ORAL DRUG TEST SCREENS FOR USE OF MARIJUANA

Beaverton's Epitope and its partner have added to the sophisticated methods
available

Drug testing for marijuana just became as simple as sucking a lollipop.

Thanks to a Beaverton biotech company and its Pennsylvania partner, the
nation's first high-tech marijuana test using oral fluid is moving closer
to reality. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration this month approved the
new test, which uses a lollipop-like collection device made by Epitope Inc.

The test is riding a wave of experimental drug-testing technologies that
use saliva, sweat, hair and Epitope's specialty, oral mucosal transudate,
to find illegal drugs where they shouldn't be - in the bodies of employees,
job applicants, probationers, Olympic athletes and children.

Lynn Gray, author of an industry study for Business Communications Company
Inc. of Norwalk, Conn., writes that drug testing is bustling with
sophisticated technologies such as hair analysis, skin patches and the use
of hand-held devices to detect chemical substances on objects rather than
in people.

Technology is even turning parents into gumshoes, as they use
over-the-counter kits to analyze residue from their children's clothing and
furniture.

The quarry of the new technology is the traditional urine test. Epitope and
STC say their test is less invasive and less embarrassing.

In Epitope's case, the company is working with STC Technologies of
Bethlehem, Pa., on a test that will use a single oral fluid sample to
detect the presence of the so-called NIDA-5 drugs of abuse: cocaine,
methamphetamine, cannabinoids (marijuana), opiates and phencyclidine,
commonly known as PCP or angel dust.

The test requires the subject to place a specially treated OraSure
absorbent pad between his or her cheek and gum. The pad singles out mucosal
transudate, which is a fluid that migrates into the mouth from blood
vessels. The tester then seals the pad in a case filled with buffered
solution and sends it for analysis in a testing laboratory.

So far, STC Technologies has FDA approval to use its test, called an enzyme
immunoassay, in combination with Epitope's collection device, for cocaine,
methamphetamines and cannabinoids.

Once the partnership receives approval later this year for opiate and PCP
testing, it will begin marketing the test kit to three primary markets:
government-mandated drug testing, such as testing of federal transportation
workers; forensic testing, including police work and parole programs; and
workplace testing.

Epitope already is selling a similar test for the detection of cotinine, a
byproduct of nicotine. Insurance companies use it to ensure that applicants
who claim to be nonsmokers aren't sneaking a few drags.

John Morgan, Epitope's president and chief executive officer, said the drug
test proves the versatility of the OraSure technology, which developed as
the nation's first HIV test using oral fluid.

STC Technologies, in partnership with PharmChem Laboratories Inc. of Menlo
Park, Calif., developed the nation's first drug test based on sweat
samples. The tamper-proof PharmChek skin patch absorbs NIDA-5 drug
molecules in sweat.

For parents who favor old-fashioned urinalysis, there is Dr. Brown's Home
Drug Testing System, approved last year by the FDA as the nation's first
nonprescription drug test. The test detects marijuana, PCP, amphetamines,
cocaine, heroin, codeine and morphine.