The Queen's Award for TrichoTech

TrichoTech, a Cardiff based Biotech Company and a past tenant of the Cardiff Medicentre, has won and award for its work in researching the secrets of drug and alcohol use through examining a single strand of hair. The Company will receive royal recognition for work developing new ways of testing for substance misuse over periods of months.

TrichoTech is the leading European specialist in detecting drugs in hair samples, supporting over 4,000 clients globally. In 2007 the Cardiff based laboratories joined Concateno plc [comprising the leading drug and alcohol testing companies in Europe] which now provides the facilities and expertise to deliver test programmes that can meet any organisation’s requirement.

"Apart from raising the profile of our company, we are particularly delighted with receiving the Queen’s Award to recognise our staff’s commitment and contribution to this important work. Every test we carry out has enormous significance for the donor, and we are very proud of our team’s dedication".

Analysing hair can profile drug use for as long as the sample length allows. Each centimetre of hair contains approximately a one month’s history of drug use, so a 3cm sample can profile substance use over about 3 months. TrichoTech are uniquely accredited to ISO 17025 standards by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service. [Laboratory number 2212] to detect 63 drugs and metabolites. The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category came just weeks after the latest achievement – a global first in accreditation for detecting EtG in hair, a marker used corroboratively to determine potential chronic alcohol use, and for a range of anti-depressant and anti-psychotic drugs.

The Company’s clients include Government departments, police forces and other organisations who want to ensure that they do not recruit someone with a drug problem. The historic profile of drug use is also of use in forensic casework. TrichoTech support child protection professionals by providing testing services for the legal sector , principally for family law, to help determine problem drug use by a parent that may affect a child’s safety.

"As part of the Concateno Group we aim to continue providing innovative drug testing services to organisations around the world".