The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has purchased Cobalt’s TRS100 transmission Raman instrument for use by the Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis (DPA). Transmission Raman spectroscopy (TRS) is an increasingly-used alternative to conventional chemistry-based analytical testing, such as High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). TRS takes seconds per tablet or capsule, does not require preparative steps and works with a wide variety of drug products.

Unlike other spectroscopic methods, method development for drug product analysis can be fast, using a small number of calibration samples. These features are beneficial for conventional quality control (QC) testing and also for high throughput screening, which is a featured requirement of the FDA’s procurement scope, detailed in the specification document RFQ-FDA-1159449:

“The DPA has successfully implemented spectroscopic screening technologies for use at import centers and mail facilities within the US. Increasingly, DPA is