Product and Innovation

Pointe Fentanyl Open Channel Reagent: A FDA approved,
qualitative solution for testing Fentanyl and Norfentanyl

January 2021

Introduction: Fentanyl is a powerful opioid analgesic used widely in surgical operations. Fentanyl is used in the treatment of acute and chronic pain, usually in patients who no longer respond to high doses of less potent opioids such as morphine or oxycodone. Fentanyl is 50-100 times stronger than morphine and due to its potency and wide availability as a prescribed drug, fentanyl has been abused and misused. Unfortunately deaths related to fentanyl are on the rise with a 45% increase in 2017 alone. The need for accurate testing is greater than ever but fentanyl is difficult to detect in urine due to it’s short elimination half life. To help provide more accurate test results, there are now tests that detect fentanyl and it’s metabolites
like norfentanyl.

Solution: Pointe Fentanyl Open Channel Reagent is designed for prescription use on a number of automated clinical chemistry analyzers. The Pointe Fentanyl reagent is intended for the qualitative determination of norfentanyl in human urine at the cutoff value of 5 ng/mL. This is important because up to 85% of fentanyl is excreted over 3-4 days and only 26-55% of norfentanyl is excreted in that same time frame.