Merck KGaA/Concateno take abuse testing to India

Concateno, Europe's largest provider of drug and alcohol testing programs, has entered an exclusive arrangement with Merck Specialities,  the wholly-owned Indian subsidiary of German drug major Merck KGaA, to  launch and market its Cozart products for on-site drug testing into the  Indian market. This represents a first for India, which currently does  not use road-side testing for drugs of abuse to enforce anti-drug  driving legislation. UK medical diagnostics company Cozart agreed to a  takeover by Concateno in 2007 (Marketletter September 17, 2007).

The arrangement comes as Concateno's Cozart product line became the  first possible solutions for road-side testing for drugs of abuse to be  licensed by the Drug Controller General of India, the country's central  body for the authorization of new drugs. The Cozart line, which will be  exclusively distributed by Merck Specialities in India, includes the  Cozart Drug Detection System (DDS), the fastest, most reliable drug  testing instrument currently available worldwide, the company claims.

Cozart DDS is an enhanced on-site saliva drug detection system that can  take a sample within 30 seconds, and reveal the presence of up to six  different drugs, including heroin and crack/cocaine, in under five  minutes. Currently, the limited amount of drug testing conducted in  India is mainly carried out by forensic or research laboratories.