Putting Drug-Test Cheaters On Notice They Will Be Discovered

The days of cheating urine drug tests are over! Genotox Laboratories based in Austin, has developed a product called ToxProtect™ that adds a cheek swab to the urine-collection process…

Genotox Laboratories (http://genotoxlabs.com/toxprotect/), based in Austin, has developed a product called ToxProtect™ that adds a cheek swab to the urine-collection process so the DNA of the person being tested can be matched to the urine they provide.

That’s a crucial extra step to the urine-testing procedure because an entire industry has sprung up to help the cheaters, with products such as substitute urine and synthetic urine easily available on the internet.

Now with the emergence of ToxProtect™; doctors, businesses, law enforcement agencies and even parents have the ability to foil the cheaters, discover a drug problem and see that the person gets much-needed help with his or her addiction.

“With a DNA test, there’s no maybe about it,” says Dr. Matt McCarty, CEO and founder of Genotox Laboratories. “It either matches or it doesn’t match.”

McCarty says the development of ToxProtect™ couldn’t have come at a more critical time with the growing opioid epidemic in the United States.

On an average day, 91 Americans die from an opioid overdose, and since 1999 the number of overdose deaths involving opioids has quadrupled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Much of the problem involves prescription drugs rather than illicit drugs.

“But whether it’s a legal issue or a medical issue doesn’t matter,” McCarty says. “These are human beings who need help to get past an addiction. They are ruining their lives.”

McCarty, who specializes in chronic pain management, became intrigued with finding a way to outwit drug-test cheaters when he began using the tests to monitor his patients and immediately saw the weaknesses.

In 2014, a year after Genotox Laboratories opened, he began the studies that would lead to ToxProtect™. http://genotoxlabs.com/toxprotect/.

“Our test will discover misuse, abuse and relapse when other tests won’t,” McCarty says. “It’s especially helpful for physicians who will know for certain if a patient they test is using synthetic or substitute human urine.”

About Dr. Matt McCarty, M.D., and Genotox Laboratories | Dr. Matt McCarty is a board certified, fellowship trained physician specializing in chronic pain management. Aware of the growing need for medication monitoring and personalized medicine, he founded Genotox Laboratories (http://genotoxlabs.com/toxprotect/), a rapidly growing national reference lab providing medication monitoring services through urine drug screen confirmations and pharmacogenomics testing. He believes that earlier and better monitoring by all physicians prescribing controlled substances could lead to lower rates of addiction, diversion and overdose deaths. With his team at Genotox he invented a patent pending DNA authenticated sample matching method called ToxProtect™. It ensures urine submitted for drug testing is matched to a specific donor. ToxProtect™ uncovers the use of substitute and synthetic urine and detects substance misuse, abuse and relapse when all other urine drug testing fails. He hopes that through the most advanced genomic testing platform offered by Genotox, a clinician can uncover substance misuse abuse and relapse allowing for earlier intervention.