Immunoassays and Mass Spectrometry in Modern Drug Testing

Drug testing in an evolving drug landscape must address the competing demands of speed, scale, and scientific confidence. This presentation will examine the complementary roles of immunoassay screening and mass spectrometry, and how each supports reliable and defensible results:

• Overview of how immunoassays work, including their strengths as high-throughput screening tools and key limitations such as limited specificity and sensitivity, cross-reactivity, and limited drug panels.
• Fundamentals of mass spectrometry will also be discussed, with an emphasis on specificity, identification, and quantitation.
• Discussion on why combining screening and mass spectrometry remains a widely used strategy in modern drug