoHT’s consensus was based
on analysis of Trimega’s data set of approximately 2,000 dual hair
testing samples, the largest of its kind in the world.
Other services offered by Trimega include: Roadside Drugalyzer
Testing for law enforcement, Hair Steroid Testing for athletes, and
Hair Benzodiazepines Testing.
Trimega won the title of Best Use of Technology in the 2008
Barclays-sponsored Startups Awards, and has been on the shortlist
for the National Business Awards three years running. Trimega is
also one of 25 companies to represent the UK in the 2011 European
Business Awards.
Trimega conducts its hair alcohol analysis in laboratories in
Germany which are accredited with international standard ISO 17025
by DAkkS, the German issuing authority, equivalent to UKAS in the
UK. The technology for hair-alcohol testing originated in
Germany.
The UK Ministry of Justice does not require hair testing
laboratories to be accredited. However, Trimega’s UK laboratory in
Manchester, which carries out drug tests, operates to ISO 17025
standards, and has applied for ISO 17025 accreditation from UKAS.
Trimega’s Manchester laboratory already has IS0 9001:2008
certification from Lloyd’s Register Group, itself accredited by
UKAS, for the ‘provision of clinical collecting, testing, analysis
and interpretation services for substances of abuse’. In
addition, the Manchester laboratory is the only UK laboratory in
the industry to have ISO 14001 certification from QMS
International, the environmental management system standard for
internal quality management. Trimega is an Investor in People.
Trimega was responsible for the creation of a Hair Strand
Scientific Advisory Board. Its purpose is to analyse the fast
growing database of information created from the 10,000 hair
alcohol tests and 7,000 hair drug tests carried out on UK samples
each year, of which Trimega is responsible for around 40%. The
findings of the Board are shared with the Society of Hair Testing
which will assist it in future decisions, particularly those
relating to the setting of universal standards/guidelines.
For additional information, please contact:
For media enquiries relating to Trimega Laboratories, contact: Simon Barker, Partner, Cubitt Consulting , +44(0)20-7367-5119 / simon.barker at cubitt.com ; Fergus Brady, Analyst, Cubitt Consulting, +44(0)20-7367-5114 / fergus.brady at cubitt.com
Tags: Brazil, June 22, London, Trimega Laboratories, United Kingdom
