Industry insights

Ion Channels for Cancer Therapy

Wednesday, April 01, 2020

Question of the month: March 2020

Our experts answer your burning questions about the world of pharmaceutical testing. This month: do you need impurity reference standards in the same form as that of your API?

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Question of the month: February 2019

Our experts answer your burning questions about the world of pharmaceutical testing. This month: how do we determine assay values for Mikromol impurity reference standards?

Thursday, February 14, 2019

API of the month: Granisetron

A highly selective antagonist of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT₃) receptors, granisetron hydrochloride competitively blocks the action of serotonin to reduce nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Click through to our blog for a full accounting of possible granisetron impurities and to explore our reference standard range.

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Question of the month: January 2019

Our experts answer your burning questions about the world of pharmaceutical testing. This month: what process would you follow to develop a liquid chromatography method for organic pharmaceutical impurities?

Monday, January 14, 2019

Question of the month: November 2018

Our experts answer your burning questions about the world of pharmaceutical testing. This month: what level of characterisation is sufficient for impurity reference standards?

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

API of the month: Linezolid

Linezolid is a synthetic antibiotic used to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections. Read more to discover more about linezolid's process and degradation impurities and explore our range of reference standards for the linezolid family. 

Tuesday, November 06, 2018

Question of the month: October 2018

Our experts answer your burning questions about the world of pharmaceutical testing. This month: what are reference standards for impurities, and what are research materials?

Wednesday, October 03, 2018

Mikromol at 25

When two entrepreneurial recent graduates decided in 1993 to begin producing their own pharmaceutical reference materials, Mikromol was born and they started down a path that 25 years later has created a new byword for excellence in pharmaceutical synthesis. Read about the company's journey over the last 25 years.

Monday, October 01, 2018

API of the month: Paroxetine

Paroxetine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), the most common group of antidepressants on the market today. It was first marketed in 1992 and by 2007 was the fifth most prescribed antidepressant in the US, at over 18 million annual prescriptions.

Thursday, September 06, 2018

Herb and spice adulteration: new tools in an old war

With high-value products and a complex global supply chain of multiple touch points, spices and herbs are particularly susceptible to potential food fraud. We look at methods to test for herb and spice adulteration, including new secondary identification through NGS, and the reliability of these method.

Thursday, April 23, 2020

COVID-19 diagnostics: assuring quality in accelerated testing

As the international scientific community comes together to focus on COVID-19 research and development, we look at new diagnostic and treatment trials and explore how to ensure continued quality in an accelerated testing landscape.

Wednesday, April 08, 2020

Fighting the well-oiled machine of olive oil adulteration

According to the new bulletin of the Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP), adulteration of extra virgin olive oil is still listed among the most common food frauds worldwide. Olive oil’s distinctive sensory profile and its reputation as a healthy source of dietary fats has made it a premium product, and in turn a target for fraudsters...

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Beryllium: Be air-aware

Berylliosis, or CBD, is a chronic allergic-type lung response caused by exposure to Beryllium and its compounds: the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified such materials as Category 1 carcinogens.

Monday, November 19, 2018

Europe's testing toys

Increased regulatory oversight of products sold across Europe looks likely, after inspections highlighted high numbers of unsafe products in circulation, including 58% of electronic devices and 32% of toys.

Thursday, September 06, 2018

Toying with Trouble

How safe is slime? In the wake of a consumer group's discovery of boron levels up to four times the legal EU limit in some brands of slime toys, join us for a retrospective of past toy safety scandals & history's most dangerous playthings.

Friday, July 20, 2018

Step up your testing for Diesel Engine Exhaust Emissions (DEEEs)

The following article shares leading insight into assessing the performance of Diesel Engine Exhaust Emissions testing. Sample 16 of AIR PT is available in round AR024 to be dispatched on January 15th 2018. Join the AIR PT scheme now.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Product classification: Dairy Cheese or Analogue cheese?

