Effective and efficient weighing of potent compounds

In recent years, pharmaceutical companies have increasingly begun to work with potent compounds (i.e., compounds that are very active pharmacologically, with efficacy at sub-milligram doses). These compounds allow patients to take smaller doses and potentially experience fewer side effects. While this property is advantageous for the patient, it presents a greater risk to the health of analytical chemists working with these compounds because exposure to very small quantities has the potential to cause health effects. In some cases, the quantity of potent compound that can lead to health effects can be extremely small, being practically invisible in air or on work surfaces, which makes containment of these compounds in the workplace especially challenging. To support research and development as well as manufacturing of potent compounds, several contract manufacturers have made significant investments to build facilities to control exposure to potent compounds.