Consumers need to have access to safe and high quality food. Agri-food products of high commercial value such as dairy products, olive oil, honey, meat and fish have traditionally been the target of fraud.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Aflatoxin M1 in cheese

Milk and dairy products are commonly consumed by people of all age groups. They are recognised as important foods for human diet and  are considered nutrient dense foods contributing to our protein, fat, vitamin and elements (especially Ca) daily intake.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Nitrate in infant vegetable food

Nitrate is a natural contaminant present mainly in vegetables and drinking water although it is frequently added as a preservative in processed meat products.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

A Brief Guide to Mycotoxins

Mycotoxins, the secondary metabolites of fungi, are naturally occurring toxins that can infect many foods and animal feed.  Many of these toxins are also carcinogenic, genotoxic, teratogenic, nephrotoxic and hepatotoxic. With climates changing worldwide, these toxins may present even more of challenge to food safety in the years to come 

Friday, June 12, 2020

The fallout of ‘forever’ chemicals: the sticky issue of PFAS (Part 1)

Tuesday, June 09, 2020

Fenthion – Friend or Foe?

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Terpenes part 2: molecules of mystery and wonder

Along with being a key component in essential oils due to their strong smells, terpenes have a wide range of medicinal uses. In this post we’ll be taking a closer look at the natural properties of terpenes, and how they have been used in healing practices throughout human history.

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Terpenes: molecules of mystery and wonder

This week we begin our exploration of terpenes – starting with what they are, where they’re found, and their importance to the food & beverage industry.

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Illegal Marijuana, Part II: the Real Danger – Pesticides, Poison and Death

With illegal cannabis operations continuing to gain traction throughout the United States, we are learning more and more about hazardous health and environmental risks associated with unscrupulous growers.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Illegal Marijuana, Part I – Why illegal cannabis businesses are still thriving in legal markets

California’s cannabis black market has eclipsed its legal market, with illegal sellers outnumbering regulated outlets almost three to one, threatening legal businesses. This week we’re exploring the struggling legal market in California, compared to the thriving legal market in Colorado.

Thursday, April 09, 2020

US hemp production: contamination concerns

We’ve discussed how the 2018 Farm Bill and the USDA require that Cannabis sativa L. must have a THC level no greater than 0.3% to be considered hemp. Assuming that we have a legal hemp crop – do we know if it’s safe?

Thursday, March 19, 2020

US hemp production: THC determination

This week we will discuss the Federal Register 7 CFR Part 990 "Establishment of a Domestic Hemp Production Program" and THC determination. Included in this post are some snippets of useful information taken from that publication.

Thursday, March 12, 2020

US hemp production: The facts about interstate hemp shipment

The news in the United States has recently been filled with stories of hemp shipments being seized by various police forces around the country, on the grounds that it looks like marijuana. In this post we highlight a few useful tidbits in information that haven’t been covered in those news stories.

Thursday, March 05, 2020

Analysis of Oils Part 4: Correcting the Boron Drop-out Phenomenon

This week we’re taking a deeper look at our research & development study’s proposed solutions for reducing boron drop-out in working level standards: VHG specially formulated standards and solvents designed for ultimate stability.

Friday, May 15, 2020

Analysis of Oils Part 3: Oil and Water Do Mix

In this post, we continue our discussion of VHG’s research & development study of boron drop-out, examining the impact of humidity and atmospheric exposure on working level standards.

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Analysis of Oils – Part 2: Phenomenon of Boron Measurement Instability in ICP Testing

As part of our continuing discussion of the VHG research and development team’s study of boron in oil analysis, we’re looking more closely at the problem labs reported, and the team’s initial corroboration of the issue at hand.

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Analysis of Oils

In this series of posts we will be taking an in-depth look at a comprehensive study the VHG™ Research and Development team carried out to discover the underlying causes of why some elements (boron, in particular) in organic matrices would start to fail over time – starting with an introduction to the topic and an overview of the importance of boron in petrochemical testing.

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Sulfur standards helping to improve the quality of your analysis

Sulfur is probably the most common and most well-known petroleum contaminant. A concentration of 0.5% sulfur will make crude oil “sour” which will then require longer refining process and result in more expensive final products.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017